Amazon, Intel shares fall on results, forecasts

Amazon reported its first quarterly loss since 2015. The online retailer and Intel both issued forecasts that missed the mark.

Shares of both companies are falling in the premarket and will have an impact on Friday morning's trading.

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Amazon was stalled by the COVID-19 pandemic as online shopping slowed, and the company had a huge write-down of its investment in an electric vehicle startup.

Shares of the e-commerce giant fell almost 9% in the premarket.

Amazon reported a loss of $3.84 billion, or $7.56 a share. A year ago, it reported a profit of $8.1 billion, or $15.79 a share, for the first quarter. Wall Street analysts expected a profit of $8.35 a share in the latest quarter, according to FactSet.

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The red ink in Amazon's report came mostly from the company's accounting for a $7.6 billion loss in value of its stock investment in Rivian Automotive. Rivian went public in late 2021 and its stock traded at close to $180 at one point. It closed Thursday at $32.18. Ford Motor Co. reported a similar write-down of the value of its Rivian investment Wednesday.

Amazon has also felt the pressure of increased costs.

"The cost to ship in overseas containers more than doubled compared to pre-pandemic rates. And the cost of fuel is approximately 1.5 times higher than it was even a year ago," said CFO Brian Olsavsky in the earnings conference call. "Combined with the year-over-year increases in wage inflation, these inflationary pressures have added approximately $2 billion of incremental costs when compared to last year."

Revenue rose 7% to $116.44 billion, compared with $108.52 billion in first quarter 2021, representing the company’s sixth consecutive quarter of revenue topping $100 billion. 

Amazon’s cloud-computing business grew 37% in the quarter. And sales in its advertising business rose 25%.

Amazon said it forecasts sales for the current quarter to range between $116 billion and $121 billion, below the $125.33 billion that analysts are forecasting.

Chipmaker Intel forecast second-quarter revenue and profit below Wall Street expectations on worries of weak demand in its largest market, PCs, and increased supply-chain uncertainty due to COVID-19 lockdowns in China.

Shares of the company fell 3% in premarket trading.

Rising inflation, resurgence of COVID-19 in China and uncertainties around the war in Ukraine have shifted consumer spending, impacting Intel.

More than half of its revenue last year came from selling processors for PCs, according to Reuters.

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"In the supply chain, lockdowns in Shanghai and the war in Ukraine have demonstrated more than ever that the world needs more resilient and more geographically-balanced semiconductor manufacturing," said CEO Pat Gelsinger. "The chip shortage cost the U.S. economy $240 billion last year, and we expect the industry will continue to see challenges until at least 2024 in areas like foundry capacity and tool availability."

Revenue at Intel's Client Computing Group, which supplies PC makers and is the largest contributor to the company's revenue, fell 13% to $9.3 billion in the first quarter.

The company expects current-quarter adjusted profit of 70 cents per share on revenue of about $18 billion, below analysts' average estimate of 83 cents per share on $18.38 billion, according to IBES data from Refinitiv.

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However, adjusted revenue for the first quarter was $18.4 billion, compared with analysts' average estimate of $18.31 billion.

On an adjusted basis, Intel earned 87 cents per share, above expectations of 81 cents.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.