Amazon’s Biggest Cut

On January 28, 2026, Amazon published a note from Beth Galetti, Senior Vice President of People Experience and Technology. She wrote that Amazon was making organizational changes that would impact about 16,000 roles across the company. She also wrote that most U.S.-based employees whose roles were impacted would be offered about 90 days to look for a new role inside Amazon, with timing varying internationally. For people who do not find a role or choose not to look, the note said Amazon would provide transition support including severance pay, outplacement services, and health insurance benefits (as applicable).

Reuters reported later on January 28 that the 16,000 cuts completed a plan for roughly 30,000 corporate reductions since October 2025, and that Amazon left open the possibility of further reductions. Reuters also reported Amazon shares were down 2.1% in regular trading on January 28.

An Associated Press report published on January 28 described the stock as lower in late afternoon trading, down a little more than 1% at that time.

A big layoff headline can move a stock quickly because it sets a shared clock. Many investors and news-reading systems see the same alert at once, so decisions can cluster in minutes. That can create an order imbalance: more urgent selling (or buying) than the other side is ready to take right away.

When an imbalance hits, price often moves until enough opposite orders appear. This is a clearing process. It can look like “emotion,” but it is also just matching. The market is finding where buyers and sellers can meet with the orders that exist right now.

Liquidity is how easily shares can trade near the current price without moving it much. Even in a very large stock, the best bids and offers are not unlimited. Around a surprise update, some firms that usually supply liquidity may quote smaller size while they process new information. With less size near the top of the order book, price can travel farther for the same wave of orders.

Options can add brief extra flow. Options are contracts whose value changes with the stock. Dealers who make markets in options often hedge, meaning they trade shares as price moves so their risk stays closer to neutral. During a sharp move on a day like January 28, that hedging can add short-lived pressure in the same direction. This is rule-based risk control, not a full business judgment.

Workforce news carries emotion, so it is easy to treat the first price swing as a final verdict. The execution lens separates two tasks the market may be doing on January 28.

First, it must match urgent orders created by the headline and by risk limits that react to fast moves. Second, slower investors and analysts take time to compare the news with prior expectations and other public details.

This also explains why same-day coverage can cite different points on the same chart. The Associated Press described late afternoon levels, while Reuters reported the move during regular trading more broadly. Both can be accurate snapshots inside the January 28 session, because prices update trade by trade.

On January 28, 2026, Amazon confirmed about 16,000 corporate role cuts, and its shares traded lower during the same session, based on Amazon’s public note and reporting from Reuters and the Associated Press. The speed of the move is consistent with how modern markets process big, widely shared headlines: many orders can arrive at once, near-term liquidity is finite, and hedging flows can briefly add to same-direction pressure. That framing does not prove a single cause for the move. It describes the market mechanics that can sit under a headline day.