Why Amazon (AMZN) Shares Are Falling Today

What Happened?

Shares of cloud computing and online retail behemoth Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) fell 4.5% in the morning session after German regulators ordered the company to stop imposing price controls on its marketplace in the country and to hand over approximately $70 million in alleged unfair gains. 

Germany's Federal Cartel Office prohibited Amazon from setting price caps for third-party retailers, stating the company's methods were "based on non-transparent rules." The watchdog added that it was not clear to sellers how these price limits were determined. This negative regulatory news arrived as the company was scheduled to report its fourth-quarter results, adding to investor unease. Concerns were already present regarding Amazon's rising capital expenditures, which surged in 2025, largely driven by investments in data centers and AI infrastructure.

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What Is The Market Telling Us

Amazon’s shares are not very volatile and have only had 6 moves greater than 5% over the last year. In that context, today’s move indicates the market considers this news meaningful, although it might not be something that would fundamentally change its perception of the business.

The previous big move we wrote about was 16 days ago when the stock dropped 2.2% on the news that the U.S. announced potential tariffs on several European countries. 

The sell-off was a reaction to news that the White House planned to impose a 10% tariff on imports from eight European nations, including France, Germany, and the United Kingdom, starting February 1. Reports indicated the tariffs were intended to pressure Denmark over the potential sale of Greenland to the U.S. and could rise to 25% if a deal was not reached. The announcement caused a significant downturn in U.S. stocks, with the S&P 500 and Dow Jones falling more than 1.4% as investors returned from a holiday weekend and reacted to the heightened trade uncertainty. The downturn was further exacerbated by a spike in Treasury yields. Higher rates particularly hurt growth stocks such as tech names since investors must discount financials further out in the future back to the present.

Amazon is flat since the beginning of the year, and at $224.87 per share, it is trading 11.5% below its 52-week high of $254 from November 2025. Investors who bought $1,000 worth of Amazon’s shares 5 years ago would now be looking at an investment worth $1,342.

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