A’zon Halloween ‘horror’ $laughter

Amazon shares took a beating Thursday after the company gave a “horror show” revenue forecast for the holiday season.

The e-commerce giant’s shares were down as much as 20.6% at $88.24 in aftermarket trading before rising above $95, a 14% decline.

Amazon’s plummeting share price wiped more than $200 billion off the company’s market capitalization, which fell below the trillion-dollar mark for the first time since 2020.

The nosedive came after Amazon forecasted net sales of $140 billion to $148 billion for the fourth quarter of 2022, which includes the sales-heavy holiday season. Analysts were expecting $155.15 billion, according to Refinitiv.

Wedbush Securities managing director Dan Ives told The Post that Amazon’s earnings report was a “horror show in terms of guidance.”

“The company is seeing massive headwinds,” Ives said. “The clock struck midnight for Amazon, and the Street will punish the stock.”

In the July-September quarter, Amazon’s net sales were $127.1 billion — below analysts’ expectations of $127.46 billion, according to Refinitiv. Its Net income fell to $2.9 billion from $3.2 billion a year earlier.

The brutal sell-off comes just one day after Meta reported its second quarter of falling revenue, sending its shares tanking by 19%.

“This continues the trainwreck of tech earnings,” Ives said.

Amazon’s tough projections can be attributed in part to inflation and intense competition from rivals such as Walmart.

Parts of the cloud computing division, Amazon Web Services, have recently frozen hiring, The Post exclusively reported on Monday.