Amazon And Alphabet Hit New Highs On Race To $1,000

Shares of Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) and Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) both touched new highs in morning trading Wednesday as the two technology behemoths remain neck-and-beck on their race to hit $1,000 per share.

After closing at $971.54 on Tuesday, Amazon shares peaked at $976 earlier today. The online retailer-turned-internet conglomerate has been a steady gainer for most of 2017; shares are up nearly 30% year-to-date, significantly outpacing the S&P 500’s modest 6% gain.

Shares of Alphabet closed at $970.55 on Tuesday afternoon, but the stock moved higher in early trading hours, eventually hitting $975.26 per share on Wednesday morning. The company formerly known as Google is currently a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).

The race to $1,000 will probably come down to the wire, as the fundamental picture for both companies is unlikely to change soon. Regardless, the real winner in this race won’t be Amazon or Alphabet—it will be us, the investors.

Despite the political uncertainty in Washington, confidence remains high throughout the markets. While certain elements of the Trump agenda now seem unlikely, the GOP appears committed to overhauling the tax code, a pro-growth move that should please Wall Street.

What’s more, Amazon and Alphabet are two companies who probably don’t need any of the Trump agenda to materialize in order to maintain their momentum. Demand for their core offerings remains high, and their latest initiatives should only continue to grow.

Going forward, the ever-growing Amazon Web Services unit should provide the company with a steady foundation of profits, which will come in handy as Jeff Bezos’s brand doubles down on its promise to revolutionize the media industry. Just yesterday, Amazon launched Amazon Channels, it live TV programming service, in the UK and Germany (also read: Amazon Channels Debuts in UK & Germany, to Offer Live TV).

On the other hand, it looks like Google’s Alphabet Inc. experiment has paid off. A restructuring of the company—which new-ish CFO Ruth Porat said would provide better value to shareholders—has made the corporation more efficient from the top on down.

While search may not be at the core of Alphabet’s long-term future, the company has made impressive strides in—and should lead—the up-and-coming AI, self-driving vehicle, and fiber network markets.

And the best part for us is simple—when Google and Amazon win, we win. Not only do their technologies promise to make the world a better place, but their share prices should continue to rise in this bull market.

Want more stock market analysis from this author? Make sure to follow @Ryan_McQueeney on Twitter!

Looking for Stocks with Skyrocketing Upside?

Zacks has just released a Special Report on the booming investment opportunities of legal marijuana.

Ignited by new referendums and legislation, this industry is expected to blast from an already robust $6.7 billion to $20.2 billion in 2021. Early investors stand to make a killing, but you have to be ready to act and know just where to look. See the pot trades we're targeting>>