Why Amazon Stock Finished Lower Today

What happened

Shares of Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) took another step down today, even though there was no company-specific news about the tech giant. Instead, a broader sell-off seems to be weighing on the stock for two reasons.

First, fears of a recession are likely growing after Meta Platforms said it was laying off 13% of its staff. And second, a rout in the cryptocurrency market continued after FTX, one of the biggest exchanges, was on the verge of collapse after Binance backed out of a rescue deal.

Amazon stock finished the day down 4.3%, while the Nasdaq lost 2.5%.

So what

While Amazon doesn't have direct exposure to the layoffs at the Facebook parent or the collapse in the crypto market, it arguably has more exposure to consumer and business spending than any other company. It's the second-largest U.S. company by revenue (behind Walmart), and much of its business depends on consumer discretionary spending and businesses spending on cloud infrastructure and advertising.

The company's fourth-quarter guidance indicated significant headwinds from the macro environment, as guidance called for revenue growth of just 2%-8% in the fourth quarter. On the earnings call, CFO Brian Olsavsky noted caution in spending in both its e-commerce division and Amazon Web Services, the cloud infrastructure unit.

After the latest quarterly update, the company looks vulnerable to a recession.

Now what

In addition to a slowdown to in the growth of the business, Amazon's valuation also seems like a concern to investors at this point. The stock is still expensive according to traditional metrics, and only one of its three core business segments, AWS, is consistently profitable.

Though shares are now down more than 50% from last-year's peak, they could fall further if the overall economic outlook continues to deteriorate.

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John Mackey, CEO of Whole Foods Market, an Amazon subsidiary, is a member of The Motley Fool's board of directors. Randi Zuckerberg, a former director of market development and spokeswoman for Facebook and sister to Meta Platforms CEO Mark Zuckerberg, is a member of The Motley Fool's board of directors. Jeremy Bowman has positions in Amazon and Meta Platforms, Inc. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Amazon, Meta Platforms, Inc., and Walmart Inc. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.