Shares in Amazon.com closed down 4.2 per cent on Wednesday, leading declines in the S&P 500 consumer discretionary sector while video streaming companies Warner Bros Discovery and Paramount Global rallied.
Shares in Warner Bros, which also announced on Wednesday that CNN Chairman and Chief Executive Chris Licht had stepped down, ended up 8.4 per cent at $13.12 a share. Licht's departure also contributed to its rally. Paramount shares closed up 3.9 per cent. "To me these are desperate moves because that's money out the door to try to keep people on Amazon's platform," Kim Forrest, chief investment officer at Bokeh Capital Partners in Pittsburgh, said regarding the report's suggestion that Amazon is adding new video providers for Prime.
For anyone who has dropped the Prime service, Forrest said they would"buy from somewhere else because nobody wants to pay for shipping and pretty much everybody is offering free shipping now."