On Friday, Amazon.com Inc (NASDAQ:AMZN)’s shares fell about 13 per cent in premarket trading. The US-based online retailer came close to losing its place in the trillion-dollar company club after forecasting holiday-quarter sales well below Wall Street estimates. Amazon’s shares, down 12.8 per cent at USD 96.77, are trading at their lowest since March 2020.

Reportedly, the dour outlook worsened this week’s tech selloff amid suspicions of a looming recession, weighing on shares of Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL), Meta Platforms Inc, and Microsoft Corp (NASDAQ:MSFT).

However, Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL) shone brightly amid a crowd of dimming lights in the Big Tech space. The iPhone maker expects holiday-quarter revenue to grow by under 8 per cent, compared with estimates of 3 per cent.

Many view the mega-cap companies as bellwethers for how corporate US is faring during a year in which inflation has jumped, pushing the US Federal Reserve to bring a series of rate hikes that have bruised markets.

Analysts fear that macroeconomic factors, including a strong dollar, are likely to continue to hit the online retailer in the near term. However, over a longer period, the retailer should be able to bounce back.