Tech Leads Rally; S&P 500 Is Positive
New York — U.S. stocks closed higher on Friday, delivering their second gain in two days and pushing the Standard & Poor’s 500 index back into positive territory for the year. Strong quarterly earnings from several big-name technology companies helped rally the market, which has been gradually regaining ground following a swoon in August and September. Microsoft vaulted to a 15-year high, while Amazon and Google’s parent company,...
Wal-Mart Warns Wall Street That Its Profits Will Fall; Shares Plummet
Wal-Mart delivered a disappointing message to Wall Street on Wednesday: Sales will remain sluggish, and profit will be hampered next year by efforts to raise workers’ salaries and improve e-commerce capabilities. The mega-retailer’s stock plunged 10 percent on the news, wiping out about $20 billion in market value. The lackluster forecasts underscore the problems that have dogged Wal-Mart in recent years: It has scrambled to catch up...
Amazon Launches Etsy Competitor
Seattle — Amazon.com finally is launching a long-rumored marketplace to rival handcrafted e-commerce site Etsy. Handmade at Amazon went live Thursday, already populated with more than 5,000 sellers and more than 80,000 products, the e-commerce giant said. In order to get wares onto Handmade, sellers have to apply and be vetted to check on the materials they use and to ensure all products are made by hand. Judging by an early look at...
We Can Hear You Now
San Francisco — Like a lot of teenagers, Aanya Nigam reflexively shares her whereabouts, activities and thoughts on Twitter, Instagram and other social networks without a qualm. But Aanya’s care-free attitude dissolved into paranoia a few months ago shortly after her mother bought Amazon’s Echo, a digital assistant that can be set up in a home or office to listen for various requests, such as for a song, a sports score, the weather,...
Cloud-Computing at Amazon Shows Growth
New York — Amazon’s profitable cloud-computing services business is growing by leaps and bounds. That growth helped the e-commerce company Thursday post a 15 percent first-quarter revenue jump and a smaller-than-expected loss. The results sent Amazon’s shares up 6 percent in aftermarket trading. Investors have been growing restless with Amazon’s long-term strategy of plowing most of the money it makes into new areas like cloud...
