Amazon.com Inc (NASDAQ:AMZN) will be posting third quarter results next Thursday, although founder Jeff Bezos’ recent comments seem very pessimistic on the outlook.
Recently, the 58 year old billionaire tweeted that consumers in this economy will “batten down the hatches” with regards to consumer spending, agreeing with the boss Goldman Sachs boss David Solomon's opinion that there is a good chance of a recession.
How Amazon will adjust its own guidance on outlook, is another matter, given its irons in so many fires, including retail, video streaming and its AWS cloud platform.
The group’s second quarter results were upbeat, revealing a promising outlook for these numbers.
Amazon said it expects to post third revenues of between US$125bn and US$130bn, up from US$121.2bn in the second.
Profits will be in focus as it faces more cost and wage inflation, having been forced to raise pay for its warehouse staff recently amid rising costs of living, strikes and budding unionisation.
In the second quarter it posted a loss, but investors were impressed as revenue grew ahead of estimates.
Interesting thing to keep an eye out for would be management's comment on the recent £0.9bn compensation claim in the UK, the move into price comparison sites, into the health sector and on its Prime subscription services, as consumers look to cut back on spending.
Following quickly on the heels of Netflix, the US$1trn company will be hoping to follow its streaming rival's footsteps on new subscribers.
Although it is one of the largest companies in the world, it hasn’t been immune to the cost-of-living crisis and central bank tightening, with its share price down 33% in the year to date.