Amazon stock traded at $226.55 at 9:09 a.m. ET on October 30, 2026, down 7.07% from the previous close, after the company reported third-quarter results and its holiday-quarter outlook.

Key Takeaways

  • AWS revenue rose 39.3% to $46.0 billion in the third quarter.
  • Trailing 12-month free cash flow swung to an outflow of $42.4 billion.
  • The midpoints of Amazon’s fourth-quarter sales and operating-income forecasts were below analyst expectations.

Amazon stock follows earnings release lower

The premarket quote followed a $243.79 close on October 29, when Amazon shares fell 4.25%. Premarket prices can change before regular trading and are not closing prices.

The decline followed results that combined rapid cloud growth with a large cash outflow and a holiday-quarter forecast whose midpoints fell short of estimates. The timing of the move alone does not establish what caused it.

Cloud growth and cash spending

In its third-quarter results, Amazon reported total net sales of $201.9 billion, up 12% year over year. Operating income rose to $28.1 billion from $17.4 billion, with a record operating margin of 13.9%. AWS generated $46.0 billion in sales and $17.8 billion in operating income.

Diluted earnings per share fell to $1.89 from $1.95 a year earlier. Amazon said the decline in net income was driven primarily by $9.5 billion in pretax gains from its Anthropic investment in the third quarter of 2025.

Free cash flow for the 12 months ended September 30 was an outflow of $42.4 billion, compared with an inflow of $14.8 billion a year earlier. Amazon attributed the decline primarily to higher net purchases of property and equipment, largely reflecting investments in artificial intelligence.

Holiday-quarter outlook

Amazon forecast fourth-quarter sales of $240 billion to $247 billion and operating income of $28.5 billion to $33.5 billion. The respective midpoints of $243.5 billion and $31 billion were below analyst expectations of approximately $245 billion and $33 billion.

The company also maintained its expectation of approximately $220 billion in cash capital expenditures for 2026. Those figures are forecasts, not completed results.

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