Amazon braces for loss

Amazon.com Inc on Thursday said it could post its first quarterly loss in five years because it is spending at least $4 billion in response to the coronavirus pandemic, including plans to test its workforce for Covid-19.

Shares of Amazon, the world’s largest online retailer, fell 5 per cent in after-hours trade.

Jeff Bezos, the company’s founder and the world’s richest person, said in a statement, “We’re not thinking small”, a sign that the e-commerce company would invest heavily during the pandemic. Rival brick-and-mortar retailers have had to shut stores, while Amazon hired 175,000 people.

This quarter, withUS government-mandated lockdowns in full swing, Amazon said it could see a 28 per cent rise in revenue to $81 billion.