Amazon poised for biggest ever market value gain a day after Facebook’s loss

Amazon.com is giving the market back what Meta Platforms just took away – or at least some of it.

The e-commerce giant is poised to add nearly $200bn in market value if the stock’s 14 per cent gain in after-hours trading following the company’s fourth-quarter earnings report holds to Friday’s close. That what would be the biggest single-day gain in US stock market history coming just a day after Facebook parent Meta Platforms entered the other end of the record book with a $251bn wipeout.

The surge in Amazon’s stock price came after sales in its cloud computing business beat Wall Street estimates and the company raised the price of Amazon Prime subscriptions, alleviating some concerns about the impact of cost increases on profitability. Those elements overshadowed forecasts for sales and operating profit in the current quarter that fell short of expectations.

Amazon’s gains come after the stock suffered its worst day since March 2020, as Meta’s earnings flop raised fears about Big Tech’s financial results. The 7.8 per cent decline in Thursday’s regular session wiped out $119bn in market value for the Seattle-based company.

Apple set the current record for added market value last week after it gained about $179bn on the day after its earnings report.

A $200bn gain for Amazon would be bigger than the market values of more than 90 per cent of the companies in the S&P 500 Index, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.