Amazon Earnings Fuel AI Trade Surge, But Apple Slumps on Guidance

US stock futures rose on Friday morning as Amazon's earnings report beat expectations, rekindling investor enthusiasm for artificial intelligence-driven equities. The tech giant's shares surged over 11% in premarket trading after it reported strong growth in its AWS cloud business and robust advertising revenue.

The company's management expressed confidence that AI infrastructure demand will remain supply-constrained through at least 2027, fuelling optimism among investors about the sector's prospects. This sentiment was echoed by similarly upbeat earnings reports from Microsoft and Meta earlier in the week, which highlighted the growing importance of AI spending for companies.

However, not all tech stocks fared well. Apple shares plummeted over 7% after it issued softer-than-expected forward guidance, citing weaker services revenue and supply constraints. This disappointment was echoed by a bearish shift in sentiment on Stocktwits, although some traders argued that the selloff may be overdone.

Chip stocks, on the other hand, continued their recent rally, with companies such as SanDisk, Micron, AMD, Nvidia, and ASML all gaining ground. This surge was driven by Amazon's AI commentary and a rebound in the South Korean market. Notably, investor Michael Burry has taken a contrarian view, increasing his bearish bets against Nvidia, Micron, and the semiconductor ETF SOXX.