What's going on?

Amazon announced weaker-than-expected quarterly earnings late on Thursday, and the tech giant�s stock fell 5% as the pandemic continues to weigh on the little guys the hardest.

What does this mean?

Amazon�s ecommerce business has done seriously well from the rise of stay-at-home shopping, but that momentum was only ever going to stumble when stores reopened. And right on cue, the segment�s revenue only grew 16% last quarter compared to the same period in 2020 � a significant slowdown from the 44% of the quarter before. On the plus side, at least the working-from-home trend is still going strong despite the loosening of restrictions. That suits Amazon�s cloud computing segment � whose sales grew by a better-than-expected 37% last quarter � just fine.

Why should I care?

For markets: If it�s not one thing, it�s another.
In-flux lockdown restrictions are having the most significant impact on Amazon�s share price right now, but something else entirely could be driving its stock before too long. Speculation is rife that Amazon will start accepting bitcoin as a payment method as soon as next year. And if it does, its stock price might start to correlate with the OG crypto�s price � just like it did with Tesla’s.

Zooming out: Is Robinhood a steal?
The arrival of a big-hitter like Amazon onto the crypto market could also drive up trading volumes, which would be good news for commission-free trading apps like Robinhood. And it could certainly do with some: the company made its stock market debut on Thursday at $38 a share � the low end of what it had hoped for. That “only” valued the entire company at $33 billion, and its shareholders � many of whom were customers � were disappointed: Robinhood�s stock fell 8% on its first day of trading.