Amazon posted revenue of more than US$121 billion in the second quarter, up 7%, despite an unfavorable comparison with last year and a difficult economic environment.
The e-commerce giant’s stock jumped more than 10% in electronic trading following the close of trading, after many disappointing performances from other technology companies. The American group, however, recorded a net loss of 2 billion $US because of a loss on investment of 3.9 billion in the manufacturer of electric cars Rivian.
“Despite inflation driving up the price of fuel, energy and transportation, we are making progress on more controllable costs […]in particular by improving the productivity of our network of sorting and logistics centers, ”said Andy Jassy, the boss of Amazon, quoted in a press release.
Amazon didn’t disappoint either. clouds (remote computing): its AWS service, the world leader in this market, generated revenue of 19.55 billion, a result that exceeded analysts’ expectations.
But for the current quarter, the e-commerce giant expects an operating profit of between 0 and 3.5 billion dollars, instead of 4.9 billion for the same period last year. The Seattle-based company is suffering from “reduced consumer spending and rising costs,” says Insider Intelligence analyst Andrew Lipsman.
Added to this phenomenon are numerous macroeconomic constraints, starting with difficulties in the supply chain and inflation.
In the evening on Monday, the American supermarket chain Walmart set the tone by announcing a sharp downward revision of its quarterly and annual profit forecasts, its customers spending more on food and gasoline and less on other goods, generally higher margins. The group must therefore offer discounts on products other than food and gasoline in order to sell its stocks. The discounts relate particularly to clothing.
Walmart said it expects its operating profit to fall 13% to 14% in the second quarter of its fiscal year ending in late July, where it previously expected flat or even a slight increase. And the supermarket chain forecasts operating profit for the year down 11% to 13%, well above the 1% decline previously expected.