Amazon edges almost 15% higher on investors' confidence

Overall tech stocks and music streaming companies jump on Friday after Meta's mega-rout on Thursday

Amazon's stocks traded at $3,160.5 a share on Friday. Reuters

Amazon, which boosted the confidence of investors by increasing its Prime membership fee, jumped by 13.8 per cent on Friday.

Shares of the e-commerce company were trading at $3,160.5 a share at market close on Friday and shares jumped almost 17 per cent in after-hours trading on Thursday after the company reported strong earnings on robust cloud revenue and gains from its Rivian stake.

The company’s net income in the fourth quarter of last year almost doubled to $14.3 billion as it gained almost $12bn from its investment in electric vehicle company Rivian.

“The Nasdaq was boosted after yesterday’s flawless Amazon earnings report,” said Edward Moya, senior market analyst for the Americas at Oanda.

“Amazon delivered strong eps [earnings per share] … reported a $12bn gain from their bet on Rivian and raised their annual Prime membership prices. Investors care about cloud growth and future profits and Amazon’s earnings report had all those boxes checked off,” Mr Moya added.

The US e-commerce company has increased the Prime membership rate to balance higher shipping costs and wages. It is raising the US monthly fee of Prime to $14.99 from $12.99, with annual membership increasing to $139 from $119, the company said.

Overall tech stocks and music streaming companies edged higher on Friday after the Meta rout on Thursday.

Snap, which owns social media platform Snapchat, soared almost 50 per cent to $39.1 a share at market close on Friday. It reported its first quarterly net income of $22.5 million during the October-December period and higher growth outlook on Thursday.

Abu Dhabi Global Market-headquartered Anghami, which listed on New York’s Nasdaq on Thursday, rose almost 25 per cent to more than $12.14 a share on Friday.

Anghami, the music streaming rival of Spotify in the Mena region, has become the first Arab technology company to be listed on Nasdaq. It has more than 75 million users in Europe, the US and the Mena region.

Stockholm-headquartered Spotify rose more than 7 per cent to $174.4.

Facebook’s parent company Meta dropped on Friday to trade at $237.09 a share.

The company’s stock dropped more than 25 per cent yesterday, wiping out more than $200bn in the biggest ever single-day market value erase for a US company. It led to the company’s billionaire chief executive and founder Mark Zuckerberg losing $29bn in his net worth in a single day.

California-based iPhone maker Apple ended at $172.39 per share while Google’s parent firm Alphabet ended at $2,865.86.

Industry analysts said it could be a “bumpy ride” for tech stocks in the coming days.

“It is going to continue to be a bumpy ride for the tech space, as we have seen this past month," Craig Erlam, senior market analyst at Oanda for the UK, Europe , Middle east and Asia, told The National.

"These periods of risk aversion have hit the sector hardest and with markets continuing to price in higher rates, that may be sustained for a little time yet,” Mr Erlam added.

Electric vehicle companies were up on Friday.

The world’s biggest EV maker Tesla was trading 2.3 per cent higher at $932.3 while Chinese EV manufacturer Nio rose 3 per cent to $23.9 a share.