Amazon shares jump on surprise earnings

Amazon.com reported a surprise second-quarter profit Thursday on continued strength in its cloudcomputing business and strong revenue both domestically and abroad.

Shares jumped 18% as the results bucked Amazon’s longtime strategy of investing the money it earns back into the company, resulting in quarterly losses or thin profits.

Amazon got a boost in revenue from Amazon Web Services, a suite of products and services offered to businesses by way of the “cloud,” or remote servers that enable users to access applications on any machine with an Internet connection.

Revenue from that business climbed 81% to $1.82 billion. Amazon only began breaking out results from that business during the first quarter.

Amazon also said its $99a-year Prime loyalty program helped drive growth during the quarter.

In the final minutes of trading Thursday, shares hit $482.18, an increase of 44% in the last 12 months.

After the earnings came out, shares jumped $85.54 to $567.72 in aftermarket trading.