Premium Consumer Gadgets Rocked by Slowdown

Pent-up summer travel and rising inflation have proved a deadly mix for companies selling expensive tech products meant for staying home.

Sonos was just the latest in this category to flash a big warning sign. The maker of premium speakers reported Wednesday afternoon that revenue in the June quarter fell 2% from a year earlier to about $372 million. That turned out to be 11% short of Wall Street’s estimates, and the company’s implied guidance for its fiscal fourth quarter ending in September of $306 million was far worse—about 34% below analyst’s projections. Sonos’s shares slid 25% on Thursday for the stock’s worst day on record since its listing in 2018.