Amazon Inc shares remained higher for the second straight session on Wednesday, March 04, rising 4.2% to the day’s high of $217.54, also marking the highest level in a month. The company’s shares surprisingly showed limited reaction to the rising tensions in the Middle East, even as its key cloud units were attacked.
Amazon, along with other major tech companies, is reportedly pulling back some operations in Dubai amid escalating tensions in the Gulf region. Amazon’s cloud unit, AWS, said on Monday that drone strikes impacted its facilities in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Bahrain amid the Middle East conflict.
Amazon said two sites took direct hits, while another suffered nearby blast damage that interrupted power and cooling systems. AWS is Amazon’s cloud computing arm, essentially the digital backbone powering websites, apps, and corporate IT systems across the globe.
The company told corporate employees across the Middle East to shift to remote work and follow local government guidance. Its logistics network, including warehouses and delivery operations, is still running where possible, but corporate activity has slowed, CNBC reported.
Amazon expanded its logistics footprint in the Middle East following its $600 million acquisition of Souq.com in 2017. The UAE serves as the backbone of this network, which also comprises Amazon marketplaces in Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and Turkey.
Amazon has not specified how long these delays will last or how much longer deliveries in Abu Dhabi will remain suspended, Mint reported earlier.
For the December-ending quarter, the Nasdaq-listed company reported revenue of $213.4 billion, a 14% increase from the same period last year. Net income for the fourth quarter stood at $21.19 billion, or $1.95 per share, compared with $20 billion, or $1.86 per share, a year ago.
Apart from Amazon, other Magnificent Seven stocks such as Tesla, Meta, Nvidia, Apple, and Microsoft are trading with gains of up to 3%.
Wall Street rebounds
The US stock market staged a smart recovery, with the S&P 500 gaining 0.7%, while the Nasdaq Composite moved 1.3% higher. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 217 points, or 0.4%, as the softening of crude oil prices and the latest jobs data reinforced confidence among investors, even as tensions in the Middle East continued to escalate.
Donald Trump said that the US would provide risk insurance for all maritime trade through the Gulf in an effort to get tankers moving through the Strait of Hormuz.
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