Good Evening! On Thursday, US markets declined as they made efforts to claw back from the sell-off triggered by the US debt downgrade from the previous day.
The S&P 500 fell 0.25%, whereas the Dow Jones decreased by 0.19%. The Nasdaq Composite fell 0.10%.
AWS CLOUD WIN
Amazon (AMZN) significantly exceeded the profit expectations set by analysts. This was due to their cost-reduction strategy involving extensive workforce reductions.
- Revenue: $134.38 Billion vs. $131.63 Billion Expected
- AWS revenue: $22.14 Billion vs. $21.71 Billion Expected
- Earnings Per Share: $0.65 vs. $0.35 Expected
A small Cloud Service win! However, Wall Street’s concerns regarding the deceleration of cloud sales have not been entirely eliminated by Amazon. Despite achieving a favorable outcome in the second quarter, AWS has experienced a decline in its growth trend for over a year.
Who is keeping count, right? The surpassing of Amazon’s operating income is a result of extensive cost reduction initiatives led by CEO Andy Jassy. The company’s commitment to enhancing efficiency is evident through the implementation of 27,000 employee layoffs thus far.
LAWSUIT TIME
Coinbase (COIN) has argued, in its attempt to persuade a US federal judge to dismiss a lawsuit filed by the SEC, that the cryptocurrencies available for purchase on its exchange bear greater similarity to baseball cards rather than investment securities.
What is the lawsuit? The SEC has made claims that Coinbase operated as an unregistered exchange by enabling the trading of specific cryptocurrency tokens that the agency deems as securities. Consequently, these tokens fall within the scope of the SEC’s regulatory authority.
What else? The determination of the definition of security holds significant importance in this particular case, as well as in the broader activities undertaken by the SEC to regulate the cryptocurrency sector. On top of that, Coinbase submitted its filing the day after the disclosure of a significant decline in revenue generated from trading fees, marking the lowest level observed in nearly three years.