Stock Market Today, Feb. 5: Amazon Shares Drop on Tech Sell-Off Ahead of Earnings and AWS Growth Outlook
On Feb. 5, 2026, investors weighed Amazon’s surging AI and cloud capex against bold long-term targets.
Today’s Change
(-4.36%) $-10.16
Current Price
$222.82
Key Data Points
Market Cap
$2.5T
Day’s Range
$220.38 – $226.30
52wk Range
$161.38 – $258.60
Volume
5.2M
Avg Vol
41M
Gross Margin
50.05%
Amazon (AMZN 4.36%), global e-commerce leader and cloud provider, closed Thursday at $222.69, down 4.42%. The stock declined during the regular session as investors reacted to a broader tech and AI sell-off. Investors were waiting for details on AWS cloud growth, AI capex, and guidance.
Trading volume reached 87.3 million shares, coming in about 110% above its three-month average of 41.5 million shares. Amazon IPO’d in 1997 and has grown 227,327% since going public.
How the markets moved today
The S&P 500 (^GSPC 1.23%) fell 1.20% to 6,800, while the Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC 1.59%) lost 1.59% to finish at 22,541. Within e-commerce and cloud computing, industry peers Alibaba Group (BABA 0.87%) closed at $157.76 (-0.87%) and Walmart (WMT 0.85%) finished at $126.94 (-0.83%), underscoring broader pressure on large retail and platform names.
What this means for investors
Today’s sell-off continued after hours, when Amazon reported mixed results. Earnings slightly disappointed, but revenue of $213.4 billion exceeded expectations. AWS cloud service revenue rose 24% year over year, beating estimates.
Capital spending guidance may have spooked investors, though, similar to last night’s update from Alphabet (GOOG 0.60%) (GOOGL 0.20%). Amazon said it expects roughly $200 billion in capital spending in 2026. That staggering number mirrors Alphabet’s surprise last night, saying it would double capex year over year in 2026 to about $180 billion.
Yet if investors start to see the path for a return on those investments, Amazon stock may quickly recover the nearly 10% after-hours drop and continue to march higher from here.
Howard Smith has positions in Alphabet and Amazon. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Alphabet, Amazon, and Walmart. The Motley Fool recommends Alibaba Group. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
