Amazon crushes earnings as Jeff Bezos prepares to leave

Amazon shares rose after the e-commerce giant reported a record quarterly profit as pandemic-fueled demand for online shopping lifted its first-quarter earnings, helped by growth in its cloud computing business.

The company reported sales of $108.5 billion, up 44 percent from a year prior, and a staggering $8.1 billion profit. Both far exceeded Wall Street expectations. Shares of Amazon were up more than 2 percent in the premarket.