New York, Feb 2, 2026, 18:15 EST — After-hours
Shares of Amazon.com Inc climbed 1.5% in after-hours trading Monday, reaching $242.96. The move extended gains from the regular session as investors turned their attention to the company’s upcoming quarterly earnings report later this week.
This report matters now because it offers insight into two drivers behind U.S. tech’s recent moves: cloud demand and AI costs. Amazon’s results often act as an informal gauge for corporate IT budgets and the health of consumer spending on discretionary goods.
Investors are keeping an eye on capital spending, or “capex,” which covers the cash companies invest in data centers, chips, and other durable equipment. This follows sharp moves in megacap tech stocks tied to guidance and spending updates.
The wider market set a positive tone. The S&P 500 gained 0.54% on Monday, nearing its record high, with Alphabet and Amazon rising as investors shifted back into big tech, according to market data. “The fundamentals are good and earnings are strong,” said Tim Ghriskey, senior portfolio strategist at Ingalls & Snyder. Reuters
Amazon Web Services expanded its SageMaker JumpStart catalog with new AI models like DeepSeek OCR, MiniMax M2.1, and Qwen3-VL-8B-Instruct. The move reflects growing demand for plug-and-play tools that spare customers the hassle of training models from scratch.
A fresh workforce alert emerged from Washington. A WARN notice lodged with state officials reveals Amazon is set to cut 2,198 jobs starting April 28 and continuing through June, a report based on the filing said.
Amazon’s satellite broadband project has asked the Federal Communications Commission for an extension to meet an interim low-Earth orbit deployment milestone, throwing its timeline into fresh doubt. Satellite analyst Tim Farrar noted in a post on X that the request should “quiet any questions” about the program’s future but added it requires a more advanced design to rival SpaceX’s Starlink. Broadband Breakfast
Still, the immediate risk lies in the upcoming earnings report. Any slip in cloud revenue, a weaker forecast, or a further jump in capital spending could unsettle a market that swiftly penalizes costly surprises in big tech.
Amazon’s upcoming earnings report on Feb. 5 will be the next major catalyst. Investors will focus closely on AWS performance, the pace of advertising growth, and any updates to the company’s guidance.
