Shares of the online retail and cloud computing giant surged
13.5 percent on Friday following its blowout quarterly report, expanding its
market capitalisation by around $190 billion by the end of trading.
That beat Apple's record $181 billion one-day gain in stock
market value on January 28 following the iPhone maker's own blockbuster
quarterly report, according to Refinitiv data.
Amazon is now valued at about $1.6 trillion. With Meta
Platforms' stock slipping 0.3 percent on Friday, its value stood at about $660
billion .
Amazon's shares jumped after the company reported
better-than-expected profits late on Thursday and said it was hiking the price
of its annual US Prime subscriptions by 17 percent.
Amazon's surge comes a day after Meta Platforms' stock
market value plunged more than $200 billion in the biggest single-day loss for a US
company after the social media giant issued a dismal forecast.
"After fighting the post-lockdown blues in 2021, we
believe Amazon's fortunes have the potential to improve as 2022 unfolds,"
Monness Crespi Hardt analyst Brian White wrote in a research note. "Amazon
is uniquely positioned to exit this crisis as one of the biggest beneficiaries
of accelerated digital transformation."
Retail investors appeared to use Amazon's rally to take
profits. Data on Fidelity's website showed Amazon was the most traded stock
among its customers on Friday, with sell orders outnumbering buy orders by more
than two to one.
The size of the increase in Amazon's value eclipsed the
market capitalisations of companies including AT&T, Morgan Stanley, and
Netflix.
Apple, Microsoft, and Google owner Alphabet remain Wall
Street's most valuable companies, with market capitalisations of $2.8 trillion,
$2.3 trillion, and $1.9 trillion, respectively, according to Refinitiv.
Amazon's stock price remains down around 15 percent from its
record high close of $3,731.41 in July. -Reuters