Amazon Stock After Hours on December 9, 2025: AI Capex, New Price Targets and What to Watch Before the December 10 Open

Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) heads into Wednesday’s U.S. session in a relatively calm spot on the chart — but with a lot going on under the surface in AI, quantum, and Wall Street forecasts.

Here’s a detailed look at how Amazon stock traded on December 9, what happened after the bell, and the key things traders and investors should know before the market opens on December 10, 2025.

Amazon Stock After Hours on December 9, 2025

Regular session

Close (Dec 9): About $227.9 per share, up roughly 0.45% versus Monday’s close around $226.9. TechStock²+1
Intraday range: Roughly $225.11 – $228.57, a fairly typical 1–2% swing for AMZN. TechStock²
Among the “big four” tech names (Apple, Amazon, Meta, Microsoft), Amazon was the relative winner, finishing modestly green while the broader market ended mixed ahead of Wednesday’s Federal Reserve decision. TechStock²+1

A Big Tech closing-bell recap from TS2.tech notes that Amazon’s small gain reflected selective dip-buying, not a full-blown rerating, with traders leaning into AMZN after a choppy stretch. TechStock²

After-hours trading

Yahoo Finance data show Amazon at $227.92 at the 4:00 p.m. EST close, then ticking slightly lower to about $227.87 in early after‑hours trade — a move of roughly –0.02%, essentially flat. ^[1]
After-hours activity was relatively quiet, with no major company‑specific headline hitting right after the bell.

In other words, December 9 ended with AMZN steady in the high‑$220s, shrugging off broad‑market jitters as investors waited for the Fed.

How Amazon Traded on December 9 vs. the Broader Market

The macro backdrop matters here, because Amazon is still treated as a long‑duration growth/AI name whose valuation is sensitive to interest rates.

On December 9, the Dow fell about 0.4%, the S&P 500 slipped 0.1%, while the Nasdaq edged up 0.1% — a mixed tape on the eve of the Fed’s rate decision. ^[2]
Markets are pricing in roughly an 87% chance that the Fed will cut its key rate by 0.25 percentage points at Wednesday’s meeting, with the policy rate expected to move into a 3.5%–3.75% range. ^[3]
The October JOLTS report came in hotter than expected at 7.67 million job openings, pushing the 10‑year U.S. Treasury yield up toward ~4.19%. ^[4]

Despite that push in yields, AMZN:

Outperformed the S&P 500 and the Dow on the day. TechStock²+1
Remains only low single‑digits positive year to date (around 3–4% depending on the exact cut of data) and only slightly higher over the past 12 months, even after hitting a new all‑time high in early November. ^[5]

That combination — muted recent returns but very strong fundamentals — is exactly what many of today’s research notes and forecasts are focusing on.

The Big Story: AI Capex, AWS Momentum and Quantum Bets

Two fresh deep‑dive pieces out on December 9 help explain why Amazon sits at the center of the AI infrastructure trade.

Q3 2025 and the AI infrastructure super‑cycle

TS2.tech’s dedicated Amazon stock update and a new Barchart column both emphasize the same core picture from Q3 2025: TechStock²+2Barchart.com+2

Net sales: About $180.2 billion, up 12–13% year over year.
- North America: ~$106.3B, +11%.
- International: ~$40.9B, +10–14% (depending on FX basis).
- AWS: Roughly $33B, growing about 20% year over year, one of its strongest quarters in nearly three years.
Net income: Around $21.2B, boosted in part by gains on Amazon’s stake in Anthropic. TechStock²+1
Operating income: About $17.4B, held back by:
- A roughly $2.5B FTC legal settlement charge.
- Around $1.8B in severance from ongoing layoffs and restructuring. TechStock²
Cash flow:
- Trailing‑12‑month operating cash flow: ~$130.7B, up 16%.
- Trailing‑12‑month free cash flow: down to ~$14.8B from nearly $48B, as Amazon has embarked on a historic AI and data‑center capex cycle, increasing property and equipment purchases by over $50B year over year. TechStock²+1

Both analyses underline the same theme: Amazon is deliberately sacrificing near‑term free cash flow to build out AI and cloud infrastructure at hyperscale.

Trainium, Project Rainier and the AWS AI stack

Recent commentary from TS2.tech, Barchart, and others highlights several specific AI initiatives that matter for the stock: TechStock²+2Barchart.com+2

Trainium 3: Amazon’s new AI training chip, touted as roughly 4× faster than the prior generation and capable of cutting training costs by up to 50% for some workloads.
Roadmap toward Trainium 4: Expected to use Nvidia’s NVLink Fusion to more tightly integrate Amazon’s custom silicon with Nvidia GPUs.
Project Rainier: A flagship AI cluster built around nearly 500,000 Trainium2 chips for Anthropic’s Claude models — often cited as proof Amazon is building full‑stack AI infrastructure, not just chips.
AWS capacity build‑out:
- Amazon has added more than 3.8 gigawatts of AWS power capacity in the past 12 months and expects capacity to roughly double again by 2027. TechStock²+1

Analysts at firms like Oppenheimer see this capacity expansion as a key driver of future upside, modeling AWS revenue growth that could approach the mid‑30% range by 2026 and supporting price targets north of $300. TechStock²+1

Quantum computing: AWS’s Ocelot chip

A new Zacks Analyst Blog published via Nasdaq places Amazon alongside IBM and Google as a major player in quantum computing, highlighting: ^[6]

AWS’s first quantum chip, “Ocelot,” designed to cut error‑correction overhead by up to 90%, potentially accelerating the path to practical quantum systems.
A broader narrative where hyperscalers — including Amazon — are building quantum capacity into their cloud stacks, with 2026 and beyond seen as key commercialization windows.

While quantum is early‑stage and high‑risk, it reinforces the idea that Amazon isn’t just an e‑commerce/ads story; it’s positioning AWS as a long‑term compute and AI platform, from GPUs and custom silicon to quantum.

Wall Street’s Latest Forecasts for Amazon Stock

Consensus remains bullish – with eye‑popping upside scenarios

Across multiple aggregators, Amazon still carries a broadly bullish rating:

MarketBeat:
- Around 60 analysts tracked.
- Consensus: “Moderate Buy”, with 57 Buy / 3 Hold and no Sell ratings.
- Average 12‑month target: ~$296–$297, implying roughly 25–30% upside from the high‑$220s. TechStock²+2MarketBeat+2
24/7 Wall St. (Dec 8):
- Median target: $295.63, with a range from $250 (low) to $340 (high) and 43 of 44 analysts rating AMZN a Buy. ^[7]
Barchart (Dec 9 column):
- Wall Street average target: about $269.14, implying ~30% upside from recent levels.
- Highest target: $360, and the author argues AMZN could overshoot even that and hit $400 by 2026 if AI and AWS growth remain strong. ^[8]

A more cautious note: Desjardins’ $218 target

One notable outlier on December 9 is a fresh report from Desjardins, which: ^[9]

Raised its AMZN price target to $218, but that still implies about 3.9% downside from current levels.
Comes against a backdrop where other brokers have targets up to $300+, and where MarketBeat’s consensus sits just under $295.5.

Desjardins is essentially saying: great company, but the stock might be slightly ahead of itself in the very near term, especially given the scale of AI capex and macro uncertainty.

Technical outlook: near‑term caution despite bullish long‑term story

A technical model from StockInvest.us, updated after Monday’s close on December 8, labels AMZN a short‑term “sell candidate”, pointing to: ^[10]

A wide but weakly rising short‑term trend.
Support around $222.86 and resistance near $231.48, with typical daily volatility around 2%.
A view that the stock could perform “weakly” over the next days or weeks, even though the broader trend is still upward.

With Tuesday’s close back near $228, AMZN is now sitting closer to resistance than to that key volume support — something traders will be watching closely into the Fed decision.

Options, Flows and Ownership: What Big Money Did on December 9

Options “frenzy”: big bets on wide future ranges

Benzinga’s “Amazon.com’s Options Frenzy” piece, published early afternoon on December 9, flagged unusually active options flow in AMZN: ^[11]

76 large options trades detected in recent history.
Rough sentiment: 43% bullish vs 48% bearish, showing no clear directional consensus among whales.
Notable trades included:
- A bearish call trade worth about $2.2M at the $300 strike expiring in December 2027.
- Another bearish call trade for March 2026 at the $180 strike.
- Several large put trades around the $180–$220 area.
The underlying share price at the time was around $227.7, up ~0.36% on the session, with volume over 11M shares and the RSI approaching oversold territory.

Takeaway: Big, sophisticated traders are positioning for sizable moves in both directions over the next 1–2 years, with strikes clustered from $180 up to $300+.

Institutions vs. insiders

MarketBeat’s December 9 filings recap shows a split picture in flows: ^[12]

TD Waterhouse Canada
- Boosted its AMZN stake by 3.2% in Q2 to over 1.08M shares, worth about $240M, making Amazon its 9th‑largest holding (~1.7% of its portfolio).
Thrivent Financial for Lutherans
- Cut its position by 87%, selling nearly 1.9M shares and retaining about 284k shares (~$62M), now its 20th‑largest holding.
Overall, institutional investors hold about 72% of Amazon’s float, while insiders own roughly 10.8%.
Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold about 82,000 shares worth roughly $19M, including sales by senior executives and directors.

These flows suggest institutions remain heavily invested but are actively rebalancing, while insiders are doing some profit‑taking after a strong multi‑year run.

Macro Backdrop Heading Into December 10: Why It Matters for AMZN

The single biggest macro event for Amazon stock before Wednesday’s open and into the close is the Federal Reserve’s rate decision:

Markets are assigning nearly 90% odds to a 25 bp rate cut, and investors will be laser‑focused not just on the move but on:
- The “dot plot” of future rate expectations.
- Any language about inflation, labor markets and growth. ^[13]
Higher or lower Treasury yields can meaningfully shift valuation multiples for long-duration growth stocks like Amazon, especially given its 30x-ish forward P/E. TechStock²+1

If the Fed sounds dovish and hints at multiple cuts in 2026, high‑multiple AI and cloud leaders (Amazon included) usually benefit. A more hawkish tone or fewer future cuts could pressure richly valued tech names.

Pre‑Market Snapshot for December 10, 2025

Early Wednesday pre‑market data (subject to rapid change) show AMZN starting the day with a mild upward bias:

Premarket VWAP: Amazon last traded around $230.38 in pre‑market hours, with roughly 539k shares changing hands — notably below its average pre‑market volume of about 1.4M shares over the last month. ^[14]

That level is roughly 1–1.5% above Tuesday’s close, suggesting cautious optimism ahead of the Fed decision and after a steady Tuesday session.

Prediction markets are also weighing in: a Polymarket contract is currently asking whether AMZN will finish Wednesday up or down versus Tuesday’s close, emphasizing how binary the Fed reaction could be for the stock. ^[15]

Key Levels and Themes to Watch Before the Bell on December 10

1. Price levels and volatility

Immediate support: Around $222–223, where accumulated volume and technical models suggest buyers may step in. ^[16]
Near‑term resistance: Around $231–233, roughly matching recent swing highs and technical resistance. ^[17]
Typical daily move: Roughly 2–3% based on recent average true range and volatility. ^[18]

With pre‑market quotes near $230, AMZN is already testing the lower end of that resistance zone, setting up a potential break higher if the Fed gives risk assets a green light — or a rejection if sentiment sours.

2. Fed tone and yields

For Wednesday specifically, Amazon traders will be watching:

The headline rate decision (likely a 25 bp cut).
Whether Powell emphasizes data dependence vs. a clearer easing path into 2026.
The 10‑year yield’s reaction — a move back down toward or below 4% would usually be supportive for high‑growth tech. ^[19]

3. AI, capex and free cash flow debate

Expect renewed focus on these talking points, which today’s research flow has hammered repeatedly: TechStock²+2Barchart.com+2

Is Amazon over‑spending on AI infrastructure, or is this the rational move in a winner‑take‑most cloud market?
How quickly can AWS and AI‑driven services translate into higher margins and accelerating EPS, given capex of $90B+ in 2025 and guidance toward $125B+?
Does the drop in free cash flow (to around $14.8B TTM) worry investors, or is it tolerated as long as AWS growth remains near 20%+?

4. Short‑term sentiment vs. long‑term thesis

Right now, the split looks something like:

Near‑term caution:
- Technical models flashing short‑term sell signals. ^[20]
- Options data showing slightly more bearish than bullish flows from big money, with notable hedges at higher strikes. ^[21]
- A new $218 target from Desjardins implying modest downside. ^[22]
Long‑term optimism:
- Street‑high targets around $360 and independent scenarios pointing to $400 by 2026 if AI and AWS execution remain strong. ^[23]
- Consensus 12‑month targets clustering in the $280–$300 range. TechStock²+224/7 Wall St.+2

What It All Means for Amazon Stock on December 10

Putting the pieces together, here’s the practical bottom line going into Wednesday’s open:

Price action is calm, not euphoric.
After a +0.45% day and essentially flat after‑hours session, AMZN is holding the high‑$220s / low‑$230s without big drama. TechStock²+2Yahoo Finance+2
The fundamental story is still dominated by AI and AWS.
Q3 showed 20% AWS growth, powerful advertising momentum, and a willingness to spend huge sums on chips, data centers and logistics — with the payoff expected over multiple years, not quarters. TechStock²+2Barchart.com+2
Wall Street still sees significant upside… eventually.
Most analysts remain firmly in the Buy / Strong Buy camp with mid‑to‑high‑$200s targets, and a handful of bullish scenarios arguing for $360–$400 over the next 12–18 months if AI infrastructure bets pay off. MarketBeat+3TechStock²+3Barchart.com+3
Near term, the Fed and technicals may drive the tape more than new Amazon headlines.
Wednesday’s rate decision, yield moves and any shift in risk appetite could matter more for that day’s AMZN move than incremental AI or retail news.
Risk/reward into the open:
- Upside scenario: A dovish Fed cut plus risk‑on sentiment could push AMZN through the $231–$233 resistance zone, opening a path toward the mid‑$230s or higher.
- Downside scenario: A hawkish tone or risk‑off reaction could send the stock back toward $223 support or even re‑test the low‑$220s.
- Volatility: Options flow and ATR suggest 2–3% intraday swings are very much on the table.