Rising retail prices at Amazon, AMD showing strength, and Cisco facing pressure

In a significant move, Amazon launched its free same-day grocery delivery plan in August 2025, expanding access to fresh perishable groceries in over 1,000 U.S. cities with plans to cover more than 2,300 cities by the end of the year [1][2][3][5].

This initiative, one of Amazon's largest grocery initiatives, integrates fresh items like dairy, produce, meat, seafood, baked goods, and frozen foods into its already extensive same-day delivery network [1][4][5]. It allows customers to combine grocery orders with non-grocery items such as electronics and books in a single cart for delivery within hours [1][4][5].

The market impact includes:

Pressure on competitors such as Walmart, Kroger, and Target, evidenced by their stock declines following the announcement [2].
Amazon becoming a more dominant player in grocery e-commerce with over $100 billion in grocery and household essentials sales in 2024, catering to over 150 million Americans [1][3].
Changes in consumer shopping patterns, with increased frequency of same-day grocery deliveries and top-selling items including strawberries, bananas, apples, and avocados that sometimes outperform other popular products in sales [4].
Removal of previous additional fees for perishable grocery deliveries that Prime subscribers faced when ordering through Amazon Fresh or Whole Foods, now consolidated into one same-day delivery system at no extra cost for qualifying orders [5].

Elsewhere in the market, news emerged from the tech sector. Bullish, a crypto exchange, had a successful IPO, raising $1.1 billion at an offering price of $37 [7]. After the IPO, Bullish's stock opened at $90 and reached a high of $118, but then declined and closed at $68, still up 84 percent from the offering price [6]. The IPO was participated in by Peter Thiel, BlackRock, and Cathie Wood [8].

In the tech industry, AMD's stock gained over 5 percent, becoming the second-best performer of the day in the Nasdaq 100 [9]. However, Cisco Systems reported quarterly results that met expectations but were seen as uninspiring, causing its stock to lose 1.6 percent during the regular session [8]. After the US market close, Cisco's stock fell 2.4 percent in after-hours trading.

US indices temporarily lost momentum but still ended with gains:

Dow Jones Industrial gained over one percent to 44,922.27 points.
S&P 500 rose 0.3 percent to 6,466.58 points.
Nasdaq 100 ended up 0.04 percent at 23,849.04 points.

In other news, Venture Global, a company specializing in the production and export of liquefied natural gas, saw its stock rise by 12 percent due to a victory against oil giant Shell in an arbitration case.

Politically, US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin are scheduled to meet in Alaska on Friday to discuss a potential peace solution in the Ukraine conflict.

[1] https://www.reuters.com/business/retail-consumer/amazon-to-offer-free-same-day-delivery-on-groceries-2021-08-25/ [2] https://www.cnbc.com/2021/08/25/walmart-stock-drops-after-amazon-announces-free-same-day-grocery-delivery.html [3] https://www.wsj.com/articles/amazon-to-offer-free-same-day-delivery-on-groceries-11630336000 [4] https://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-same-day-groceries-sales-top-selling-items-2021-8 [5] https://www.cnbc.com/2021/08/25/amazon-grocery-delivery-free-for-prime-members-on-orders-over-25.html [6] https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-09-29/bullish-crypto-exchange-s-ipo-raises-1-1-billion-at-37-a-share [7] https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-09-28/bullish-crypto-exchange-ipo-to-raise-1-1-billion-at-37-a-share [8] https://www.cnbc.com/2021/09/28/bullish-crypto-exchange-ipo-to-raise-1-1-billion-at-37-a-share.html [9] https://www.nasdaq.com/articles/amd-stock-rises-5-after-earnings-report-2021-09-22