The e-commerce giant Amazon ha reported its second quarter results and, despite inflation and a $2 billion net loss, the results were surprisingly better than expected. All of the loss is attributed to Amazon's stake in Rivian. The second quarter net loss compares to net income of $7.8 billion in the second quarter of 2021.
Sales rose 7% to $121,200 billion in the second quarter, compared to $113,100 billion in the same period of 2021. This was better than Wall Street's estimate of $119,300 billion. The company forecast revenue between $116 billion and $121 billion for the quarter.
Due to the slightly good news, shares of Amazon increased by 11%.
It's important to note that online store sales fell 4,3% to $50,89 billion. Wall Street only estimated an approximate 2% drop.
The company's shares are down 32% so far this year, mainly due to the series of disappointing quarterly results. At the end of April, Amazon fell in the first quarter, reporting a loss of $3.84 billion. Not only did the results fall short of Wall Street's forecast, but its stock also fell 14% that day: the biggest one-day drop in 16 years.
Analysts have been cautious about the results as it is a dangerous time for Amazon. LThe company faced a number of obstacles, including supply chain and worker disruptions, wage increases, inflation, higher fuel costs, and the war in Ukraine.
Looking at other figures, ad sales were higher this quarter, at $8.76 billion, up 4.3%. The company's advertising arm is essential and was projected to hit $8.7 billion in revenue, up 21% from a year earlier.
Amazon Web Services (AWS), the company's cloud computing unit, contributed $19,74 billion, an increase of 33% from last year. AWS is an asset to the company, during the first trimester, grew 35%. The future of cloud business Amazon is key, since the looming recession will likely cause a decline in corporate spending on cloud services.
