Amazon, meanwhile, swung back to a full-year profit of more than $30 billion with handy contributions from advertising sales and its high-margin servers business.
Sam Rines at research firm CORBU in Texas says the duo are beneficiaries of corporate spending across the U.S. to boost product volume.
“Some will find volume, many will not,” he said in a note. “The advertisers will find revenues.”
The solid reports had the two companies outshining the other “Magnificent Seven” stocks: Microsoft, Tesla, Apple and Alphabet, which were punished by investors following their earnings announcements, and Nvidia, which reports later in February.
The Seven account for nearly 29% of the S&P 500 and their outperformance – collectively they were responsible for 62% of the index’s total return last year – is starting to generate some discomfort.
Amazon and Nvidia are particularly expensive, with price-to-earnings ratios in the eighties, as investors seem willing to bet that profit growth will eventually justify the valuations.
/cloudfront-us-east-2.images.arcpublishing.com/reuters/7N5747F7YZNCJHAXHH2ZJMRRY4.jpg "Markets bask in afterglow of tech outperformers 40")
