Amazon.com took investors on a wild ride Tuesday, jumping 10% ahead of its quarterly earnings report — and then giving it all back in after-hours trading despite some pretty solid numbers.
Amazon reported that its third-quarter sales rose 41% to 3.26 billion, $120 million more than expected. Earnings of $80 million, or 19 cents a share, were up more than 300% from the year-ago quarter and a penny better than expected.
Performance was solid across product lines and geographies, and the final Harry Potter book also boosted Amazon’s numbers. Fourth-quarter guidance of $5.1-$5.45 billion compared favorably to $5.16 billion estimates, but earnings guidance was a little light, raising margin concerns.
Investors clearly were expecting more, because after running the stock up 10.4% to $100.82 in Tuesday’s trading session, the stock gave back almost all of its gains in after-hours trading. It was Amazon’s first foray above $100 since it peaked at $113 a share in December 1999. Juniper and Broadcom also fell in late trading on their results.
Stocks surged during the day, led by a 7% gain in shares of Apple after yet another blowout quarter.
Research in Motion and Alcatel Lucent gained on plans to sell BlackBerry smartphones in China.
BEA fell 4% after resisting Oracle’s latest takeover offer and deadline.
Netflix, Art Technology, Zoran and Millicom gained on their quarterly results.
TI shares fell 8% after lowering current quarter guidance, and Unisys, Level 3, Lexmark and Volterra also fell on their results.
The Nasdaq surged 45 to 2799, the S&P gained 13 to 1519, and the Dow rose 109 to 13,676. Volume declined to 3.3 billion shares on the NYSE, but rose to 2.42 billion on the Nasdaq. Advancers led by a 22-10 margin on the NYSE, and 18-11 on the Nasdaq. Upside volume was 67% on the NYSE, and 66% on the Nasdaq. New highs-new lows were 78-98 on the NYSE, and 118-115 on the Nasdaq.
