Amazon will report its first-quarter earnings for the 2025 fiscal year on Thursday after the New York stock exchange closes – results that will be seen in the context of consumer resilience in the face of Donald Trump’s tariff wars.
Analysts estimate that Amazon’s earnings-per-share will come in at $1.36 on revenue of $155bn. The company has exceeded Wall Street’s expectations for the previous two quarters. At the close of the first quarter last year, the company reported earnings of $0.98 per share on sales of $143bn.
Amazon’s earnings report comes as its stock price has dropped 17% this year over fears that consumers will cut back on purchases in response to the US president’s tariffs. A large number of products on Amazon ship from China, which faces a tariff of a whopping 145% imposed by Trump. The company is expected to report its slowest rate of revenue growth for any period since 2022. Poor consumer sentiment numbers alongside gross domestic product figures reported this week showed the US economy contracting at a 0.3% annualized pace in the first quarter.
Amazon’s earnings are a backdrop for how the “magnificent seven” tech giants are learning how to deal with the Trump administration and its ongoing trade war with China and other countries. Meta and Microsoft reported strong earnings on Wednesday despite the uncertainty brought on by the tariffs, though their businesses are somewhat more insulated from duties imposed on imports than Amazon.
Analysts at UBS said in a note to clients that at least 50% of items sold on Amazon are subject to Trump’s tariffs and could become more expensive as a result.
“Consumers therefore might have to make more difficult choices on where to allocate their dollars,” UBS analysts said.
Earlier this month, Amazon CEO, Andy Jassy, told CNBC that Amazon has not seen a drop-off in consumer demand and the company is “going to try and do everything we can” to keep prices low for customers. But he acknowledged some third-party sellers will “need to pass that cost” of tariffs on to consumers.
Earlier this week, the company found itself in the White House crosshairs after a report said that the online retail giant was planned to itemize tariff-related increases in pricing. White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, called the move a “hostile and political act”.
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Amazon denied the reports in a statement, saying the plan was “never approved” and displaying tariff costs is “not going to happen”.
Trump reportedly put in a call to Amazon co-founder Jeff Bezos on Tuesday morning. “Jeff Bezos was very nice. He was terrific,” he later told reporters. “He solved the problem very quickly. Good guy.”
But Massachusetts senator Elizabeth Warren criticized the tense exchange, asking in a letter if Bezos received any “promises or favors” from Trump in exchange for his “subservience” and said it raised concerns “about the potential for tariff-related corruption”.
