Amazon reports earnings as investors weigh the impact of Trump tariffs | Amazon
Amazon will see first-quarter earnings for fiscal 2025 Thursday after the NYSE ends – the results will be seen in the context of consumer resilience in the face of Donald Trump’s tariff war.
Analysts estimate Amazon's earnings per share will be $1.36 and revenue will be $1.55 billion. The company exceeded Wall Street's expectations for the first two quarters. At the end of the first quarter of last year, the company reported earnings per share of $143 billion.
Amazon's earnings report comes as its stock price fell 17% this year due to fears consumers will reduce their purchases in response to the U.S. president's tariffs. A large number of products from China’s Amazon ships face a 145% tariff imposed by Trump. The company is expected to report the slowest revenue growth in any period since 2022. Consumer sentiment figures and GDP data reported this week showed that the U.S. economy was 0.3% annual parity in the first quarter.
Amazon’s revenue is the backdrop of how the “outstanding seven” tech giants learn how to deal with the Trump administration and its ongoing trade war with China and other countries. Despite the uncertainty brought by tariffs, Meta and Microsoft had high revenue rates on Wednesday, although their business was less affected than the responsibilities imposed by Amazon.
At least 50% of the items sold by Amazon are subject to Trump's tariffs, and therefore may become more expensive, UBS analysts said in a report to clients.
“So, consumers may have to make more difficult choices where they allocate the dollar,” UBS analysts said.
Earlier this month, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy told CNBC that Amazon did not see a drop in consumer demand and that the company “will try to do everything possible” to keep customers at a lower price. But he acknowledged that some third-party sellers would “need to give tariff fees” to consumers.
Earlier this week, the company found itself on the White House Crosshair after a report said the company planned to list tariff-related price increases. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt called the move “hostile and political act.”
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Amazon denied the reports in a statement, saying the plan was “never approved” and that it showed tariff fees “will not occur.”
Trump reportedly called Amazon co-founder Jeff Bezos on Tuesday morning. “Jeff Bezos is very good. He is great,” he later told reporters. “He solved this problem quickly. Good man.”
But Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren criticized the tense exchange, asking in a letter whether Bezos received any “promise or favor” from Trump in exchange for his “rejection” and said it raised “potential concerns about tariff-related corruption.”