After Seven Years, Google's Market Value Surpasses Apple Again

Amazon's free cash flow in Q3 plummeted to -$33.5 billion, four times higher than the market expectation of -$7.7 billion. The sharp decline was caused by the dual impact of $77.3 billion in capital expenditures and $48.1 billion in new debt in a single quarter. Although AWS's growth rate reached a five-year high of 39.3%, it still fell short of buy-side expectations, and its profit margin declined. The Q4 operating profit guidance of $31 billion was entirely below Wall Street and buy-side forecasts. The core issue is that for every $1 earned by AWS, nearly $4 in new spending is tied to it.

The Bank of Japan has kept interest rates unchanged and, for the first time, stated that the underlying inflation rate has reached the 2% target. This milestone development paves the way for a possible further rate hike as early as December.

Hedge funds are quietly making a risky strategic shift—from shorting individual stocks to shorting indices. This transition is accelerating the rise in stock correlations, and the “anti-leverage” buffer that once dampened volatility is disappearing. According to Goldman Sachs data, funds’ short exposure to indices and ETFs has reached a ten-year high. The VIX faces the risk of disorderly surges, and vulnerability to deep stock price declines is quietly accumulating.