Intel and Amazon Earnings Reports Send Shock Waves Through Tech Sector as Midterm Narrative Begins to Crumble and Bubbles Pop

On Thursday, it was Google (Alphabet, GOOGL) dragging down the NASDAQ, sending a stern warning to the rest of the market that stock prices have been and continue to be extraordinarily overpriced and a reckoning with value was on the way.

Sentiment on Wall Street - not contained to only AI hyperscalers and chip-makers - has turned downright ugly late Thursday into Friday morning after Amazon (AMZN) and Intel (INTC) reported third quarter earnings results after the bell.

Amazon reported third-quarter revenue of $201.9 billion and GAAP EPS of $1.89, both below Wall Street consensus estimates. Massive infrastructure investments on AI buildout have weighed heavily on the company's liquidity, resulting in a reported quarterly negative free cash flow outflow of approximately $42.4 billion. The company reiterated its 2026 commitment of $220 billion to support AI data centers. Investors were not at all humored, sending shares down initially b more than 10%. In Friday's pre-market trade, Amazon is down between six and seven percent.

Intel absolutely floored the street, delivering adjusted non-GAAP earnings of $0.52 per share, easily surpassing Wall Street expectations around $0.40 per share, but future guidance projected revenue between $15.0 billion and $16.0 billion, well below the $17.08 billion expected. Projected adjusted EPS of $0.25 also severely missed consensus estimates of roughly $0.44, citing continued weakness in the personal computer market, where Intel chips are pre-eminent. Heading toward Friday's opening bell, shares of the chip-maker are down 25%.

As a reminder of the evils of fascism afoot:

In August 2025, the U.S. federal government became Intel’s largest single shareholder by purchasing 433.3 million newly issued shares at $20.47 per share, representing a 9.9% ownership of the company.

How's that working out for taxpayers who never had a say in that deal? Just wonderful. America deserves to own 10% of more shitty companies that are overburdened with debt and about to go bankrupt. It's a good thing the government bought into this failing enterprise near the multi-year lows and drove the stock to unsustainable and simply irrational highs earlier this year. The speculators who drove the price have likely already cashed in the chips (pun intended) and moved on to greener pasture. The government will be stuck with a company worth less than $15 per share by the end of 2027, if not sooner. The collapse of this and other tech companies is already well underway and gaining momentum.

Other companies reporting after the close Thursday include:
Reddit (RDDT) - Top and bottom beats, but CEO Steve Huffman said search traffic declined by more than 1 million referrals on average per week during October, sending shares down 20% pre-market
Twillio (TWLO) - EPS, revenue beats, stock down nearly 20% on valuation concerns
Rivian (RIVN) - Solid EPS and revenue sends e-vehicle maker up 6% (adjusted loss of 48 cents)
Starbucks (SBUX) - EPS beat, revenue in-line, stock is flat pre-market
Sandisk (SNDK) - Beats top and bottom, announces 8-for-1 stock split, shares down 8% on valuation, future guidance concerns
Roblox (RBLX) - EPS -0.32 send stock down 17%

Friday morning, before open:
Regeneron (REGN) - EPS, revenue beats, shares up 8%
AutoNation (AN) - EPS, revenue mostly in-line, shares up 2-3%
AstraZeneca (AZN) - Beat top and bottom, shares higher by 4%
General Dynamics (GD) - reports at 9:00 am ET, shares up 3% pre-market
British Petroleum (BP) - EPS, revenue beats, stock flat
ExxonMobil (XOM) - EPS, revenue beats, shares up 2%
Chevron (CVX) - EPS, revenue beats, shares up 1-2%

Clearly, tech wreckage is widespread and probably just getting started. The AI buildout bubble, to which Mag7 and other companies have devoted hundreds of billions in Capex, is being popped. The timing could not be worse for Republicans seeking to hold majorities in the House and Senate on eelction day next Tuesday (Nov. 3). Not surprisingly, three big oil companies - ExxonMobil, Chevron, and British Petroleum - all posted positive results and solid profits, thanks to oil and gas prices that are up 60-80% over the past year. The squeeze on working class and small business is like a wrecking ball to the economy, pinching margins for small businesses while crimping the spending patterns by consumers. Higher gas and food prices are crowding out spending in other categories, particularly in discretionary sectors.

There's no limit to the degree of carnage that will come from the tech bust and misguided government policies that are sending ordinary Americans deeper into debt and straining household budgets. The hubris of government and big tech is that they've ignored the obvious calculus: without consumer spending, which is 60-70% of the economy, their revenue and profits will suffer. For the government, tax receipts have nearly doubled since 2020, but expenditures have grown at a faster rate, including interest on the debt, which has exploded to a level approaching an insolvent condition.

Wall Street and the government's continued propping up of businesses that are either failing or extremely overvalued has created an unstable, treacherous environment and considerable cracks in the facade are beginning to show.

For the week, through Thursday's close, the Dow is up 147 points, the NASDAQ is up 229, and the S&P is ahead by 96 points, but those gains may be lost as the last trading day of October commences. Stock futures have the Dow up 20 points, the S&P down 80, and the NASDAQ showing a massive decline of more than 700 points.

What goes up, often comes down. Reversion to the mean can be an unpleasant trip.

At the Close, Thursday, October 29, 2026:
Dow: 52,342.56, -132.54 (-0.25%)
NASDAQ: 26,184.73, -365.13 (-1.38%)
S&P 500: 7,720.39, -23.59 (-0.30%)
NYSE Composite: 24,517.23, +255.95 (+1.05%)