Amazon's remarkable comeback? An 18% rebound in eight days, second only to Google among the 'Magnificent Seven'

On April 9, $Amazon (AMZN.US)$ The stock price closed at $233.65, surging 5.60% in a single day. Even more striking is the strength of its rebound:Since the low on March 27, it has risen over 17% in just eight trading days, and its year-to-date return has turned positive. Among the 'Magnificent Seven' US stocks, its performance ranks second only to $Alphabet-A (GOOGL.US)$。

This contrasts sharply with the situation two months ago:In February 2026, Amazon's stock plummeted 12% in a single month, marking its worst monthly performance since December 2022. At the time, the market was shocked by a massive $200 billion capital expenditure plan for 2026, raising concerns that its free cash flow would turn negative.However, as business developments have become clearer, the market’s pessimism is being quickly revised.

AI Transformed from a 'Cash-Burning Black Hole' to a 'Growth Engine,' Shareholder Letter Resets Expectations

Just two months ago, the mainstream narrative about Amazon was filled with concern. The earnings report released in February 2026 showed that the company planned to invest up to $200 billion in capital expenditures, mainly for AWS infrastructure and AI development. This figure far exceeded market expectations, causing expectations for free cash flow (FCF) to turn negative and putting pressure on the stock price. Investors feared that Amazon was falling into the trap of 'burning money for growth,' questioning whether such massive investments could yield corresponding returns.

On April 9, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy released the annual shareholder letter. The most stunning data in the letter was the revenue scale of AWS's artificial intelligence business. Jassy disclosed thatIn the first quarter of 2026, AWS's AI business had an annualized revenue run rate exceeding $15 billion.。

The previous high-end consensus market expectation was only $10 billion, indicating that AWS’s monetization speed in AI model training, inference, and related infrastructure services far surpassed analysts’ models. The business is in a high-growth channel, becoming the core engine driving AWS’s overall reacceleration. Multiple institutions previously predicted that AWS’s growth rate would rebound to around 30% in 2026, and this $15 billion annualized figure validates this 'reacceleration' logic.

In addition, the shareholder letter disclosed that the annualized revenue run rate of Amazon's chip business (Trainium, Inferentia series) has exceeded $20 billion, with a staggering year-over-year growth rate in the triple digits.

Amazon has started considering selling its in-house chips externally, which could open up a new revenue stream. The annualized revenue scale is expected to expand further to $50 billion. The return path for capital expenditures is becoming clearer: no longer a vague 'future investment,' but visible orders and income.

Partnering with AI star Claude, co-evolving with Anthropic

Amazon's other ace in the AI era is its deep integration with the star AI company Anthropic and its product Claude.The capabilities of its code generation model, Claude Code, have swept through the global developer community. The newly launched Claude 4.6 version has set a new industry benchmark for accuracy and efficiency in code generation, review, and debugging.

Since the end of 2023, Amazon has cumulatively invested about $8 billion in Anthropic. As part of the investment, Anthropic has committed to placing most of its computing load on AWS. Meanwhile, Anthropic has pledged to use Amazon's in-house Trainium (for training) and Inferentia (for inference) chips to build its future foundational models, with both parties collaborating to develop custom chips.

This integration brings dual advantages: For Anthropic, it gains access to the world's most powerful cloud infrastructure; for AWS, it acquires cutting-edge AI model capabilities, enhancing platform appeal. Anthropic is AWS's 'top compute customer.' The rapid development of its business directly translates into significant ongoing expenditure on AWS infrastructure.

The latest flagship model, Claude 4.6, is exclusively available to enterprise customers via AWS’s Bedrock platform.When enterprise customers purchase and use the Claude model, the associated revenue is split between AWS and Anthropic.

For traditional businesses like advertising, Amazon has deeply integrated AI into its ad tools by launching products such as the AI shopping assistant Rufus and the AI ad assistant Ads Agent for sellers, aiming to further optimize ad placement efficiency and shopping experience.

It is important to note that the recent combination of 'eased macro geopolitical tensions + micro industry progress' has led to a relatively high level of market sentiment. Continued attention can be paid to further developments in the monetization of its AI business, the pace of return on capital expenditures, and the performance of its core e-commerce business under AI empowerment.

Technical Analysis & Options Strategies

In the past few trading sessions, Amazon's stock price surged through all medium- and short-term moving average resistances, showing a strong breakout in the mid-term trend. On April 8, it crossed above the MA 250 bull-bear dividing line.

From the perspective of candlestick patterns, a near 'W-bottom' double bottom support has formed. The consecutive gap-up openings and strong upward movements on the 8th and 9th, accompanied by significantly higher trading volumes, represent a typical breakout pattern. The rally may continue to develop, and investors can focus on the resistance level around $240 before the pullback at the beginning of the year.

The options market currently exhibits bullish characteristics with 'high bullish sentiment + elevated volatility premium.' The Put/Call volume ratio dropped sharply to 0.45, while call option volume surged to 970,000 contracts in a single day, with substantial call orders flowing in.

However, the IV percentile is as high as 87%, indicating that options are 'overpriced.' In this environment,spread strategies (such as Bull Call Spread) and selling strategies (such as Covered Call) offer better cost-effectiveness compared to outright directional bets.。

Strategy One: Moderately Bullish Bull Call Spread

The mid-term trend is positive, but short-term sentiment is overheated, and high IV makes outright call positions expensive. A Bull Call Spread is a suitable bullish strategy in the current environment. It reduces the cost of establishing a position by selling calls with higher strike prices, while partially hedging against the risk of volatility retracement.

(The design images displayed on screen are for illustrative purposes only and do not constitute any investment advice or guarantees; market conditions fluctuate frequently, and the option prices shown do not represent real-world values.)

Strategy Two: If you already hold the underlying stock, consider enhancing returns with Covered Calls.

If you already hold Amazon shares and expect the stock price to consolidate or experience a mild rebound in the short term but unlikely to break through key resistance levels quickly, you could consider deploying a Covered Call at an appropriate level above the resistance. The essence of this strategy is to sell corresponding call options while holding the underlying stock, collecting premiums to enhance portfolio returns.

If the stock price is below the strike price at expiration, the option will expire worthless, allowing the investor to retain the full premium while continuing to hold the stock; if the stock price is above the strike price at expiration, the stock will be assigned at the strike price, enabling the investor to sell at their target price but forfeiting any subsequent upside.

Risk Disclosure: This content does not constitute a research report and is for reference only. It should not be used as the basis for any investment decision. The information involved in this article is not a comprehensive description of the mentioned securities, markets, or developments. Although the source of the information is considered reliable, no guarantee is provided regarding its accuracy or completeness. Additionally, no assurance is given regarding the accuracy of any statements, opinions, or forecasts provided herein.

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