First quarterly loss in years for Amazon

Amazon reported its first quarterly loss since 2015 on Thursday, its money-making juggernaut stalled by a slowdown in pandemic-induced online shopping and a huge write-down of its investment in an electric-vehicle startup.

The Seattle-based e-commerce giant’s stock fell almost 10 percent in after-hours trading. Amazon reported a loss of $3.84 billion, or $7.56 a share, for the first three months of the year.

A year ago, it reported a profit of $8.1 billion, or $15.79 a share, for the first quarter. The red ink in Amazon’s report came from the accounting for a $7.6 billion loss in value of its stock investment in Rivian Automotive.

• Apple on Thursday reported quarterly results that topped analysts’ profit projections despite supply shortages, economic fallout from the Russia-Ukraine war and a growth slowdown from the huge sales lift that technology products and service got from pandemic restrictions. The results for the January-March period drew a picture of a still-expanding empire generating massive profits that have yielded the firm a $2.7 trillion market value — the largest among U.S. companies. Apple announced a 5 percent increase in its quarterly dividend, which has been steadily rising since the company revived the payment a decade ago.

• McDonald’s said higher U.S. menu prices and easing COVID restrictions elsewhere helped offset troubled markets like China and Russia in the first quarter. The Chicagobased burger giant said Thursday its revenue rose 11 percent to $5.66 billion in the January-March period. McDonald’s announced in early March that it would temporarily close 850 stores in Russia, and 108 restaurants in Ukraine. It continues to pay its employees in both countries. McDonald’s said it spent $27 million on salaries, leases and supplier payments in Russia and Ukraine during the quarter.

• Robinhood’s revenue fell more than expected at year’s start as growth slammed into reverse. Robinhood Markets, whose trading app has turned millions of people into investors for the first time, said Thursday that it took in $299 million in revenue during the first three months of the year, down 43 percent from a year earlier. It also reported a net loss of $392 million.