Amazon Stock Drops Up to 12% Post Q2 Earnings

Amazon's stock tumbled between 8% and 12% following a mixed second-quarter report that failed to meet Wall Street's expectations. The company's forecast for the third quarter also fell short, with projected sales of $154 billion to $158.5 billion and operating income between $11.5 billion and $15 billion, missing analysts' predictions. Despite beating earnings per share estimates and nearly doubling profits compared to last year, Amazon's slight revenue miss and weaker-than-expected advertising segment performance disappointed investors. The cloud division, Amazon Web Services, outperformed expectations with $26.3 billion in revenue, signaling robust growth. Heavy investments in AI and cloud infrastructure, totaling over $30 billion in the first half of the year, contributed to the short-term financial outlook. CFO Brian Olsavsky highlighted external factors like the Olympics and political events as distractions affecting consumer spending.