Amazon's $7.34 Billion Volume Ranks Ninth as AI Costs and Mixed Guidance Spur Sell-Off

On August 8, 2025, Amazon (AMZN) closed with a 0.20% decline, trading at a volume of $7.34 billion, ranking ninth in market activity. The stock’s performance followed a broader market selloff amid mixed guidance and operational challenges.

Investor sentiment turned cautious after Amazon provided a wide third-quarter operating income forecast of $15.5 billion to $20.5 billion, below the $17.4 billion recorded in the same period in 2024. The broad range signaled management’s uncertainty, raising concerns about margin sustainability amid heavy AI investments and competitive pressures. Despite strong Q2 results—$167.7 billion in revenue and $1.68 per share earnings—forward-looking guidance dampened short-term optimism.

AWS, Amazon’s cloud division, faced headwinds as operating margins fell from 39.5% to 32.9% sequentially. The decline was attributed to seasonal stock-based compensation, AI infrastructure depreciation, and foreign exchange pressures. While AWS revenue grew 17% year-over-year to $30.9 billion, the pace lagged behind competitors and reflected infrastructure bottlenecks. Amazon’s capital expenditures are set to rise above $100 billion in 2025, underscoring its AI ambitions but potentially weighing on near-term profitability.

Analysts noted Amazon’s premium valuation, with a forward price-to-sales ratio of 3.18X, well above the industry average of 2.17X. The stock’s 4.6% six-month decline highlighted its sensitivity to earnings revisions and macroeconomic risks, including trade policies and consumer spending trends. Despite robust retail sales growth—online store revenue rose 11% to $61.5 billion—the market remained skeptical about long-term margin expansion amid rising costs.

The strategy of purchasing the top 500 stocks by daily trading volume and holding them for one day returned 166.71% from 2022 to the present, outperforming the benchmark’s 29.18% by 137.53%. This highlights the effectiveness of liquidity-driven approaches in volatile markets, where high-volume stocks often exhibit amplified short-term momentum.