Amazon closes below $1 trillion in market value for first time since 2020

Amazon.com Inc. signage is displayed in front of a warehouse in the Staten Island borough of New York, U.S., on Tuesday, March 31, 2020. Some employees at Amazon’s Staten Island warehouse walked off the job on Monday, calling for the company to shut the facility for extended cleaning after they say a number of their colleagues were diagnosed with Covid-19.

Amazon.com Inc. shares fell on Tuesday, with the e-commerce and cloud-computing company closing below $1 trillion in market value for the first time since the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic more than two years ago.

The stock fell 5.5% to end at $96.79, representing a market capitalization of $987.4 billion. Shares closed at their lowest level since April 2020, and have dropped 42% this year. At its Nov. 18 peak, Amazon boasted a market cap of nearly $1.9 trillion.

It was the fifth straight negative session for Amazon -- down about 20% over the period. Meanwhile, the Nasdaq 100 Index fell 1% on Tuesday.

Recent weakness was spurred by the Seattle company’s earnings report last week, when it projected the slowest holiday-quarter growth in its history. Amazon, which had posted record profits during the pandemic, said sales would increase by only 2% to 8% during what has traditionally been its peak season.

Amazon, along with most other major technology and internet stocks, has been pressured throughout 2022 by concerns over slowing growth and rising interest rates. The economic uncertainty has weighed on the multiples of high-valuation stocks.