Amazon.com, Inc. (AMZN)

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STORY: World stocks dropped again on Thursday (February 5) as they struggled to shake off a tech rout.Asian markets slumped, although European bourses saw a relatively level start.The region's tech stocks bounced roughly 2% following a 7% fall over the last two sessions.Investors have grown concerned about the rising costs of the AI boom for tech companies.Google-parent Alphabet shocked markets Wednesday with a capex spending plan of as much as $185 billion this year.That was 55% more than analysts expected.The update sent its shares down over 6% for a while.It also followed a 17% plunge in chipmaker AMD's stock to continue a massive tech selloff.It's wiped out almost $850 billion of market value this month.Investors will look out for further earnings from tech giant Amazon later ThursdayWhile Europe also gets ready for a busy day of central bank meetings.Both the European Central Bank and Bank of England are expected to hold their rates steady.Elsewhere, precious metals also dived on Thursday to end two days of gains after last week's huge declines.Silver endured a 14% crash in the metals markets before scaling back somewhat.Gold was also down around 1.5%.

By Mike Dolan Feb 5 -   What matters in U.S. and global markets today By Mike Dolan, Editor-At-Large, Finance and Markets Tech sector anxiety spread well beyond the battered software sector overnight,

Amazon (AMZN) reports fourth quarter earnings results on Thursday, Feb. 5 after markets close.Citi senior internet sector analyst Ron Josey sits down with Market Domination host Josh Lipton to discuss his expectations for the earnings print.To watch more expert insights and analysis on the latest market action, check out more Market Domination.

Germany's competition watchdog ordered Amazon on Thursday to stop implementing price controls for retailers on its marketplace and told the US tech giant to return 59 million euros ($70 million) in what it deemed unfair gains.The cartel office has ordered Amazon to return nearly 59 million euros that it said Amazon gained through anti-competitive behaviour.

This was not an issue for Amazon’s October earnings, as its shares jumped almost 10% following better than expected revenue from Amazon Web Services, also known as AWS. Now, however, fear is rippling through the tech sector, and Amazon investors are increasingly concerned that the slowdown at Microsoft’s Azure indicates broader weakness for cloud providers.

Google parent Alphabet beats analysts’ expectations for quarterly earnings and revenue but its capital spending forecasts widely top estimates.