New York, Feb 20, 2026, 16:55 EST — After-hours
- AMZN picked up 2.6%, finishing Friday at $210.11.
- The Supreme Court tossed out Trump’s global tariffs, sending consumer and tech shares higher.
- All eyes turn to AI spending next week, as Nvidia reports results on Feb. 25.
Amazon.com (AMZN.O) climbed 2.6% to close at $210.11 on Friday, with the stock moving between $203.85 and $211.11. The Nasdaq finished up 0.9% after the U.S. Supreme Court voted 6-3 to overturn President Donald Trump’s global tariffs, a decision that sent megacaps higher. Trump blasted the ruling as a “disgrace” and vowed to slap a 10% global tariff for 150 days using a different statute. “Today is a removal of some uncertainty,” said Mike Dickson, who leads research and quantitative strategies at Horizon Investments. (Reuters)
Retailers and brands have been yanked around by tariff news, since higher import taxes usually mean pricier goods, thinner margins, or both. “The market read is straightforward: tariff-sensitive equities breathe easier,” wrote Siebert Financial CIO Mark Malek. Still, he warned, “the tariffs may be gone today, but the incentive for them absolutely is not.” Amazon, meanwhile, is both a direct seller and a third-party platform operator, right at the intersection. (Investopedia)
Tariff relief arrived as fresh U.S. data painted a complicated macro backdrop. GDP expanded at a 1.4% clip in the fourth quarter. Core PCE—the Fed’s preferred inflation metric, stripping out food and energy—ticked up 0.4% for December, settling at a 3.0% year-over-year pace. “The core of the economy is resilient,” said Michael Pearce, chief U.S. economist at Oxford Economics. Still, economists polled by Reuters don’t see a Fed rate cut happening before the June 16-17 meeting. (Reuters)
Earlier Friday, a headline nudged attention toward AWS after Amazon disclosed that a December outage affected a cost-management tool customers rely on. According to the Financial Times, AWS experienced a 13-hour disruption when its engineers allowed the Kiro AI coding tool to implement changes; Amazon described the incident as “extremely limited,” attributing it to a specific user mistake in one region rather than a system-wide AWS problem. FT called Kiro an “agentic” tool, capable of acting for users. (Reuters)
Investors kept tabs on the AI cash scramble, with Reuters saying Nvidia is nearing a $30 billion commitment to OpenAI—part of a fundraising effort that might top $100 billion. SoftBank and Amazon are expected to join in, according to Reuters, highlighting how the big chip, cloud, and model names are weaving themselves ever closer. (Reuters)
Amazon faces an immediate question: how will policy changes ripple through demand and pricing, particularly in segments dependent on imported stock? If input costs drop, the impact can be quick, but it doesn’t always land where Wall Street guesses—sometimes margins get a lift, other times it’s the volume that moves.
The stock keeps running into the broader AI question: is all this investment actually showing up as revenue, and will customers keep shelling out for more capacity? Lately, traders haven’t needed much to start marking the group down—or up.
Still, tariffs aren’t the only issue ahead. Amazon remains exposed to legal risks beyond market moves. This week, the Washington Supreme Court said lawsuits could go forward against the company—families are seeking damages over deaths tied to sodium nitrite sold by third-party vendors on Amazon’s site. Amazon said it disagreed with the ruling. (Reuters)
Nvidia’s earnings land Wednesday (Feb. 25), drawing a sharp focus from investors looking for signs that heavy AI outlays are delivering. Amazon stock could react, too, hinging on Nvidia’s numbers and whatever emerges on trade policy or inflation as U.S. markets reopen Monday. (Reuters)
