New York, March 2, 2026, 10:03 ET — Regular session
- Amazon stock slipped at the open after AWS pointed to service disruptions stemming from a data-center issue in the UAE.
- AWS reported that “objects” hit one of its facilities, igniting a fire that led to a power shutdown.
- With eyes on restoration updates, traders are also bracing for Friday’s U.S. jobs report to signal the next move.
Amazon.com shares slid Monday as news broke that its cloud division reported a data center incident in the United Arab Emirates, knocking services offline in parts of the Middle East. The stock traded down 1.33% at $207.20 at 9:46 a.m. ET.
This is a big deal: Amazon Web Services isn’t just another cloud provider. Banks, airlines, government agencies, and retailers all lean on it for crucial operations, paying up for the promise of reliability. When the trouble stems from physical damage rather than a software hiccup, it’s the kind of event that pushes risk managers to drill deeper.
The launch comes as war headlines hang over the market. Wall Street’s main indexes slipped at the open, with the extended Middle East conflict fueling worries over trade route disruptions and sending investors searching for cash and safe havens.
AWS reported that “objects” hit its data center in the UAE, sparking a fire and forcing authorities to cut the power—disrupting chunks of its cloud network in the region, with fallout reaching Bahrain. Customers got a warning to back up essential data and shift their operations; AWS said the timeline for a full fix would stretch for “many hours.” Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank pointed to a broader IT outage as the reason its mobile app and some platforms went offline. Pressed on whether the event was tied to Gulf strikes, AWS wouldn’t say. Microsoft, Google, and Oracle also maintain cloud operations in the UAE, where investment has ramped up. Reuters
AWS reported the previous day that one of its “Availability Zones”—which refers to a group of interconnected data centers in a given region—was impacted at about 4:30 a.m. Pacific time. The company noted its other UAE zones continued normal operations. Reuters
Traders want to know how long the disruption will last—and if major clients will come forward to disclose any significant fallout. Even when financial harm is minor, cloud outages often weigh on the stock just by reigniting concerns around concentration risk. That’s the headline risk at play.
Adding to the mix: investors remain edgy over whether hefty data-center investments for AI will actually deliver. The upcoming U.S. jobs report marks another checkpoint for those watching if the economy is losing steam quickly enough to revive hope for rate cuts.
Still, there are mitigating factors. AWS builds its regions with redundancy in mind, so customers distributing workloads over several zones or regions might not have felt the impact. Should the issue stay isolated and service come back soon, attention could quickly swing back to the bigger market picture.
Amazon shareholders are tracking AWS updates closely today, waiting for signs of a complete rebound and possible statements from customers. Focus then turns to the U.S. February jobs data, set for release on March 6.
