Amazon Stock Today (AMZN): 9 Key Things to Know Before the US Market Opens

Published: November 14, 2025 – Pre‑market overview

Amazon stock is set to open lower this Friday as Wall Street digests a sharp tech sell‑off, fresh layoffs in New York, a new disability‑rights lawsuit, and Amazon’s surprising support for tighter AI‑chip export rules.

Before the bell, Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) is trading around $236–237 in premarket, roughly 0.4% below Thursday’s close of $237.58, with before‑hours volume above 60,000 shares. ^[1] That leaves the stock about 8–9% below its early‑November record close near $258.60, but still well above its 52‑week low of $161.38. ^[2]

Here’s what matters for Amazon stock as US markets open on November 14, 2025.

1. Price action: Amazon extends Thursday’s sell‑off

Yesterday (Nov. 13): AMZN fell 2.7% to $237.58, part of a broad tech slump that dragged the Nasdaq more than 2% lower and knocked nearly 800 points off the Dow. ^[3]
This morning: Pre‑market quotes cluster around $236.6, down about $1 from the close, or just over 0.4%. ^[4]
From the highs: The stock is now roughly $22 below its early‑November record close of $258.60, an ~8.5% pullback. ^[5]

Over the past two sessions, Amazon has slid more than 4.5%, according to FXLeaders, as sellers regained control following a post‑earnings rally. ^[6] Technical analysts there note that the drop has pushed AMZN back under the $240 level, with potential support seen in the $236–$238 zone and then near $230 if that breaks. ^[7]

In Europe, Amazon’s Frankfurt‑listed shares (ticker AMZX:GER) are also lower, off about 1–2% around midday, underscoring global risk‑off sentiment toward big tech. ^[8]

2. Macro backdrop: Tech under pressure after a “risk‑off” day

Thursday’s sell‑off wasn’t just about Amazon.

The Nasdaq fell about 2.3%, and the S&P 500 and Dow each dropped around 1.7%, with tech names leading declines as investors took profits after recent record highs. ^[9]
Financial Express estimates that roughly $800 billion to $1 trillion in US equity value was wiped out in a single session, highlighting how abrupt the reversal has been. ^[10]

This morning, futures point to another cautious session as traders question stretched big‑tech valuations, watch bond yields bounce, and reassess the odds of near‑term Fed rate cuts. ^[11]

For Amazon, that means day‑to‑day moves may have more to do with macro risk appetite than company‑specific news, at least in the opening hour.

3. Q3 2025 earnings: AWS re‑accelerates, but free cash flow shrinks

Amazon’s latest quarterly report—released October 30—still anchors the fundamental story investors are debating today. ^[12]

Key Q3 numbers (quarter ended Sept. 30, 2025):

Net sales: Up 13% year‑over‑year to $180.2 billion (12% in constant currency).
- North America +11% to $106.3 billion
- International +14% to $40.9 billion (10% ex‑FX)
- AWS +20% to $33.0 billion, marking a clear re‑acceleration in cloud growth. ^[13]
Operating income:$17.4 billion, roughly flat year‑on‑year, but this figure includes two major charges:
- $2.5 billion tied to a Federal Trade Commission (FTC) legal settlement
- $1.8 billion in estimated severance costs
  Without those special items, operating income would have been about $21.7 billion. ^[14]
Net income: Jumped to $21.2 billion ($1.95 per diluted share), boosted by about $9.5 billion in gains from Amazon’s investment in Anthropic. ^[15]
Cash flows:
- Trailing‑12‑month operating cash flow rose 16% to $130.7 billion.
- Trailing‑12‑month free cash flow fell sharply to $14.8 billion, versus $47.7 billion a year earlier, due to a more than $50 billion year‑over‑year jump in capital expenditures on infrastructure and AI. ^[16]

Amazon CEO Andy Jassy has framed the spending ramp as a once‑in‑a‑decade reinvestment cycle, saying AWS is “growing at a pace we haven’t seen since 2022” and highlighting heavy investment in AI chips (Trainium2) and logistics. ^[17]

For traders today, that sets up a tension:

Bullish angle: Cloud and advertising are growing ~20%+ and carry high margins. ^[18]
Bearish angle: Free‑cash‑flow compression and one‑off legal charges make the earnings quality and sustainability harder to judge.

4. Guidance and analyst expectations

Post‑earnings, Amazon issued Q4 2025 guidance (EPS figure undisclosed in some summaries), and Wall Street now expects about $6.31 in EPS for the full year, implying robust double‑digit earnings growth. ^[19]

Across multiple MarketBeat filings and coverage:

Analysts remain overwhelmingly positive, with dozens of “buy” or “strong buy” ratings and only a handful of holds or sells. ^[20]
Many houses have raised price targets, with some clustered around the $280–$300 range, consistent with IG’s note that consensus long‑term targets average roughly $288–$289, ~18% upside from current levels. ^[21]

However, FXLeaders points out that cautious forward guidance during the earnings call, particularly around consumer demand and cost pressures, has weighed on sentiment despite the headline beats. ^[22]

5. Fresh labor and legal risks: layoffs plus a new disability lawsuit

Two new stories are shaping how investors view Amazon’s culture and regulatory exposure:

5.1. Layoffs: 660 corporate roles cut in New York

Amazon has eliminated 660 corporate jobs across nine New York City offices, according to a state WARN filing. The cuts took effect November 8 and hit locations on 7th Avenue, 10th Avenue, and 34th Street. ^[23]
These moves follow what the company has described as its largest post‑pandemic downsizing, with nearly 14,000 corporate roles already removed globally. ^[24]

CoinCentral notes that CEO Andy Jassy has framed the layoffs as driven by “culture” rather than cost‑cutting or AI automation, arguing that Amazon had added too many management layers and needed to restore accountability. ^[25]

5.2. Class‑action lawsuit over disabled workers

At the same time, Amazon faces a new proposed class‑action lawsuit in New York federal court that accuses the company of “punitive” handling of absences for workers with disabilities. ^[26]

Key allegations, according to Reuters and CBS News:

Amazon allegedly uses a “punitive absence control system” and automated attendance tracking that threatens discipline or termination even when employees take legally protected leave. ^[27]
Lead plaintiff Cayla Lyster, a warehouse worker with Ehlers‑Danlos syndrome, says she was repeatedly placed on unpaid leave while waiting for reasonable accommodations like a chair and reduced climbing duties. ^[28]

Amazon has denied the claims, saying it follows federal and state disability laws and that “ensuring the health and well‑being of our employees is our top priority.” ^[29]

From a market standpoint, these developments:

Reinforce headline‑risk around Amazon’s labor practices.
Could influence sentiment and ESG‑focused funds, even if direct financial impact is limited in the short term.

6. Regulatory overhang: FTC’s “Iliad Flow” and Prime case

Beyond the new suit, Amazon is still wrestling with a high‑profile FTC case over alleged deceptive tricks used to make canceling Prime memberships difficult—internally nicknamed the “Iliad Flow.” ^[30]

FXLeaders notes that:

The case has become a symbol of regulatory scrutiny over Amazon’s platform tactics.
The legal overhang is one reason the stock has struggled to hold its post‑earnings gains, even as many other retailers benefit from holiday optimism. ^[31]

Traders will be watching for any updates from the courts or FTC today that could move the stock intraday.

7. AI and chips: Amazon backs stricter Nvidia export rules

One of today’s most notable headlines: Amazon and Microsoft are siding with Washington hawks on AI chips.

According to Reuters and analysis from Seeking Alpha:

Amazon Web Services has quietly joined Microsoft in supporting the GAIN AI Act, legislation that would force AI‑chip makers like Nvidia to prioritize US domestic orders before shipping to foreign customers such as China. ^[32]
The bill is part of the National Defense Authorization Act and is pitched as a way to secure US access to high‑end AI compute, while limiting China’s ability to build advanced AI systems. ^[33]

Why this matters for AMZN:

Potential positive: If Nvidia must prioritize US cloud providers, AWS could enjoy more secure access to scarce top‑tier GPUs—crucial for training and deploying large AI models. ^[34]
Potential negative: Nvidia warns the Act might constrain global competition and reduce the overall supply of advanced chips, possibly keeping prices high. ^[35]

Investors may interpret Amazon’s stance as a sign of how central AI infrastructure has become to its strategy, but also as a reminder that the company now sits at the intersection of tech, geopolitics, and national security policy.

8. Valuation, AI deals, and the Shopify comparison

A fresh Motley Fool analysis republished on Finviz this morning pits Amazon vs. Shopify as e‑commerce plays. ^[36] Highlights:

Amazon’s growth is increasingly driven by AWS and advertising, which grew about 20% and 24% year‑over‑year in Q3, respectively. ^[37]
Amazon reportedly has a multi‑year cloud deal with OpenAI valued at around $38 billion for additional AWS capacity, underlining how aggressively it is chasing AI workloads (this figure comes from the Motley Fool piece and has not been independently confirmed by Amazon). ^[38]
On profitability, Shopify enjoys a much higher net margin (~33.8%) vs. Amazon’s ~11.8% in Q3, thanks to its asset‑light platform model. ^[39]

However, Amazon looks cheaper on earnings multiples:

The article cites Amazon at roughly 34x trailing earnings and ~29x forward earnings, versus Shopify at 80x+, leaving AMZN with a perceived margin of safety given its diversification and AI optionality. ^[40]

Taken together with Morningstar and other fundamental research—much of which describes Amazon as either fairly valued or modestly undervalued after the recent pullback—today’s sell‑off may look more like position‑trimming in a crowded trade than a wholesale rethink of the long‑term thesis. ^[41]

9. Sentiment check: Big‑picture worries about Big Tech profits

One wildcard for big‑cap tech today: a widely shared Bloomberg piece on Michael Burry’s “depreciation gripe.” ^[42]

Burry argues that longer depreciation schedules for computing hardware at tech giants like Meta and Alphabet can artificially inflate reported profits, raising questions about earnings quality across the sector. ^[43]

While Amazon isn’t explicitly singled out in the snippet we can see, investors may reasonably extrapolate those concerns to capital‑intensive AI platforms such as AWS, especially given Amazon’s own massive capex ramp and falling free cash flow. ^[44]

This narrative, combined with rising bond yields and recession chatter, is helping to frame Amazon as part of a broader “crowded Big Tech” trade rather than a stock trading purely on company‑specific news.

10. Institutional flows and positioning

A cluster of 13F‑based articles out today shows that institutional investors remain active but divided on Amazon: ^[45]

Some firms—including Gimbal Financial and Jacobsen Capital Management—have initiated or increased positions in AMZN during the second quarter, often making it a meaningful slice of portfolios.
Others, like Alapocas Investment Partners, have trimmed stakes, even though Amazon remains their single largest holding.
Across these filings, roughly 72% of Amazon’s stock is held by institutions and hedge funds, reinforcing its status as a core mega‑cap holding. ^[46]

Given today’s risk‑off tone, any forced de‑risking or hedge‑fund selling could amplify intraday volatility, especially with options expiring on the November 14, 2025 cycle and heavy open interest across strikes in the $230–$260 range. ^[47]

What to watch on Amazon stock today

For traders and longer‑term investors watching AMZN into the open, here are the main questions:

Can $236–$238 hold?
That zone lines up with recent lows and prior resistance from July and September; IG’s technical analysis flags it as an important support cluster. A clean break could put $230 in play. ^[48]
Does macro selling intensify?
If today’s session extends Thursday’s $800‑billion market wipeout, Amazon could trade more on index flows and ETF selling than on company‑specific fundamentals. ^[49]
Any new headlines on lawsuits or layoffs?
Fresh statements from regulators, courts, or Amazon management about the New York disability suit, New Jersey’s earlier action, or the FTC Prime case could move sentiment quickly. ^[50]
Market reaction to the GAIN AI Act story
If investors interpret Amazon’s support for chip‑export limits as securing AWS’s AI supply pipeline, the stock could find buyers on dips. If they focus on potential supply constraints and geopolitical risk, the reaction could stay negative. ^[51]
Rotation between e‑commerce names
With Shopify under heavier pressure—down more than 6% in recent trading—any renewed preference for “cheaper” big platforms could push flows back toward Amazon, especially given the comparative valuation laid out in today’s Amazon‑vs‑Shopify piece. ^[52]

Bottom line

Heading into the US open on November 14, 2025, Amazon stock sits at the crossroads of strong operational momentum (AWS and advertising), heavy AI‑driven investment, and rising legal and regulatory risks, all against a fragile macro backdrop for high‑growth tech.

Short‑term traders will focus on support levels around the mid‑$230s, option flows, and any new headlines on lawsuits or AI policy. Long‑term investors, meanwhile, are weighing whether the recent 8–9% pullback from record highs is an opportunity to accumulate a structurally dominant cloud and e‑commerce franchise—or an early sign that Big Tech’s multi‑year re‑rating has gone too far.

Either way, Amazon (AMZN) is likely to remain a key swing factor for the Nasdaq today.

This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice. Stock prices and pre‑market data cited here are delayed and may change throughout the trading day.

Amazon Stock Analysis: Buy, Hold, or Sell? | AMZN Stock