Amazon shares slump, Big Tech peers stay afloat
STORY: Capping an already brutal week for Big Tech, Amazon’s shares plunged on Friday a day after the company forecast holiday quarter sales below Wall Street’s estimates.
The world's biggest online retailer, founded by Jeff Bezos, at one point hit its lowest share price since April of 2020, with its market cap briefly dipping below $1 trillion.
Amazon’s news was yet another gut punch for mega-cap tech shares… which took a beating this week after Microsoft, Google parent Alphabet and Facebook parent Meta Platforms all reported gloomy outlooks.
Meta’s meltdown was particularly rough – with shares on Thursday alone nosediving nearly 25%.
The Big Tech stocks are on track to lose more than $400 billion this week.
Only Apple shone bright, after the iPhone maker reported revenue and profit that topped analysts’ estimates.
And on Friday, shares of Microsoft, Alphabet and Meta bounced back from steep losses earlier in the week, avoiding Amazon’s downward pull.
Many view the mega-cap companies as bellwethers for how corporate America is faring during a year in which inflation has soared, pushing the U.S. Federal Reserve to enact a series of jumbo-sized rate hikes that have bruised markets.
As for Amazon, analysts fear macroeconomic factors, including a strong dollar, will continue to hit the e-commerce giant in the near term.
And sales growth in Amazon Web Services – the company’s lucrative cloud-storage division – has consistently ticked down this year.
