Amazon Inc. has become the world’s first publicly listed firm to lose a trillion dollars in market value, reported news agency Bloomberg. According to the report, a combination of rising inflation, tightening monetary policies, and disappointing earnings updates has triggered a historic sell-off in the company's stocks this year.
On Wednesday, the e-commerce and cloud service company’s shares fell by 4.3 per cent, pushing its market value from a record close of $1.88 trillion in July 2021 to about $879 billion. According to the report, Microsoft Corp. has also lost $889 billion from a November 2021 peak. Making the Windows software maker trail closely behind Amazon in this unwelcomed race.
The top five US tech firms by revenue have seen $4 trillion evaporate from their market value this year. The report said that the fear of a recession has further dampened sentiment in the sector. Throughout this year, Investors have been dumping the stock of tech and growth sectors.
As consumers are coming back to their pre-pandemic routine, Amazon, being the world’s largest online retailer has spent 2022 adjusting to a sharp slowdown in the e-commerce space. Its shares have fallen almost 50 per cent amid slowing sales, soaring costs, and a jump in interest rates, Bloomberg reported. Since the start of the year, co-founder Jeff Bezos has seen his fortune decline by about $83 billion to $109 billion, the report added. Earlier this month, the company moved to expand an earlier hiring freeze to cover all of its corporate employees.
Amazon has seen a pandemic-fueled rally in tech stocks more than two years ago. As shoppers reduced their spending in the face of economic uncertainty, Amazon reported the slowest revenue growth for a holiday quarter in the company’s history last month. That for the first time sent the company’s market value below $1 trillion.