Uber’s shares fell as much as 7 per cent on Wednesday as the ride-hailing group booked weaker fourth-quarter earnings due to legal expenses, and warned that a strong US dollar would hit gross bookings in the first quarter.
The San Francisco-based company said it expected gross bookings of between $42bn and $43.5bn in the current quarter, compared with $43.5bn forecast by analysts, according to Visible Alpha data.
Uber said its first-quarter bookings outlook would have been “nearly $1bn higher” if it had been based on the previous quarter’s foreign exchange rates. The US dollar in January hit a 26-month high against a basket of trading partners’ currencies.