Amazon stock hit hardest after tech earnings bonanza, despite misses by Apple and Alphabet
Andrew Ross Sorkin speaks with Amazon CEO Andy Jassy during the New York Times DealBook Summit in the Appel Room at the Jazz At Lincoln Center on November 30, 2022 in New York City.
Michael M. Santiago | Getty Images
Shares of Amazon fell as much as 4% on Friday, a day after the e-retailer posted soft growth in its retail and cloud computing businesses and gave downbeat guidance.
Its stock was hit harder than peers Apple and Alphabet, which also reported on Thursday evening. Shares of Apple were trading up about 4% on Friday morning, while Alphabet was down about 1%. Both of those companies missed on the top and bottom lines.
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Amazon’s fourth-quarter revenue increased 9% to $149.2 billion, topping analysts’ expected $145.4 billion. But the revenue beat was overshadowed by another quarter of slowing growth in Amazon’s core retail business and in Amazon Web Services, which have been dented by the challenging economic environment.
Amazon said it expects revenue of between $121 billion and $126 billion in the current quarter. Analysts had been expecting $125 billion.
“Consumers sound cautious and the Cloud deceleration cadence appears to be landing in the ‘mid-teens’ for [the first quarter],” analysts at Piper Sandler, which have an overweight rating on Amazon shares, wrote in a note Friday.
“Above all, management comments suggest AMZN is still navigating a difficult stretch,” the analysts added.
Despite the near-term rockiness, several analysts said they remain encouraged by CEO Andy Jassy’s efforts to control costs. They also believe Amazon will prove it can withstand the economic turbulence and can continue to grow in the long term.
Jassy has been working to get Amazon’s costs under control after a period of unbridled expansion. Last month, the company said it would lay off more than 18,000 corporate employees. It enacted a hiring freeze among its corporate ranks, cut some projects, closed some physical stores and paused warehouse expansion.
“While the next few quarters will likely remain volatile as an output of macroeconomic volatility, the long-term narratives from Amazon and a compelling multi-year risk/reward should appeal to investors,” Goldman Sachs’ Eric Sheridan wrote in a note Friday.
Analyst sentiment was a bit different for Apple, which telegraphed that things are getting better. That may explain why its stock is in the green. “Taking a step back, it’s rare to see Apple miss and guide down in a quarter, but we believe the long-term positives from tonight’s report outweigh the short-term negatives,” Morgan Stanley’s Erik Woodring wrote.
Similarly, despite Alphabet’s misses, analysts are bullish on its prospects for artificial intelligence and highlighted its strong core business. “We see Alphabet as a more defensive stock in the group in 2023 with more relative earnings stability given utility of search, expense flexibility, healthy margins that will minimize cash flow concerns, and opportunity to support the stock with buybacks,” Bank of America’s Justin Post said.
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A Tesla Inc. robotaxi on Oltorf Street in Austin, Texas, on June 22, 2025.
Tim Goessman | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Tesla has obtained a permit to operate a ride-hailing service in Arizona, the state’s department of transportation said.
The electric vehicle company applied for a “transportation network company” permit on Nov. 13, and was approved on Monday, ADOT said in an emailed statement. Additional permits will be required before Tesla can operate a robotaxi service in Arizona.
In July, Tesla applied to conduct autonomous vehicle testing and operations in Phoenix, with and without human safety drivers on board. A month earlier, Tesla started a robotaxi pilot in Austin, Texas, with safety valets and remote operators. Tesla also operates a more traditional car service in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Tesla didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
Tesla plans to take human safety drivers out of its cars in Austin before the end of this year. The company is aiming to operate a commercial robotaxi service in Phoenix and several other U.S. cities before the end of 2026.
According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s website, Tesla cars equipped with automated driving systems were involved in seven reported collisions following the launch of the company’s pilot in Texas.
Competitors including Alphabet’s Waymo in the U.S. and Baidu’s Apollo Go in China are way ahead in the nascent robotaxi ride-hailing market. In the Phoenix area, Waymo operates a sizable commercial business, with at least 400 autonomous vehicles, the company previously told CNBC. In May, Waymo said it had surpassed 10 million driverless trips served to riders across the U.S.
Baidu said in an earnings update on Tuesday that its Apollo Go service “provided 3.1 million fully driverless operational rides in the third quarter of 2025,” representing year-over-year growth of 212%.
Musk has been promising that Tesla will “solve” autonomy for years without reaching its goals. The world’s richest person has continued with the lofty pronouncements.
At the company’s 2025 shareholder meeting earlier this month, Musk said the “killer app” for self-driving technology is when people can “text and drive,” or “sleep and drive.”
“Before we allow the car to be driven without paying attention, we need to make sure it’s very safe,” Musk said. “We’re on the cusp of that. I know I’ve said that a few times. We really are at this point.”
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