Amazon (AMZN) and Apple (AAPL) Earnings Preview: What to Watch After the Bell

For many traders, the weekend essentially starts on Thursday night. But this week, the celebration might be subject to what they hear shortly after the US market closes that day. Its earnings season. And two stocks from the celebrated Magnificent 7 stocks report quarterly results that afternoon.

Amazon (AMZN) and Apple Inc. (AAPL) follow the closing bell, and their paths to this point in 2025 have been decidedly different. AMZN has soared back to near an all-time high, wiping away the tough spring market swoon. AAPL, however, goes into its announcement Thursday night trading just below where it did a year ago.

There’s no question these are a pair of market favorites, but before we even get to their charts, a quick review of valuation will help explain why this could be one of those “high expectations” quarters. And thus, increases the chance of a misstep.

AMZN: putting its remarkable earnings record on the line

AMZN is the smaller of the two companies. And if there were ever a misleading statement, that’s it right there! At nearly $2.5 billion, AMZN is comfortably positioned as the fourth largest stock in the S&P 500 index.

However, at 38x trailing earnings and a lot of good news behind it, we have to wonder what AMZN will do for an encore. And frankly, the fact that founder Jeff Bezos’ yacht would get stuck travelling through the Panama Canal is not going to move the stock.

AMZN profile. Source: FXEmpire.

As shown below, AMZN is a perennial earnings-beater, but we might be at the point in this long market up cycle where “beat and raise” is only enough to keep a mega-stock in place.

AMZN earnings chart. Source: FX Empire.

AMZN’s daily chart is what financial TV anchors love to refer to as “great chart.” I hear it all the time. And I shake my head. Because a great chart to me is one that has a high probability of heading north in the near future, not one that just went up. Or, as I like to remind investors, the one thing we can guarantee about “past performance” is that we can’t have it. At least, not unless we already owned the stock.

That PPO indicator below, like many of the Mag-7 stocks, is flat as a board, and has been for a while. That’s not necessarily a bad thing. But it does indicate that the stock is elevated, with the PPO up at that level (currently around 2.00).

AMZN daily chart. Source: Barchart.

As with the daily, the weekly for AMZN is the proverbial “trend in motion” that stays in motion. In other words, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. But if we’ve seen anything this earnings season, it is the ability for those events to break stocks. There have been a lot of 8-10% dips lately. And it is still early in this quarterly Wall Street game.

AMZN weekly chart. Source: Barchart.

AAPL’s earnings: another cherry, or just the pit?

Now on to AAPL, where we find a more mundane picture in the charts, as well as an iconic business selling at a gaudy 30x trailing earnings. And, 8x sales. Those are not nearly as slimming as eating an actual apple.

And while AAPL has made it over the bar as narrowly as an Olympic high jumper in recent quarters, the market today is increasingly concerned. Not just about AAPL, but about the continued high-flying nature of the technology sector, which at 35% of the S&P 500 index, is a perch seen only during the height of the dot-com bubble.

AAPL earnings chart. Source: FX Empire.

AAPL profile. Source: FX Empire.

AAPL’s picture below is one that signals concern to me. At the same time, it is more flat than dangerous, though earnings are the easiest way to change that status. The moving averages (20, 50, 100 and 200-day) are all clustered together. That is less a sign of what’s occurred, and more a warning that a major break in either direction is more likely. Think “coiled spring.”

AAPL daily chart. Source: Barchart.

Finally, AAPL’s weekly view is somewhat encouraging. However, there are a lot of “ifs” in this case. Sure, the stock is down about 18% from its all-time high. One could easily look at that and rationalize that if AAPL ever were to reach that prior peak, it would mean the stock rose more than 20% from today’s levels.

AAPL weekly chart. Source: Barchart.

But that may be wishful thinking as the market grapples with that high valuation, and mixed sentiment about the company’s ability to compete at its usual market-leader level when it comes to artificial intelligence. A PPO crawling along the bottom is perhaps the most optimistic part of AAPL’s technical assessment.

AMZN and AAPL headline this week’s earnings

My most favorite season is summer. My least favorite? Earnings season! Because despite the excitement that modern quarterly reporting periods bring, the gap-moves in so many stocks this time of year can really disrupt trading plans. Be careful out there