Netflix cracked in the second quarter — joining Apple on the list of wounded — as its third-quarter figures next Tuesday morning will confirm. Only Amazon and Facebook are left standing; Alphabet (Google) is doing OK, but is now a “mature” high-growth tech stock (but not as “mature” as the once mighty IBM, which this morning revealed its 17th successive slide in revenues). Wall Street has banished the so-called FANG companies (Facebook, Amazon, Netflix and Google) to the also-ran list and the shills are now touting, believe it or not, utilities and consumer-facing stocks (retailers and consumer goods companies) as likely successors.

But regardless of Wall Street fashion, there’s just one message from the Netflix quarterly figures this morning: the streaming video giant is “ex-growth” so far as investors are concerned, despite another strong quarter of earnings and revenue growth. But Wall Street is focused on just one measure from the company: current and forecast subscriber numbers from Netflix’s US and international businesses. And these figures fell far short of the company’s own forecasts three months ago and market expectations and as a result, Netflix shares plunged more than 16% in after-hours trading in the US this morning, before ending more than 13% lower around US$85, a six-month low.