Shares of Amazon.com Inc. fell more than 2% Tuesday, tracking a broader pullback across major U.S. stock indexes as Wall Street opened September on a cautious note amid renewed fighting in the Strait of Hormuz and rising Treasury yields.
Amazon stock traded at 254.38 dollars, down 5.39 dollars, or 2.07%, as of 10:29 a.m. Eastern time on the Nasdaq. The decline came alongside a broader retreat in equities Tuesday, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average, S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite all trading lower as investors weighed renewed geopolitical uncertainty, a continued climb in bond yields, and lingering questions about the Federal Reserve’s next policy move.
The renewed selling followed overnight developments in the Middle East, where two oil tankers, one Saudi-owned and one South Korean-owned, were struck by projectiles Monday night as the United States and Iran resumed hostilities in the Strait of Hormuz, extending a six-month war that has largely settled into what analysts have described as a stalemate. The 10-year Treasury yield climbed to 4.78% Tuesday, its highest intraday level since January 2025, according to Yahoo Finance, as elevated oil prices stoked inflation concerns and reinforced expectations of another possible Federal Reserve interest rate increase later this month.
Amazon’s decline Tuesday adds to a broader stretch of underperformance for the stock so far in 2026. Shares are down roughly 7% year to date, a steeper decline than most of its Magnificent Seven peers, trailing only Tesla, down about 16%, and Microsoft, down roughly 10%, among the group’s worst performers this year, according to an analysis published by Yahoo Finance. Amazon’s weaker performance has been attributed to a combination of factors, including the company losing cloud computing market share relative to rivals Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud, tariff pressure on its e-commerce operations, and investor unease over the scale of Amazon’s spending on artificial intelligence infrastructure.
That AI spending has remained a central point of tension for investors throughout the year. Amazon has set a 2026 capital expenditure budget of roughly 200 billion dollars, a record for the company and about 50% higher than the prior year, with the bulk of that spending directed toward AI infrastructure. Amazon Chief Executive Officer Andy Jassy has defended the scale of that investment, saying he expects the company to generate “strong long-term returns on invested capital” as a result of surging demand for its AI offerings, even as some investors have questioned whether the spending pace is outrunning the near-term returns the company has been able to demonstrate.
Despite the stock’s underperformance this year, some analysts have continued to argue the pullback represents an attractive entry point rather than a sign of deeper trouble. Amazon currently trades at roughly 29 times trailing earnings and 26 times forward earnings, according to Yahoo Finance, valuation levels close to the broader S&P 500 average despite Amazon’s position as a market leader in both e-commerce and cloud computing. Wedbush has separately argued the stock could still break out in 2026, citing continued strength in Amazon’s automation efforts, advertising business and an expected reacceleration at Amazon Web Services.
Wall Street’s overall consensus rating on Amazon has remained largely positive despite the stock’s struggles. Barchart reported in June that the average analyst price target on Amazon stood at 316.04 dollars, implying meaningful upside from the stock’s trading levels at the time, with a consensus “Strong Buy” rating attached to the shares.
Tuesday’s decline unfolded against a broader market backdrop investors have described as entering a historically difficult period. According to Carson Group chief market strategist Ryan Detrick, September is statistically the weakest month of the year for U.S. equities, a seasonal pattern that, combined with this week’s renewed geopolitical tensions and rising bond yields, has contributed to a more cautious tone across markets as trading resumed following the Labor Day holiday period.
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