Apple, Amazon Losses Top $160 Billion After Results: Tech Watch
Apple, Amazon Poised for $180 Billion Loss of Value: Tech Watch
(Bloomberg) -- Apple Inc. and Amazon.com Inc. shed more than $160 billion in combined market value after the technology giants served notice of a difficult holiday season and reported disappointing earnings.
Apple fell 3.5%, erasing about $106 billion in value, after Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook said supply constraints were affecting most of its products. Meanwhile, Amazon dropped 3.4% after warning that high costs could wipe out any profit in its most-important quarter of the year.
Amazon’s slide erased roughly $57 billion in value, while Apple’s decline amounted to a loss of about $106 billion in market valuation. That slump was enough for Microsoft to reclaim the position of the world’s largest listed company by market capitalization.
The debate on whether or not to buy tech stocks following their record run during the pandemic began before the ongoing earnings season, as rising bond yields put the spotlight on the sector’s frothy valuations. A number of hedge funds have turned negative on the sector, which is seeing the biggest increase in short selling among major industries this year, according to Morgan Stanley.
Still, most analysts backed their buy calls on the stocks, saying the issues are transitory. “Even Goliath feels the pain,” Evercore ISI’s Amit Daryanani said of Apple’s warning on chip shortages, while maintaining his outperform rating.
The news from the technology heavyweights overshadowed what had been a strong earnings period for the sector. Earlier this week, Alphabet Inc. and Microsoft Corp. both rose more than 4% after results beat expectations.
And the sell-side remained bullish. For Amazon, the impact of cost inflation and supply shortages on smaller competitors could present an opportunity to grab even more market share, according to Morgan Stanley’s Brian Nowak, who has an overweight rating. All the analysts tracked by Bloomberg covering the stock have buy ratings on it.
“Amazon sounds very confident around its capacity and supply chain advantages heading into the holidays,” said Barclays Plc analyst Ross Sandler, who also rates the stock overweight.
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