Amazon shares rise 3.4% as Morgan Stanley lifts price target to $350

Key Facts

Amazon shares rose 3.4% to $258.45 in morning trading on Monday, according to Investing.com, as Morgan Stanley named the company among its top stock picks. The bank raised its price target to $350 from $335, according to the site's coverage published on October 19, citing a stronger outlook for its cloud computing business. Morgan Stanley maintained its overweight rating alongside the price target revision, according to Reuters. Amazon's gains came amid a rebound in technology stocks following weekly losses exceeding 10% for the semiconductor index, Reuters reported. Shares of CoreWeave, which operates in cloud computing and builds data centers, had also lost 25% during the previous week.

Morgan Stanley raised its forecast for annual growth at Amazon's cloud computing unit to 47% in 2027, according to the coverage published by Investing.com. It also revised its estimate for the unit's growth in 2028 to 42% year on year, extending its projections for the business's expansion. The bank based the higher estimates on increased shipments of Nvidia processors, which the coverage cited among the drivers of its outlook for Amazon's cloud business. The unit's revenue reached $42.2 billion in the second quarter, according to the company's earnings summary published by Investing.com. That revenue grew 36.7% year on year, compared with the bank's growth forecasts for subsequent periods.

Alongside the expansion of its cloud business, Amazon's management raised its capital expenditure guidance for 2026 to $220 billion, according to its earnings summary on Investing.com. Previous spending guidance for the same year stood at $200 billion before management revised it upward. The summary said the increase primarily targets artificial intelligence infrastructure, which accounts for the focus of the announced additional spending. Elsewhere in the cloud computing sector, CoreWeave faces concerns over financing its business, which Reuters examined in a report dated October 15, 2026. The agency described the company as loss-making and carrying nearly $50 billion in debt, providing the backdrop to the turmoil affecting its shares and bonds.

CoreWeave's chief executive responded to the financing concerns in an internal memo seen by Reuters, citing the company's future contracts. He said in the memo that these contracts "more than cover its debt obligations," according to the agency. He thus placed the volume of contracted business at the center of his defense of the company's ability to meet its financial obligations. His message came as the Reuters report examined declines in the company's shares and bonds amid mounting concerns over debt in the artificial intelligence sector. Those concerns coincided with the company's continued losses, according to the agency's description of its financial position in the report dated October 15.

In energy markets, Brent crude futures fell to $108.80 a barrel in early Asian trading, according to Reuters. The decline in those dealings amounted to $1.06, or 0.96%, despite the elevated levels preceding the daily retreat. Futures fell as the U.S. confrontation with Iran continued, according to separate oil market coverage published by Investing.com. The site said the confrontation continued to disrupt oil supplies from the Middle East, supporting global fuel prices. It described its impact as "disrupting oil supplies from the Middle East and supporting global fuel prices," as Brent declined in early trading.

In the U.S. economy, the homebuilder confidence index fell 3 points to 29 in October 2026, according to the National Association of Home Builders. The weakness extended to prospective buyer traffic, with its index falling 5 points to 18 in the same month's survey. On pricing, the average discount offered by homebuilders held at 6%, according to the survey results published by the association. The readings come ahead of the U.S. Census Bureau's new residential construction report on activity in the sector. The bureau set October 20, 2026, as the release date for the report covering September 2026, making it the next scheduled release of residential construction data.