Amazon shares plunged by nearly a fifth last night - wiping £174billion off its valuation in one of the biggest one-day sell-offs of all time.

This follows a warning from the US tech giant of weaker consumer spending in the run-up to Christmas.

The 18% plunge in its valuation left Amazon valued at around £803billion - the lowest level since the onset of the Covid crisis in March 2020.

However, shares did recover some of the lost ground later, to be down 12.73% in after-hours trading.

Amazon missed Wall Street expectations as it revealed revenues of £109.83billion for the three months ending in September.

It said it expected its revenues over the three months around Christmas to be between £121billion sand £155billion - well below analyst estimates.

Massive loss

The Telegraph says the fall in the company's value was more than the value of energy giant Shell, which is worth £169billion.

It follows a brutal week for big tech companies in the US as the industry reels from the cost-of-living crisis and rising interest rates.

Operating income at Amazon decreased to £2.16billion in the quarter, compared to £4.23billion in the same period in 2021.

Amazon's results have been buoyed in recent years by lockdowns, which have kept people at home and forced them to order more online.

But a weakening economic climate that is hitting consumers' pockets with rising interest rates has put pressure on its online retail operations.

Surprisingly, Amazon's digital infrastructure business, Amazon Web Services, also missed market expectations, pulling in revenues of £17.7billion.

Cloud slowdown

Neil Campling, at Mirabaud Securities, told the Telegraph: "Retail and consumer weakness is hardly a new theme or shock. Nor is inflation or logistic challenges. But the speed of cloud slowdown is going to surprise many investors."

Andy Jassy, Amazon's chief executive, said: "There is obviously a lot happening in the macroeconomic environment, and we'll balance our investments to be more streamlined without compromising our key long-term, strategic bets."

The plunge in Amazon's share price also wipes billions from the net worth of its founder Jeff Bezos.

He was worth £121billion before last night's share price plunge, most of which is made up of Amazon stock.

FTSE 100

The UK's top share index, the FTSE 100, was down 63 points at 7,010 shortly after opening this morning, following yesterday's 17-point gain.

Brent crude futures dipped 1.08% to $95.91 a barrel.

Companies reporting today

  • Third-quarter results: Equinor, International Consolidated Airlines, NatWest

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