Amazon sees record interest from retail investors after earnings

MAJOR US technology and Internet stocks have tumbled in recent sessions, pressured by some disappointing quarterly results. But that hasn’t deterred retail investors from scooping up beaten-down shares, according to Vanda Research.

The aggregate retail buying of Wall Street’s biggest stocks “broke all records” in the latest week, in what Marco Iachini, senior vice president, said was a function of both earnings and Fomo - or a fear of missing out.

The interest came despite a broadly negative set of results. While Apple rallied in the wake of its earnings release, companies like Microsoft and Alphabet both sank. Selling was even fiercer at Meta Platforms, where the Facebook parent has sunk to multi-year lows, and at Amazon.com, whose market valuation has dropped under US$1 trillion for the first time since 2020.

Despite that, retail flows into Amazon registered a record high of US$292 million last Friday (Oct 28), “and the pace of buying has remained above the company’s historical average this week”, Iachini wrote. “The selloff in mega caps was seen as a buy-the-dip opportunity rather than a capitulation moment.”

Amazon was the name with the highest retail purchases over the past week, per Vanda, followed by Meta, Apple, Tesla, and Alphabet. Nvidia and Microsoft also ranked among the top 10.

The group largely fell on Wednesday, as investors looked ahead to an expected rate hike from the Federal Reserve. Apple, Microsoft, and Alphabet all dropped more than 1 per cent, while Amazon and Meta slid more than 2 per cent. The Nasdaq 100 Index fell 1.1 per cent. BLOOMBERG