Amazon’s 1Q earnings beat expectations + South Korea’s exports boomed in April

Amazon tripled its quarterly bottomline y-o-y to USD 10.4 bn in Q1 2024 rising above Wall Street’s expectations, Reuters reports. Sales spiked by 13% to USD 143.3 bn, growing beyond the USD 142.5 bn average. The tech giant’s earnings growth was driven by marked interest in AI. Amazon’s leading cloud-computing services subsidiary Amazon Web Services recorded a 17% jump in revenues to USD 25 bn, exceeding expectations of USD 24.53 bn. However, the firm expects its 2Q revenues to settle between USD 144 bn and USD 149 bn, which is less than analyst expectations of USD 150.07 bn.

South Korea’s exports boomed in April on the back of record demand from the US, Bloomberg reports. South Korea’s export shipments that reflect working-day differences witnessed an 11.3% y-o-y increase, while overall imports increased 5.4%, with the trade surplus being recorded as USD 1.5 bn, the outlet reports. Exports to the US reached a record high of USD 11.4 bn, a 24% y-o-y increase. Shipments to China amounted to USD 10.5 bn, making April the third month with exports to the US exceeding those to China. The shift in South Korea’s trade activity comes amid efforts by the US to curb China’s dominance in global trade, with China having stood as the primary destination for South Korean products for two decades.

El Nino is to blame for the reduced water levels at the Panama Canal last year, not climate change, Reuters reports, citing a study by research firm World Weather Attribution. Management of the canal’s waters, including prioritizing water for human consumption rather than the canal, also contributed to the low water levels, which led to the enforcement of shipping restrictions and disruption in global trade, says the newswire. As El Nino ends and the rainy season arrives on cue, the canal’s operations are expected to return to normal. “We expect the canal system will be fully recharged by the end of the year and shipping should be back to normal sometime several months before then,” the study’s co-author Steven Paton said.

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• Qantas’ privacy breach exposes passenger data: Some customers using Australian airline Qantas’ app were shown other passengers’ names, flight details, and loyalty status. The carrier has apologized and said that the incident is likely due to a technical issue, and not a cyber attack (CNBC)