  this used to be the busiest time of the year for amazon due to all of the holiday shopping however amazon recently stock dropped with wilting expectations for the remainder of the year   amazon stock closed 4220 ytd november 14 and amazon web services aws remains the most profitable division for the company   even though amazons revenue grew 15 in the third quarter there are concerns that profits could be at zero for the fourth quarter due to the recession fears impacting consumer spending the ecommerce giant had become the onestop shop for all of our purchases from groceries to christmas gifts however there are concerns this year that amazon won’t be as profitable during the holiday season as they have been in the past due to inflation and fears of a pending 2023 recession the current macroeconomic factors are compounded by increased competition as walmart has launched its own delivery service and inperson shopping has returned again we will take a preholiday deep dive into the amazon stock to see what’s in store amazon recently released its earnings report for the third quarter here are some of the key highlights from amazon’s thirdquarter financial results   net income decreased to 29 billion or 028 per share   there are concerns that the profits for the fourth quarter will be 0   amazon’s expenses rose about 18 to 1246 billion making this the fifth consecutive quarter where expenses increased quicker than revenue   amazon stock dropped as much as 14 in afterhours trading after they admitted that they were expecting lighter holiday sales despite reporting mostly positive financial results the stock price dropped due to a gloomy outlook for the rest of the year due to macroeconomic factors that are impacting consumer spending with the holiday season approaching here’s what you can expect from amazon amazon prime is often used for fast and free shipping but many subscribers enjoy the other benefits amazon just announced that they would increasing the amount of content available on the amazon music platform by adding about 98 million adfree songs earlier last year amazon stated that the prime service had 200 million users worldwide this service was growing rapidly until new competitors stepped way up many consumers are now switching over to walmart for online shopping it’s estimated that walmart has around 11 million members with many online shoppers switching to this valuecentric competitor the service has only been around since september of 2020 but many folks have already switched over chris cracchiolo the general manager of walmart stated that the service attracted many budgetconscious shoppers with about a quarter of the membership receiving some sort of government assistance there’s also the increased competition coming with the return of inperson shopping as folks are no longer restricted from going out for their shopping needs amazon announced that they would be rolling out a venmo payment option in the us by black friday this amazon and venmo partnership could be a significant deal if many folks decide to start using the ecommerce platform now that they can use their venmo accounts instead of a credit card we will continue to monitor this partnership to measure its effect should you invest in amazon amazon’s stock price closed at 8998 on november 8 which means that the price is down about 47 for the year and has dropped sharply from its alltime high of 17535 in late 2021 amazon hit the stock market with a share price of 18 in 1997 so the company is definitely an enticing buy for those who have been looking to invest in technology while amazon stock has dropped it’s worth mentioning how the entire market has taken a hit in 2022 however there are concerns that amazon stock has peaked there are a few factors that you should consider before investing in amazon right now aws is the only profitable division at amazon since the cloudcomputing platform is used by major companies like netflix and verizon for hosting its services there’s a chance you use a service in your everyday life that’s run on the aws platform aws’s services are acquired when companies sign financial deals with amazon payments being made over the lifetime of the contract according to amazon they currently have 1043 billion in future contract revenue to collect from this sector since aws has brought in net sales of 587 billion in the first three quarters of 2022 alone it looks like the company will continue to rely on this profitable division that said awss growth has slowed down slightly lately despite remaining profitable the growth rate fell as there are fears that enterprise customers are going to slow down investment as consumer spending decreases while aws brought in a profit of 54 billion analysts were expecting a 31 yearoveryear growth in this sector as we’ve covered extensively in other articles the current macroeconomic environment impacts almost every industry with soaring inflation and persistent rate hikes the market has plenty of uncertainty amazon is especially sensitive to inflationary pressures and the return of inperson shopping since pandemic restrictions have been loosened over the past year you can’t ignore the role of high inflation on consumer spending will folks continue to spend money on discretionary purchases this is something that we’re going to have to continue paying attention to to make matters worse amazon is also impacted by rising fuel costs which are increasing the expenses associated with transportation and warehouses the company has to initiate costcutting measures to combat decreased consumer spending they had to delay warehouse openings freeze hiring and shut down experimental projects in addition changes to foreign exchange rates with the strengthening of the us dollar impacted sales in other countries they apparently had a revenue reduction of about 5 billion due to this issue alone there’s no telling how this will change in the coming quarter as the foreign exchange rates have fluctuated lately while we don’t know for sure how consumer shopping will respond this holiday season because we still havent officially entered a recession amazon confessed that the holiday sales forecast wasn’t looking good the company predicted that revenue would be between 140 to 148 billion in the final quarter well below the original analyst estimate of 156 billion even worse it’s feared that profits could be at zero due to the rising expenses in other sectors shares dropped about 14 in the afterhours trading after amazon adjusted expectations that holiday sales would be light many independent retailers on amazon are also bracing for a slower holiday period than usual how should you be investing as you can imagine right now is a difficult time to decide which individual companies to invest in as the market volatility shows no signs of stopping as the world continues to deal with the fears of a pending recession there are fears that companies will report much lower earnings than reported which will lead to even more stock market selloffs if you still want to invest during times of high inflation and overall market uncertainty you may want to take a look at qai’s inflation kit to protect your investments you can activate portfolio protection anytime to help protect your gains and reduce your losses no matter what industries you invest in while amazon is synonymous with online shopping right now may not be the ideal time to invest in amazon stock due to all of the economic uncertainty the amazon stock price is reaching surprisingly low levels despite increasing revenue in q3 these fears of lighter holiday spending could cause the stock to stumble further as investor confidence wanes