What happened
Shares of Amazon (AMZN 0.18%) were falling today, as the tech giant followed the market's lead and pulled back in response to a better-than-expected jobs report.
Though strong jobs numbers may sound like good news, they make it more likely that the Federal Reserve will continue to raise interest rates and eventually induce a recession. Since Amazon is a cyclical business , driven by consumer spending on e-commerce and businesses spending on cloud infrastructure, the company is sensitive to the macroeconomic climate.
As a result, the stock finished the day down 4.8%, wiping approximately $60 billion off of its market cap. The Nasdaq also fell 3.8%.
So what
Coming into the jobs report, Amazon had already been showing signs of weakness. Earlier this week, multiple news outlets reported that the company had implemented a hiring freeze in its corporate retail division, which will last at least through the end of the year. Amazon has also been closing warehouses and delaying plans to open new ones, and it made the surprising move of holding a second Prime Day next week, a sign it needs to move inventory before the holidays.
There was one minor piece of news out on Amazon today. The company is abandoning live tests of its home delivery robot, Scout, another sign of slowing growth and cost-cutting. However, that wouldn't have had enough of an impact to knock the stock down 5%.
Now what
Also this week, Amazon announced that it's hiring 150,000 workers for the holiday season, a sign it's still expecting strong sales in the holiday season.
However, investors should expect Amazon to remain sensitive to interest rates and the prospects of a recession. It's a growth stock, after all, and higher interest rates make future earnings less valuable, which has an outsize impact on growth stocks.
If the Federal Reserve continues to crank up interest rates, Amazon stock is likely to remain under pressure.
