Amazon Does It Again

Amazon.com managed to follow up its blowout first quarter with an equally stellar second quarter.

The online retailing giant reported 35% sales growth to $2.89 billion, beating estimates by $90 million. Net income was up 257% to $78 million, or 19 cents a share, three cents better than expected. Amazon’s third-quarter and full-year guidance were also better than expected, and the company’s shares soared 15% in after-hours trading.

Amazon shares are up nearly 80% since the company’s April earnings report.

The rest of the market had a much rougher day Tuesday, plunging on disappointing results from Texas Instruments , Countrywide Financial and American Express and fears of a wider credit crunch caused by the subprime mortgage market meltdown.

Apple fell 6% on AT&T’s lower than expected iPhone activations. Apple reports its results Wednesday night.

EMC , Unisys , Radvision , PLX and Volterra fell on their earnings reports.

Check Point , JDA and Digi jumped on their quarterly results.

GigaBeam soared 22% on more WiFiber orders, and Microvision gained on a deal with Motorola .

The Nasdaq plunged 50 to 2639, the S&P 500 lost 30 to 1511, and the Dow tumbled 226 to 13,716. Volume rose to 4.1 billion shares on the NYSE, and 2.6 billion on the Nasdaq. Declining issues led by a 29-3 margin on the NYSE, and 25-5 on the Nasdaq. Downside volume was 93% on the NYSE, and 86% on the Nasdaq. New highs-new lows were 83-352 on the NYSE, and 78-290 on the Nasdaq.