Amazon shares declined after the company issued a lower-than-expected sales forecast for the Christmas holiday period.

What it means

Amazon reported third-quarter 2026 earnings that missed Wall Street estimates on both revenue ($201.9bn) and net income ($20.7bn), then guided fourth-quarter holiday sales to $240bn–$247bn, or 12–16% growth — a Christmas forecast below what investors had hoped. Shares fell more than 4–6% in after-hours trading as the soft holiday outlook collided with heavy AI infrastructure spending and rising cash burn, even though AWS cloud growth remained strong.

Accuracy & sourcesGrounded

This is a solid claim: it directly summarizes Amazon's formal Q3 2026 earnings release and investor guidance, with the Financial Times and other reputable outlets reporting consistent figures. The main variation across reports is the exact size of the after-hours share decline, not the substance of the forecast miss.

How new

Genuinely new: the earnings report and share reaction occurred on 29–30 October 2026 and are being covered as a current story; no recirculation year is indicated.

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