What happened
Shares of e-commerce and cloud computing giant Amazon (AMZN +0.38%) are taking a punch in the gut today. Despite the stock already having slid sharply year to date, shares fell more than 4% on Friday. As of 1:25 p.m. ET, the stock was down 4.2%.
The slide is likely primarily due to bearishness in the overall market today, especially for growth stocks like Amazon.
Image source: Getty Images.
So what
Showing how the overall market is pessimistic on Friday, the S&P 500 is down 1.1% as of this writing. And the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite is down 1.6%, with many growth stocks, including Amazon, down several percentage points or more.
The market's sell-off on Friday seems to be prompted by Netflix's (NFLX 1.43%) post-earnings 20%-plus drop. The company's guidance for first-quarter subscribers was far below expectations, prompting concerns from investors about intensifying competition for the streaming service. Tech stocks were already facing a lot of pressure, and Netflix's hit seemed to add to market fears.
Now what
Amazon will soon get a chance to prove that its sell-off has gone too far. The company's fourth-quarter earnings report is scheduled for Thursday, Feb. 3, after market close.
The quarterly report follows a dramatic slowdown in Amazon's revenue recently. After growing first-quarter 2020 revenue 44% year over year, growth slowed to 27% in the second quarter, and then 15% in the third.
Management guided for further deceleration in the fourth quarter. Specifically, Amazon said it expects revenue to be between $130 billion and $140 billion, translating to 4% to 12% year-over-year quarterly growth.
