Amazon’s shares rose 13% in extended trading after a strong quarter, increased capex guidance and its cloud business growing at the fastest pace in 2022.
Apple, the manufacturer of iPhones is also projecting a bumper holiday season, well above analyst expectations, even as the quarterly performance was subdued at best.
Wall Street saw a down day in regular trading on Thursday as investors digested the Trump-Xi meeting and the lack of clarity over the announcements made.
The Dow Jones, which outperformed for a better part of the session as investors rotated out of big tech into other defensive names, fell 500 points from the highs of the day to end with losses of over 100 points. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq ended with losses well over 1% in regular trading.
Losses on Thursday were led by Meta, whose shares fell 11% despite an earnings beat as a tax hit, losses in its reality labs business and an increased capex guidance disappointed the street, leading to an erosion of over $200 billion in its market capitalisation.
Pressure also came from Microsoft, after an underwhelming quarter, and from Nvidia, as the Trump-Xi meet led to no concrete decision on what happens to the chip giant’s business in China.
“None of this means that the AI bubble is going to burst and that we’re on the cusp of a major reversal in the stock market,” said Matt Maley at Miller Tabak. “However, it does raise the odds that we could see a short-term pullback.”
The fact that the AI story is far from over is evident from just this one instance. On a day that Meta’s stock price fell over 11%, the company sold bonds worth $30 billion, and the bond sale drew record demand of well over $125 billion.
Beyond equities, the US Dollar index is nearing the mark of 100 yet again, currently at 99.5, while Gold prices in the futures market are back above the mark of $4,000 as buying emerged at lower levels.