Meta Platforms reports its second-quarter 2026 results after the market closes on July 29, and I will be watching the numbers for something larger than the usual earnings spectacle. Yes, I care about revenue. I care about margins, earnings per share, capital expenditures, engagement, artificial intelligence, Reels, WhatsApp, Reality Labs, and whatever new phrase management has invented to make spending several small nations’ annual budgets on data centers sound soothing. But the number I care about most is advertising revenue. Meta’s advertising business is one of the most useful real-time windows into the global economy. It collects signals from millions of businesses making daily decisions about whether to spend, where to spend, whom to target, and how aggressively to pursue the next customer. Advertising is corporate confidence translated into an auction. When companies feel good about demand, they bid for attention. When they become nervous, they cut experimental campaigns, tighten...