Amazon stock heading for worst quarter since 2008 recession

The shopping season has been a disaster for Amazon investors. Photo / AP

The shopping season has been a disaster for Amazon investors.

The e-commerce giant is on pace for its worst quarter since the recession of 2008, when the company lost more than 30 per cent of its value.

Amazon shares closed the latest trading day at US$1,461.64.

The stock has been in free fall in the last three months, losing 27 per cent of value since its market capitalisation briefly topped US$1 trillion ($1.4t) in September, reports CNBC.

The only quarters with bigger drops were during the dot-com collapse of 2000 and 2001.

But Amazon is not the only tech stock tanking right now.

Apple has plunged 30 per cent this quarter, Facebook has lost 18 per cent and Microsoft has dropped 12 per cent.

Amazon.com did however report a record-breaking holiday season for sales.

The online retailer shipped more than 1 billion items for free using Prime in the US alone, Amazon said in a statement this week.

People bought "millions more" of Amazon's own devices compared with last year, including the new Echo Dot speaker and the Fire TV Stick, the Seattle-based company said.

Amazon started the shopping frenzy out strong, with November's Cyber Monday already pegged as the company's biggest shopping day in history.

- With Washington Post