NEW YORK, July 9, 2026, 08:03 EDT
Amazon.com stock was on track to open lower Thursday, with investors watching a new $25 billion bond sale and the company’s big spending on artificial intelligence infrastructure. Shares finished Wednesday down 1.0% at $243.62 and traded at $240.91 premarket just before 8 a.m. EDT.
Timing is key here. U.S. cash trading was still closed, with the NYSE’s main session starting at 9:30 a.m. Eastern and running until 4 p.m. But focus on Amazon’s borrowing has shifted early from a finance story to something traders are talking about. July 9 isn’t on the 2026 NYSE holiday calendar. The July 4 holiday was observed on July 3.
Amazon said Tuesday it plans to sell $25 billion in U.S. dollar bonds, using fixed and floating rate notes that come due between 2029 and 2066. A spokesperson for Amazon said the money will go toward general corporate uses, like capital spending and debt coming due.
This is what’s driving the trade right now: people are sticking with AWS, ads and Prime-fueled retail, but AI costs are starting to weigh on free cash flow and debt markets. Amazon isn’t the only one. Amazon, Alphabet, Microsoft and Meta together could spend over $700 billion on AI this year, Reuters said.
Bond spreads pushed out for some AI names after Amazon sold new bonds, with investors asking for more yield to take on extra risk and all the new supply. The Wall Street Journal said Amazon’s 5.8% notes due 2036 saw their spread jump to 0.70 percentage point from 0.63 the day before.
John Lloyd, global head of multisector credit at Janus Henderson, said he doesn’t see things as that bleak. “Most of the weakness in hyperscaler bonds today reflects investors raising cash to participate in Amazon’s new issue, not a change in the underlying credit story,” Lloyd told MarketWatch. MarketWatch
Some were more cautious. Vishal Khanduja, who runs broad markets fixed income at Morgan Stanley, told Bloomberg TV that “credit risk is too undervalued,” Business Insider reported. He also called Amazon’s planned $25 billion bond offering a surprise, saying most investors thought the company had finished borrowing for the year. Business Insider
Amazon still has a growth story backing the stock. In April, the company posted Q1 revenue up 17% to $181.5 billion. AWS sales climbed 28% to $37.6 billion. Free cash flow dropped to $1.2 billion over the last year. That was mainly due to property and equipment buys jumping by $59.3 billion, mostly for AI. “AWS is growing 28%,” CEO Andy Jassy said at the time—its fastest rate in 15 quarters. SEC
Analysts are still bullish on the stock. According to S&P Global Market Intelligence data on StockAnalysis.com, 66 analysts hold a “Strong Buy” consensus, with an average one-year target price of $312.91. On July 8, Needham’s Laura Martin kept her $300 price target, and Goldman Sachs’ Eric Sheridan raised his target to $335 from $325. StockAnalysis
Stocks saw a split session in tech. The Nasdaq edged up 0.20% to 25,870.65 Wednesday, as the Dow slipped 1.09%. Philadelphia chip stocks were up 2.23%, giving AI names a boost even as bond yields climbed. Brent crude surged too, after concerns over U.S.-Iran tensions.
Amazon could end up spending before investors get paid back. If AWS demand actually boosts revenue by filling up all that contracted capacity, the debt could just be a temporary move as cloud sales grow. But if AI demand drops off, rates move up, or spreads keep moving wider, the new borrowing could stoke more worry over free cash flow and add pressure to a stock that’s already below where analysts had it.
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