Amazon stock surges as earnings exceed expectations.

Amazon.com (AMZN) exceeded earnings and revenue expectations in its quarterly report, boosting its stock in after-hours trading.

The company earned $1 per share on sales of $170 billion for the December-ending quarter, surpassing analyst projections.

Quarterly sales increased by 14% year over year, with earnings significantly rising from the previous year.

Amazon Web Services (AWS) saw a 13% year-over-year sales increase to $24.2 billion, meeting expectations for the cloud computing division.

Amazon forecasted sales of $138 billion to $143.5 billion for the current quarter, slightly below analyst estimates.

Direct online store sales rose 8% annually to $70.5 billion, surpassing expectations.

Advertising emerged as Amazon's fastest-growing business, with sales growing 26% year over year to $14.7 billion.

AWS remained a significant profit driver, contributing $7.2 billion in operating income out of Amazon's total operating income of $13.2 billion.

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