With the tech earnings season in full swing, attention is turning to Amazon, which will report its third quarter results on Thursday.
The internet retail giant has fared relatively well this year despite the pressures on household finances, and Wall Street is hoping that this good fortune will continue.
Analysts are expecting sales of £116billion for the three months to September, whilst profits are set to hit as much as £5billion.
The company seems confident about the rest of the year, hiring 250,000 seasonal workers for the upcoming Christmas rush. This is roughly 100,000 more than last year.
Yet there will still be some caution for investors.
Sophie Lund-Yates, an analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown, said: ‘Amazon has been caught out by overspending in the past though, and bulking out the workforce to this degree does increase risk should performance disappoint – a risk the market would punish the group for.’
Investors will also be keeping a close eye on the company’s cloud business, which has become an important driver for profits.
In the last quarter, Amazon Web Services (AWS) saw its sales growth slow as wary businesses scrutinised their bills and cut back spending.
The company announced this week that it will start using drones to deliver parcels in the UK by the end of 2024.
Amazon shares have rallied nearly 50 per cent in the year to date – regaining some of the ground it lost in 2022.
