Shares of the e-commerce and cloud company fell 4.3% on Wednesday, reducing its market value from a record close of $1.88 trillion in July 2021 to about $879 billion . Amazon and Microsoft Corp. were competing head-to-head to overcome the undesirable milestone, with Microsoft Corp. second after losing $889 billion from its November 2021 peak.
Fears of a recession have further clouded the mood in the sector, which has already been hit hard by the year-long punishment of tech and growth companies. This year, the market value of the top five US tech corporations by revenue has declined by about $4 trillion.
As consumers returned to their pre-pandemic shopping patterns, the world’s largest online retailer has spent this year adjusting to a dramatic slowdown in e-commerce growth. Due to declining sales, rising costs and a rise in borrowing rates, its stock is down about 50%. According to information compiled by Bloomberg, co-founder Jeff Bezos’ wealth has declined by about $83 billion to $109 billion since the start of the year.
As consumers scaled back their purchases in the face of economic uncertainty, Amazon predicted the slowest sales increase for a Christmas quarter in the company’s history last month. That caused its market value to fall below $1 trillion for the first time since the recovery in tech stocks that sparked the outbreak more than two years ago.
