Amazon Stock Drops 9% on Q3 Earnings Miss Amid Big Tech Selloff

Amazon shares plunged as much as 9% in after-hours trading Thursday after the e-commerce and cloud giant reported third-quarter earnings that fell short of Wall Street expectations. Diluted earnings per share came in at $1.89, down from $1.95 a year earlier, while total revenue rose 12% to $201.9 billion. Analysts had anticipated stronger results, making the miss a key driver of the stock decline. The drop extends a broader rout in Big Tech stocks, as investors reassess valuations amid rising interest rates and slowing growth. Amazon's cloud division, Amazon Web Services, and its advertising business are closely watched for signs of resilience, but the overall earnings shortfall overshadowed segment performance. The company's guidance for the holiday quarter will be critical for investor sentiment. As one of the world's largest retailers and cloud providers, Amazon's results are a bellwether for consumer spending and enterprise tech demand. The after-market slide underscores how sensitive mega-cap tech stocks remain to any deviation from consensus estimates, especially in a volatile market environment. Investors now look to upcoming earnings from other tech giants to gauge whether this is an Amazon-specific issue or a sector-wide trend.