Amazon Stock In Focus After Reported Layoffs: Retail Stays Cautious

Shares of Amazon.com ($AMZN) were in the spotlight on Thursday after the company confirmed reported layoffs, with retail sentiment remaining cautious.

The retailer is reportedly cutting 200 jobs focused in Amazon’s core retail unit, including fashion, Prime and private label brands, according to several media reports.

"We're always looking at our team structures to ensure we're best set up to move fast as we innovate for customers," an Amazon spokesperson told Business Insider. "We've adjusted parts of our North America Stores team because we believe this structure will better enable us to deliver on our priorities. As part of these changes, we've made the difficult decision to eliminate a small number of roles, and we're committed to supporting affected employees through their transition." ­

According to the Business Insider report, the layoffs aren’t connected to the closing of 'Try Before You Buy,' formerly known as Prime Wardrobe.

Sentiment on Stocktwits remained ‘neutral’ from a day ago. Message volumes were in the ‘high; category.

AMZN sentiment meter and message volumes on Jan 16 as of 10:39 pm ET

Under its CEO Andy Jassy, the retailer has embarked on a massive cost-cutting effort and has retrenched about 27,000 employees since 2022, CNBC reported. A big chunk of these cuts happened before 2024, followed by sporadic layoffs.

For its fourth quarter, Amazon is expected to post earnings per share of $1.48 on estimated revenue of $187.36 billion as estimated by Wall Street analysts, according to Stocktwits data.

Amazon stock is up 0.58% year-to-date.

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