The slowdown in the global economy is reflected in Amazon’s forecasts precisely during the holidays and year-end shopping. The company published the reports for the third quarter of 2022 tonight (Thursday) after trading, bypassing the earnings per share forecast but lowering the forecasts for the next quarter.
Amazon’s stock plunges 20% in late trading below $90, back to the period before the Corona crisis.
In the third quarter, Amazon recorded a profit of 28 cents per share, above forecasts for a profit of 23 cents per share. Revenues totaled $127.1 billion, below forecasts of $127.9 billion.
For the fourth quarter, Amazon expects revenues in the range of 140-148 billion dollars, reflecting a growth of 2-8% compared to the corresponding quarter last year, compared to a previous forecast for revenues of 155.52 billion dollars.
Beyond that, the company recorded weakness in the cloud division to the point of freezing hiring. The AWS division recorded an operating profit of $5.4 billion, less than forecasts of $6.37 billion.