Amazon, Apple, Alphabet trade below peaks after July swings

Amazon shares have been the most volatile of the three. The stock closed at $271.58 on July 31 after jumping from $226.65 two days earlier, a move that left it far above its 50-day moving average but still well short of the year’s earlier highs. The 14-day RSI has swung from deeply oversold levels near 22 in June to 64, while the stock’s MACD has turned less negative, suggesting the rebound is gaining traction after a bruising midyear selloff.

Alphabet has also recovered from a June slump, closing at $356.13 on July 31 after trading as low as $333.66 the day before. Apple ended July 31 at $308.91, slipping from $338.19 a day earlier but still near its 50-day average. Across the group, the message is the same: investors are rotating toward companies that can show discipline, even as they keep writing large checks for AI models, chips and data centers.

That tension explains why the “dumbest management idea” — in practice, a blunt, cost-cutting, headcount-first discipline — keeps coming back. In earlier cycles it was dismissed as short-termism. In today’s market, with the S&P 500 sitting in extreme-greed territory in Adalytica’s trade signals and AI sentiment in extreme fear, it looks more like a necessary defense mechanism against margin compression and valuation risk.

The bigger economic question is whether the productivity gains from AI can arrive fast enough to offset the cost of building it. If they do, the firms that trim harder now could emerge with stronger earnings leverage. If they do not, the companies that keep spending aggressively may face a harsher reset from shareholders.

For investors, that means the next catalyst is not just another product launch or earnings print, but proof that AI investment is translating into operating profit. Until then, the market is likely to keep favoring managers who revive the old cost-control doctrine, however unpopular it sounds.