All eyes are on Amazon’s cloud business as the technology giant prepares to report earnings. This follows a significant drop in Microsoft shares, triggered partly by slowing growth in its cloud-computing platform, Azure. Amazon’s shares previously jumped almost 10 per cent after better-than-expected revenue from Amazon Web Services (AWS) in October. However, a ripple of fear is spreading through the tech sector, with investors increasingly worried that Microsoft’s Azure slowdown indicates broader weakness for cloud providers. Amazon is a global technology company that focuses on e-commerce, cloud computing, digital streaming, and artificial intelligence. Amazon Web Services (AWS) is its comprehensive and widely adopted cloud platform.
Since January 28, Microsoft shares have declined by over 16 per cent, erasing approximately $US500 billion ($700 billion) in market value. According to David Miller, chief investment officer at Catalyst Funds, it is unclear whether Microsoft’s underperformance stems from company-specific issues or a wider slowdown in the cloud sector. Miller suggests that if the latter is true, it could affect Amazon’s performance as well.
Amazon shareholders are looking for catalysts to boost the stock, which underperformed other Magnificent Seven tech giants last year, rising only 5.2 per cent. So far in 2026, it has risen less than 1 per cent, while the Nasdaq 100 Index jumped 20 per cent in 2025, and the S&P 500 Index gained 16 per cent. As of 3.13pm, Amazon shares were down 4.2 per cent.
Wall Street anticipates that Amazon will report a 21 per cent year-over-year increase in AWS revenue for the fourth quarter, reaching $US34.8 billion. Overall, analysts forecast a 13 per cent increase in fourth-quarter revenue to $US211.5 billion and an 8 per cent increase in adjusted earnings per share to $US2.40.
