Bezos' Amazon Share Sell-Off Cools Market Enthusiasm

Amazon's shares took a hit after the tech giant briefly crossed the $3 trillion market-cap threshold, closing more than 4.5% higher at a record price on August 3.

The slump came just hours later in overnight trading, with shares slipping about 1%, following a regulatory filing that revealed Amazon founder Jeff Bezos plans to sell 15 million shares valued at $4.07 billion under a Rule 10b5-1 trading plan.

This plan allows insiders to schedule the sale of a fixed number of shares at a set time, helping them avoid accusations of insider trading.

Bezos' planned sell-off is part of his efforts to divest some of his Amazon holdings, having already sold $13.4 billion worth of shares in 2024 and previously unloading about $50 billion in Amazon stock since 2002.