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Amazon on Thursday reported better-than-expected revenue and profits for the holiday shopping period, but its stocks dipped in after-hours trading due to disappointing guidance for the current quarter.The Seattle-based e-commerce and technology company said its revenue for the October-December period totaled $187.8 billion, a 10% jump compared with the same period in 2023. Profits came out to $20 billion while earnings per share reached $1.86, higher than the $1.49 that analysts surveyed by FactSet had anticipated.But the company said it expected revenue for the current quarter to be between $151 billion and 155.5 billion, lower than the $158.56 billion that analysts were expecting. The guidance anticipates “an unusually large, unfavorable impact” from foreign exchange rates, it said.Amazon is the biggest online shopping destination in the U.S. and has long been a beneficiary of consumer spending during the holidays. As it has done in recent years, the company in October began offering promotions intended to lure early holiday shoppers. It advertised other discounts during the three-month period, including on major sales days such as Black Friday and Cyber Monday.Amazon on Thursday reported it saw $75.5 billion in revenue for its online shopping business, up 7% from the same period in 2023.Across the retail industry, holiday sales in November and December were better than expected compared with the previous year as lower inflation on holiday goods enticed shoppers to buy, according to The National Retail Federation. Online shopping also saw record sales levels, Adobe Analytics reported in January.Sales for Amazon Web services, the company’s prominent cloud computing unit, rose 19% during the fourth quarter. But it fell slightly below analysts expectations.Amazon is one of the biggest players in the competitive tech race around generative artificial intelligence. Like other tech companies, it has ramped up investments in the technology and is spending billions to expand data centers that support AI and cloud computing. The company is also spending money on other equipment, including its own computer chips and those developed by Nvidia. It has also rolled out its own AI models and integrated the generative AI into other parts of its business.In the fourth quarter, Amazon reported spending $27.8 billion on property and equipment, significantly higher than the same period in 2023. During a call with analysts on Thursday, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy said capital expenditures for the quarter came out to $26.3 billion, most of which was geared towards AI and AWS.“We think virtually every application that we know of today is going to be re-invented with AI inside of it,” Jassy said. “I think both our business, our customers and shareholders will be happy medium-to-long term that we’re pursuing the capital opportunity and the business opportunity in AI.”Jassy added during the call that Amazon, like many others, was “impressed” by DeepSeek, the Chinese artificial intelligence company whose chatbot recently became the most downloaded app in the U.S.Amazon’s quarterly report comes as the retail industry is absorbing a new 10% tariff President Donald Trump imposed on Chinese imports on Tuesday. Tariffs on Canada and Mexico have been put on hold for about a month.Trump also threw out a trade exemption that allowed low-value shipments from China to bypass duties, a loophole that had given an advantage to China-founded e-commerce firms, such as Shein and Temu.The new tariffs could benefit Amazon by increasing costs for its competitors. But it would also impact Chinese sellers who connect with American consumers on the company’s shopping platform. Furthermore, it could raise prices on a recently-launched online storefront that Amazon set up to ship low-cost products directly from China. The storefront, called Amazon Haul, was Amazon’s answer to Shein and Temu.Additionally, analysts from Morgan Stanley wrote in a Monday note that Amazon’s first-party retail business, though which the company sells products purchased from manufacturers, has the highest exposure to the tariffs. The analysts estimate 25% of the merchandise sold through that business comes from China. Haleluya Hadero, Associated Press
Category:
E-Commerce
Indonesian authorities have ordered the halting of development of a tourism project affiliated with U.S. President Donald Trump over water management and environmental issues, officials said Friday.The 3,000-hectare (11.6-square-mile) project is the brainchild of Trump’s Indonesian business partner, billionaire and politician Hary Tanoesoedibjo, who attended Trump’s inauguration in Washington last month.His association with Trump began in 2014 when his group company, MNC, was looking for an operator for sprawling “six star” resorts, one to be built on the tourist island of Bali and the other near Jakarta.In exchange for a cut of the revenue, the Trump Organization would manage hotels, golf courses and country clubs that would cost about $700 million for MNC to build. The projects form the core of larger developments that the company plans.In a January 2017 interview with The Associated Press, Tanoesoedibjo, better known as Tanoe, said that developing the whole 3,000 hectares of Lido City would take more than a decade and cost up to $3 billion, of which the Trump properties would cost more than $300 million.The company has been promoting the project for years. In 2023, then Indonesian President Joko Widodo gave it special economic zone status, providing MNC Land with tax breaks and leniency on permits.A sprawling “Trump Community” has been built since 2014 in this pocket of Indonesia’s most densely populated island, with a new toll road leading to it, located in Gunung Gede Pangrango, about 60 kilometers (37 miles) south of the capital, Jakarta, and is home to a new Trump golf course, which started offering membership last year.Though a private development, Lido City suits the Indonesian government’s ambitions to create more tourist destinations that it hopes will be as popular as Bali.It’s part of broader plans, including a huge theme park, that have alarmed conservationists who fear development will overwhelm habitats for some of the archipelago’s most threatened species.The Environment Ministry said in a statement that mismanagement of rainwater at the resort had caused sedimentation in Lido Lake, making it shallower and halving the size of the body of water to 12 hectares (30 acres).“The mismatch between environmental plans and physical implementation is a serious concern in efforts to preserve natural resources,” said Ardyanto Nugroho, the ministry’s director of environmental complaints, monitoring and law enforcement.He said that his team was still waiting for laboratory test results to determine further steps in the environmental law enforcement process.“We committed to preserving the environment and will take firm action against violations that impact the ecosystem and surrounding communities,” Nugroho said.Local media reports showed a board with a sign that the project was under “supervision” installed on one side of Lido Lake.Gunung Gede Pangrango is one of the last virgin tropical forests in Java, where only 2% of original forest remains. It nurtures a dazzling variety of flora and fauna: more than 2,000 species of ferns, mosses and flowering plants, and 250 species of birds.Endangered species include the Javan slow loris the world’s only venomous primate the Javan leaf monkey, the Javan leopard, whose total population numbers less than 250, and the Javan hawk-eagle and Javan silvery gibbon.The park has a rehabilitation center for silvery gibbons that have been rescued from the illegal wildlife trade. The gibbons, known for practicing lifelong monogamy and their distinctively small, intense faces, number fewer than 4,000 in the wild.PT MNC Land President Director Budi Rustanto denied that his company’s project had caused the sedimentation in Lido Lake, saying it also came from other projects, offices, housing and buildings in the surrounding area, including a government office compound and existing community settlements.He said that his property firm had followed the criteria and prerequisites related to the environmental impact analysis, known as AMDAL.“Since 2013, we have always tried to overcome the problem of shallowing of the lake, this is because 50% of the lake area is in our development area,” Rustanto told Kompas news outlet, adding that a number of efforts will continue to be made to overcome the problem of shallowing of the lake, including dredging plans.Environmentalists welcomed the government’s move as a sign that it was serious in addressing the failure of project management to consider the environmental impact near the land designated as a Special Economic Zone.Executive Chair of Konservasi Indonesia, Meizani Irmadhiany, said the Lido area is one of the most important watersheds of the Cimandiri river and part of the landscape of Gunung Gede Pangrango National Park, not only for the people of West Java but also for the residents of Jakarta.“The slope contours serve as a significant water catchment area, and the area planned for the project is located on critical land,” Irmadhiany said. “It is time for the business sector to prioritize environmental principles which have direct impacts on the environment and communities, as well as business itself in the long run, before and during development.” Niniek Karmini, Associated Press
Category:
E-Commerce
E.l.f. Beauty (NYSE: ELF) saw its stock plunge in extended trading on Thursday after the company cut its full-year guidance. As of premarket trading on Friday morning, shares were down more than 25% to $66.15, lows not seen since 2023. The stock has fallen significantly from its 2024 high of $221.83. The cosmetics brand posted strong Q3 revenue results, surpassing analyst expectations with a 31.1% year-over-year increase to $355.3 million. Despite stronger-than-expected holiday sales, profits came in below estimates. Key financial results E.l.f. Beauty adjusted its full-year revenue forecast to $1.31 billion, slightly below previous estimates, and revised its earnings per share and EBITDA guidance downward as well. Here are other key takeaways, per consensus estimates cited by CNBC: Full fiscal year guidance: Sales between $1.3 billion and $1.31 billion (below estimates of $1.34 billion). Previous guidance was $1.32 billion to $1.34 billion. Earnings per share: 74 cents adjusted versus expected EPS of 75 cents. Revenue: $355 million, compared to $330 million (up 31% from $271 million a year earlier). Net income: $17.3 million, or 30 cents per share (compared to $26.9 million, or 46 cents per share, a year earlier), What’s driving the stock price decline? Investors are likely concerned about the lower forecast. The company cited the Los Angeles wildfires and speculation about the future of TikTok as factors for a muted start to 2025. First, the category continued to decline in January, CEO Tarang Amin said on E.l.f. Beautys earnings call. We believe this decline is reflective of consumers stocking up in a highly promotional December, and lower social conversation around beauty. He continued: Consumer mindshare is focused elsewhere, including wildfires in L.A. and uncertainty around the TikTok platform. E.l.f. executives suggested the company was less concerned about President Trumps tariff increases on Chinese-made goods, which account for most of its production, pointing to a proven strategy from 2019. As a reminder, tariff heights will not impact our current fiscal year results. We plan to address our response to the incremental tariffs in our fiscal 2026 outlook in May, CFO Mandy Fields said on the earnings call. We believe we have a successful playbook to leverage from 2019 when tariffs move to the 25% level. This included supplier concessions, cost savings and select price increases. CEO emphasizes the positive Despite the revised outlook, Amin said he remains optimistic: We believe we are still in the early innings of unlocking the whitespace we see across digital, color cosmetics, skin care, and international, he said.
Category:
E-Commerce
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