Amazon shares smash through $1,000 barrier

SHARES in online retail giant Amazon have climbed above the $1,000 mark for the first time.

The US firm saw its shares touch $1,001.2 in early trading yesterday.

It was a monumental milestone for the company which first listed its shares in May 1997 for just $18 each.

Amazon’s climb to $1,000 also meant that it beat Google parent Alphabet to the milestone. Shares of the two companies have been neck-and-neck in recent days, as investors continue to buy into both tech giants.

Amazon, founded by Jeff Bezos ( pic- turedwithhiswifeMack enzie), started as a bookseller but has steadily expanded. It has a market capitalisation of about £372bn and, according to consultancy Slice Intelligence, it now accounts for about 43pc of all online sales in the US.

In addition to its large e-commerce business, it has found success in its web services division that offers cloud computing power used by high-profile companies such as video-streaming site Netflix. It is the fourth-largest US company by market capitalisation, behind Apple, Alphabet and Microsoft.