Key Highlights

● Amazon closed at $250.38 on October 22, among the Dow's weakest performers.

● Meta's free cash flow was negative $2.12 billion, its first outflow in over a decade.

● The consumer discretionary sector, which includes Amazon, fell as well.

● Amazon reports quarterly results on October 29.

Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) sank on Thursday, October 22, 2026, closing at $250.38 and ranking among the weakest performers on the Dow Jones Industrial Average.

There was no company-specific news. Amazon was caught in a selloff that spread from Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) to the rest of the so-called hyperscalers, the giant companies spending tens of billions of dollars on AI data centers.

Meta's numbers rattled the group

Meta's quarterly report, released late Wednesday, was the spark. The company posted record revenue of $64.6 billion but narrowed its 2026 capital-spending range to $135 billion to $145 billion. Its free cash flow turned negative at $2.12 billion, its first cash outflow in more than a decade, according to market data.

Meta also disclosed about $825 billion in future spending commitments, up from about $700 billion in July, according to market data, and announced a one-time dividend of a new non-voting Class C share, which was widely seen as a way to help fund its AI ambitions. The cost of insuring Meta's debt hit a record, per market data. Meta's chief financial officer said: "We don't have any specific financing plans to announce at this time."

Meta's shares suffered their worst day since July, closing at $648.85.

Why Amazon felt it

Amazon Web Services is a major cloud-computing business, and Amazon is a heavy spender on data centers and AI chips. When Meta's figures showed spending outrunning cash flow, investors questioned the economics of the whole group.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) and Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) also fell. Oracle (NYSE:ORCL) slid on AI-financing and credit worries. Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA)'s chief executive added to the unease, saying "the demand of the capital is much greater than the availability of the capital."

IBM (NYSE:IBM)'s chief executive, whose company reported results Wednesday evening, offered a pointed view: "They are also getting worried if some of the AI spending is completely out of control with no real return," he said.

Big losses, broad gains

The tech rout dominated the major indexes. The Nasdaq Composite fell 694.00 points, its steepest drop since June 5, and lost about $1 trillion in market value, according to market data. The S&P 500 dropped 93.74 points to 7,663.43, its worst day since July. The consumer discretionary sector, which includes Amazon, fell as well, according to market data.

Yet the Dow Jones Industrial Average finished up 11.89 points at 52,867.98, essentially flat and at a one-month high, according to market data, as Procter & Gamble (NYSE:PG), Home Depot (NYSE:HD) and Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ) rallied. About two of every three S&P 500 stocks rose, according to market reports.

Amazon's October 29 Report Targets AWS and Capex

Amazon reports quarterly results on October 29, according to market data, the same day as third-quarter GDP and September PCE inflation data. Investors will focus on growth at Amazon Web Services and on any update to the company's capital-spending plans, especially after Meta's figures. Microsoft and Alphabet report a day earlier, on October 28, alongside the Federal Reserve's policy decision, offering an early read on whether the hyperscaler spending worries deepen or ease.