An Amazon delivery worker in San Francisco (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

Amazon CEO Jassy on tariffs: “It’s hard to tell what’s going to happen”

Tariff uncertainty and slowing revenue growth cloud a strong earnings beat.

5/2/25 11:39AM

Amazon beat Wall Street estimates for revenue for the first quarter, but tariffs are making the future hazy, and revenue growth is slowing.

On last night’s earnings call, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy said:

“It’s hard to tell what’s going to happen with tariffs right now. It’s hard to tell where they’re going to settle and when they’re going to settle.”

The company isn’t seeing any significant signs of selling prices shooting up or demand dropping so far, though that could change, Jassy said:

“We haven’t seen any attenuation of demand yet. To some extent, we’ve seen some heightened buying in certain categories that may indicate stocking up in advance of any potential tariff impact.”

Jassy made the case that in times of uncertainty (like the pandemic), retail shoppers turn to brands they can trust, and a recently survey showed that 80% of Americans would consider buying from Amazon.

Jassy said:

“Given our really broad selection, low pricing, and speedy delivery, we have emerged from these uncertain eras with more relative market segment share than we started and better set up for the future. I’m optimistic this could happen again.”

Some of the ways that Amazon execs on the call described the current moment:

“...external environment remains complex...”

“We’re closely monitoring the macroeconomic environment”

“...uncertain environments...”

“....periods of discontinuity...”

There were also some warning signs related to Amazon’s impressive revenue growth. Revenue for its North America unit grew 7.6%, the lowest year-on-year growth since Q1 2022. Amazon’s AWS cloud computing unit, which has been a big growth area for the company, came in slightly below expectations with 17% growth.

Investors were disappointed with Amazon’s guidance for operating income for the current quarter. The FactSet analyst consensus was $17.62 billion, but the company offered a huge range from $13 billion up to $17.5 billion — entirely below expectations.

Max Knoblauch10/24/25

Premium seats help push airlines higher following third-quarter results

Shares of American Airlines are climbing toward the carrier’s best trading day since August 12, when ultra-budget rival Spirit issued its initial warning about its ability to survive. American’s shares are up more than 7% on Friday afternoon.

Investors’ optimism comes a day after American posted a better-than-expected full-year earnings forecast. In a call with investors, American said that it’s ramping up its premium cabin offerings.

“Our ability to grow capacity in premium markets will be further supported as we take delivery of new aircraft and reconfigure our existing fleet. These efforts will allow us to grow our premium seats at nearly two times the rate of main cabin seats,” CEO Robert Isom said. American CFO Devin May said that nose-to-tail retrofits of certain wide-body jets will bump the number of premium seats available on those planes by 25%.

Extra legroom has been a boon for major carriers, particularly this quarter. Delta Air Lines said its premium product revenue grew 9% in Q3, compared to a 4% drop in economy seat revenue. Similarly, United Airlines said its premium revenue grew 6%, outpacing economy. Shares of both airlines were up more than 3% on Friday.

Carriers with less exposure to first- and business-class tickets like Southwest Airlines and JetBlue didn’t see the same amount of momentum on the day.