Why Amazon Stock Jumped 14% in July While the Market Was Flat

Shares of e-commerce and cloud computing leader Amazon.com (NASDAQ: AMZN) jumped 14% in July, according to data from S&P Global Market Intelligence.

For context, the S&P 500 index was essentially flat -- it slipped about 0.1% -- and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite index declined 3.2%.

Through Thursday, Aug. 6, Amazon stock has gained 18% in 2026. The S&P 500 has returned 13.4% over this period.

Image source: Getty Images.

Strong Q2 results

On July 31, Amazon stock jumped 15.3%, following the release of its second-quarter results the prior afternoon.

Amazon reported quarterly revenue of $200.6 billion, up 20% year over year. This result easily beat Wall Street's consensus estimate of about $196.8 billion. Net income was $62.6 billion, or $5.75 per share, up 242% from $18.2 billion, or $1.68 per share, in the year-ago period.

The quarter's net income included a non-operating pre-tax "other income" of $53.4 billion, primarily from the company's investments in Anthropic, an artificial intelligence (AI) model maker best known for its Claude family of large-language models.

Segment revenue results:

• North America sales increased 16% to $116.2 billion.
• International sales increased 15% to $42.2 billion.
• Amazon Web Services (AWS) -- Its cloud computing services business's sales increased 37% to $42.2 billion. This performance was driven by strong demand for AI capabilities.

Operating income results:

• North America's operating income was $9.1 billion, up 21% year over year.
• International's operating income was $1.7 billion, up 13%.
• AWS's operating income was $16.6 billion, up a whopping 63%.

"AWS is booming, growing 36.7% year-over-year in Q2 -- our fastest growth in 18 quarters -- and our AI and Chips businesses each eclipsed run rates of more than $25 billion," said CEO Andy Jassy in the earnings release. Jassy also called out the company's record delivery speeds in the first half of the year: "Over 40% more items delivered same-day or overnight, with Grocery and Everyday Essentials growing meaningfully faster than the rest of the business." Lastly, Advertising had another strong quarter with 26% year-over-year growth, he added.

Looking ahead

In the third quarter, Amazon expects revenue between $197.0 billion and $202.0 billion, representing year-over-year growth of 9% to 12%. Excluding the impact of Prime Day in both 2025 and 2026, the company said third-quarter growth would be nearly 400 basis points (0.4%) higher.

Operating income is expected to be between $22.5 billion and $26.5 billion, compared with $17.4 billion in the prior year's quarter. This would equate to growth of 29% to 52%.

In Q3 2025, operating income included two special charges: $2.5 billion related to a legal settlement with the Federal Trade Commission and $1.8 billion in estimated severance costs. Without these charges, operating income would have been $21.7 billion.

Beth McKenna has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Amazon. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.