Amazon, Microsoft ended first-quarter higher as most of market tanked

Shares of Microsoft and Amazon closed the year’s first quarter in the black, while its tech peers followed the broader market sell-off due to impacts from COVID-19, CNBC reported on Tuesday.

Microsoft stock closed up by a razor-thin .00006 percent in the past three months, while Amazon rose 5.43 percent during the market’s worst first quarter ever, according to FactSet.

The historic market volatility, however, caused their tech peers to close in the red for the past three months. Apple closed down 13.4 percent while Alphabet fell 13.25 percent in the past quarter.

Companies have spent the last quarter warning about the impacts the deadly coronavirus pandemic will have on operations.

Microsoft said last month it didn’t expect to reach its quarterly revenue target for the business segment that includes Windows because of coronavirus-related interruptions to the supply chain, but also said demand was solid. Microsoft has also benefited from high usage of cloud services.

Amazon meanwhile, has seen a surge in shoppers looking for supplies to get them through the emergency, including hand sanitizer, as well as high demand for Amazon Web Services by companies such as Slack and Zoom, who are meeting high demand while relying in part on Amazon infrastructure.

Investors are continuing to monitor the worsening COVID-19 pandemic. As of Tuesday, there are more than 177,000 confirmed cases and at least 3,440 deaths in the U.S., according to data from Johns Hopkins University.