AMAZON AND APPLE SHRUG OFF TECH TURMOIL

SHARES in Amazon and Apple rose last night as quarterly results outshone Wall Street expectations.

E-commerce giant Amazon climbed 12pc as it raked in sales of £99bn in just three months. Apple was up by almost 3pc as it notched up sales of £68bn, a rise of 2pc, and said the impact of parts shortages had not been as bad as feared.

The results allayed worries about the impact of the global economic slowdown on the two tech giants.

Amazon’s sales boost was helped by higher fees from its Prime loyalty subscribers as well as merchants using its services to sell and ship goods.

Its stock surge in after-hours trading added more than £100bn to its market value and £10bn to the personal fortune of founder and major shareholder Jeff Bezos ( picturedwithgirlfriendLaurenSanchez).

Investors shrugged off a bottom line loss of £1.7bn, blamed on a write down of the valuation of its investment in electric car maker Rivian.

Chief executive Andy Jassy said that despite inflationary pressures in fuel, energy and transport costs it was making progress on costs.

Tech shares have tumbled this year with New York’s tech heavy Nasdaq index down by 23pc so far in 2022. Earlier this week, Facebook owner Meta reported its first-ever quarterly drop in revenues as recession fears and competitive pressures weighed on its digital ad sales. Elsewhere Alphabet, the owner of Google, delivered better-than-expected sales numbers while social media firms Snap and Twitter missed targets and warned of an ad market slowdown.