Amazon shares fell for the sixth day in a row as investors worried about a sharp downturn in business in the last three months of the year.
The stock closed 4.82% again last night in New York, bringing losses since last Wednesday to 23%.
The rout wiped £250bn from the US tech giant’s value and more than £24bn from the fortune of founder and biggest shareholder Jeff Bezos.
Smurfit Kappa, which makes boxes and packaging for Unilever and Nestle, said volumes fell 3% in the three months to the end of September.
Amazon shares are now at their lowest level since the first Covid lockdown and the company is once again valued at less than $1trillion (£870bn). At its peak last year, it was worth almost double.
Tech stocks have been hammered this year as soaring inflation, rising interest rates and a darkening outlook for the global economy have challenged their exorbitant valuations.
Amazon’s selloff accelerated last week when it warned that sales in the crucial final quarter, which includes Christmas, would be well below expectations, but still at a whopping £121bn to £128bn sterling. He also said profit over the period could fall to zero from £12bn a year earlier.
As the Federal Reserve raised US interest rates again last night, by 0.75 percentage points, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 1.55%, the S&P 500 2.5% and the Nasdaq of 3.36%.
Back in London, the FTSE 100 fell 0.6%, or 42.02 points, to 7144.14 and the FTSE 250 gained 0.1%, or 21.85 points, to 18217.75.
And shares of paper and packaging companies took a hit after Smurfit Kappa warned of a slowdown in demand over the summer.
The FTSE 100 company, which makes boxes and packaging for Unilever and Nestle, said volumes fell 3% in the three months to the end of September. He blamed inflation, the war in Ukraine and changing consumer demand.
Stock Watch – Allied Spirits
Investors in Allied Minds have voted to delist the group from its shares in the London Stock Exchange.
The intellectual property investor, who was once backed by fund manager Neil Woodford, said he would cancel the shares on November 30.
“We believe this is the right step as we seek to realize value from the remaining portfolio of investments,” said interim chairman Bruce Failing.
The shares, which floated at 190p in 2014, rose 1.17% or 0.1p to 8.65p.
The company compensated for some of the drop in demand with price increases of up to 3%. It was an otherwise strong set of group results with revenue up 33% to £8.34billion in the nine months to September, while profits climbed 43% to 1 £.54 billion.
Smurfit said its profit for the year is expected to be close to £2bn. But shares fell – with Smurfit Kappa down 2.3%, or 66p, to 2,833p, while Mondi fell 1.35%, or 20p, to 1,459p and DS Smith fell 1.9%, or 5.5p, at 286.40p.
British American Tobacco, the maker of Pall Mall cigarettes, fell 5.51%, or 191p, to 3,274p after Goldman Sachs downgraded its rating to ‘neutral’ from ‘buy’ and cut the target price to 3,800p from 4,050p .
Metro Bank shares rose 13.46%, or 9.80p, to 82.60p after it said it returned to profit in September and saw no borrowers struggling with repayments in the midst of the cost of living crisis.
Weir Group edged up 1.79%, or 28.50p, to 1620.50p after announcing it remained on track to increase revenue and profit for the year. The Glasgow-based engineering firm said its orders rose 19% in the three months to September.
Meanwhile Foxtons, the estate agent, rose 3.33%, or 1p, to 31p after launching a share buyback program worth up to £3million.
While economic turmoil and rising inflation have been ‘difficult’ for Morgan Sindall, the construction group said its ‘heavy, high-quality workload’ meant it was on track to meet expectations to. Orders rose 3% to £8.8bn at the end of September.
But shares fell 4.06%, or 64p, to 1514p after Peel Hunt cut the company’s target price to 2200p.
At Hiscox, insurer Lloyd’s of London gained 5.92%, or 53.20p, to 951.60p after its Re & ILS business saw written premiums top $1bn on favorable market conditions.
Across Hiscox, premiums written rose 6.3% to £3.2bn in the nine months to September.
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