Amazon (AMZN) announced a "record-breaking" holiday season with more items ordered worldwide than ever before, as the e-commerce giant seeks to beat a relatively weak outlook for the quarter. Amazon had forecasted stagnant to minimal growth in operating income year over year. Meanwhile, Mastercard SpendingPulse reported that U.S. holiday sales increased 5.1% this year, calling this "the strongest growth in the last six years."
RECORD-BREAKING HOLIDAY SALES FOR AMAZON: Amazon announced a record-breaking holiday season with more items ordered worldwide than ever before. Amazon customers shopped at record levels from a wide selection of products across every department. Some of the best-selling products this season included, Echo Dot, L.O.L. Surprise! glam glitter series doll, fashion items from Carhartt and Bose QuietComfort wireless headphones. Customers also purchased millions more Amazon Devices this holiday season compared to last year, with the best-selling Amazon Devices this holiday including the Echo Dot, Fire TV Stick 4K with all-new Alexa Voice Remote, and Echo, the company reported. Prime membership continued to grow this holiday season, with "tens of millions" of people starting Prime free trials or paid memberships gaining exclusive shopping and entertainment benefits. “This season was our best yet, and we look forward to continuing to bring our customers what they want, in ways most convenient for them in 2019. We are thrilled that in the U.S. alone, more than one billion items shipped for free this holiday with Prime,” said Jeff Wilke, CEO Worldwide Consumer at Amazon.
U.S. HOLIDAY SEASON RETAIL SALES UP: Mastercard (MA) SpendingPulse reported that U.S. holiday sales from November 1 through December 24 increased 5.1% to more than $850B this year, calling this "the strongest growth in the last six years." Online shopping also saw gains of 19.1% compared to 2017, according to Mastercard SpendingPulse, which reports on national retail sales across all payment types based on aggregate sales activity in the Mastercard payments network, coupled with survey-based estimates for certain other payment forms, such as cash and check. The report noted, however, that poor weather “did pose an issue during some primetime shopping periods. This included cold weather on Black Friday morning on the East Coast and wet weather conditions the weekend of December 15-16, on both the East and West coasts. Conditions were also less than ideal on Friday, December 21, in the East, with storms that impacted the final run of the season.” Additionally, Mastercard stated that total apparel had a strong season with a growth rate of 7.9% compared to 2017, while electronics and appliances were down 0.7%. "Department stores finished the season with a 1.3% decline from 2017. This follows two years with growth below 2%, some of which can be attributed to store closings. However, the online sales growth for department stores indicated a more positive story, with growth of 10.2%," the report added.
RETAIL NAMES: Publicly traded department store retailers include J.C. Penney (JCP), Kohl's (KSS), Macy's (M), Nordstrom (JWN) and Sears (SHLD). Mass market retailers include Walmart (WMT) and Target (TGT). Specialty retailers include Best Buy (BBY), Gap (GPS) and L Brands (LB).
PRICE ACTION: In morning trading, shares of Amazon have gained about 3.5% to $1,390.52.
Amazon.com
+55.2 (+4.13%)
MasterCard
+6.45 (+3.72%)
JCP
+
Kohl's
+2.19 (+3.65%)
Macy's
+1.2399 (+4.45%)
Nordstrom
+1.26 (+2.85%)
SHLD
+
Walmart
+1.71 (+2.00%)
Target
+1.46 (+2.39%)
Best Buy
+1.05 (+2.18%)
Gap
+0.69 (+2.83%)
L Brands
+0.45 (+1.84%)