Stock Market Today, July 30: Amazon Soars Over 8% After Hours on Earnings Beat
Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN), a global tech and retail giant, closed at $235.50, up 3.90%. The stock moved even higher in after-hours trading, gaining over 8% after a Q2 earnings beat that showed strong demand for its artificial intelligence (AI) cloud services. Trading volume reached 78.7 million shares, coming in about 66% above its three-month average of 47.3 million shares. Amazon.com IPO'd in 1997 and has grown 193,130% since going public.
How the markets moved today
The S&P 500 (SNPINDEX:^GSPC) closed at 7,438, up 1.66%, while the Nasdaq Composite (NASDAQINDEX:^IXIC) finished at 25,122, up 2.78%. Among e-commerce and consumer retail peers, Walmart closed down 2.73% to $111.10, and Costco Wholesale fell 2.04% to finish at $954.17.
What this means for investors
Amazon is one of several Magnificent Seven firms to report earnings this week, putting AI spending and monetization under the spotlight. Microsoft, which maintained its AI expenditure, soared today, while Meta Platforms, which refused to be drawn on its capex outlook, tumbled. It looks like Amazon could follow Microsoft’s trajectory when markets open tomorrow.
Its revenue increased an impressive 20% year-on-year to $200.61 billion and beat analyst expectations. The same can be said for its booming Amazon Web Services cloud revenues, which go some way to reassure investor about high capex.
However, its spending may still come under closer scrutiny. It reported negative free cash flow of $7.6 billion in the year to June 30 and spent $54.2 billion on property and equipment in Q2, taking its spending for the year to $173 billion. Even so, crucially, Amazon continues to innovate and dominate several key sectors, including its cloud services. Moreover, unlike some of its competitors, its AI investments are already starting to pay off, which bodes well for the stock in the long term.
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Emma Newbery has positions in Amazon. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Amazon, Costco Wholesale, Meta Platforms, Microsoft, and Walmart. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
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