Forum Archive Index - November 2000

["Ben Dutton" <bendutton@sharechat.co.nz>]

Hugh - I've looked around, and it seems that Amazon, unlike some other U.S.
retailers, have not released their Thanksgiving sales figures.  However,
this report from Reuters seems to indicate that not all is smooth sailing at
the Internet bellwether:


11-28-00 11:38:56 AM Amazon trades lower after analysts advise caution

    LOS ANGELES, Nov 28 (Reuters) - Shares of Internet retailer
Amazon.com (AMZN.O) slipped on Tuesday after at least three
Wall Street analysts put out cautious reports on the company.
    Amazon shares were down about 8.5 percent, or $2-3/8 to
$25-5/8 in morning trading on Nasdaq on brisk trading volume of
nearly 6 million shares. Shares of the Seattle-based company
have slipped steadily from their highs of $113 in December of
last year, amid jitters over its cash position.
    Amazon's stock also lost ground on Monday, as analysts
raised questions over its Thanksgiving weekend sales and a
30-minute outage on its Web site Friday, typically one of the
busiest shopping days of the year. Amazon said the outage was
not related to the spike in holiday traffic.
    Brokerage SG Cowen said fourth quarter sales data so far
have not been clear. It cited a more difficult environment for
consumer disposable income, less online advertising spending
and greater competition from traditional retailers, Wal-Mart
Stores Inc. (WMT.N) and Target Corp. (TGT.N).
    The last three months of the year are critical for Amazon, and
other retailers, due to the bulk of sales occurring during the
holiday season.
    Tom Courtney, analyst with Banc of America Securities,
issued a report saying he believed Amazon's growth rate would
slow considerably in 2001.
    "We maintain our rating of Market Performer and would avoid
the stock. Although it may have one last run going into the
holiday period, we believe that Amazon has several red flags
that demand investor attention," he said.
    Meanwhile, Dain Rauscher Wessels in a report offered a more
positive outlook and raised its fourth quarter sales estimates to
$1.04 billion from $989 million. It kept its buy rating and a $50
price target, but advised that high shipping costs could be a
concern for Amazon.

Best Regards

Benjamin Dutton

----- Original Message -----
From: "hugh webber" <hugh.webber@clear.net.nz>
To: <sharechat@sharechat.co.nz>
Sent: Tuesday, November 28, 2000 9:43 PM
Subject: Re: [sharechat] FW: US Thanksgiving sales were hot


> how did sales at Amazon.com go?
>
> ----------
> > From: Wedde, John <john.wedde@cit.ac.nz>
> > To: 'Sharechat@sharechat.co.nz'
> > Subject: [sharechat] FW: US Thanksgiving sales were hot
> > Date: Monday, 27 November 2000 10:49
> >
> > I know that one fine day does not a summer make but check out this
report
> > from the USA.
> > All you cynics note the mention of Yahoo. Etail will see its day. Make
no
> > mistake about this!!
> >
> >
> >
> > The US shopping season gets underway at Thanksgiving.  This data is
> closely
> > analysed as it is the 8th largest shopping day of the year.  All
> indications
> > are that shopping was brisk and above expectations; sales value up 4.6%
> on
> > last year (expectations were for a 4% rise).  However, price incentive
> were
> > seen to be required to draw crowds.  It is estimated that 67 million
> people
> > headed to shopping malls.
> >
> > Wal-Mart had its best day ever, sales at Yahoo (for those that could not
> > stand the crowds) doubled last years. Visa processed 3032 transactions
> per
> > second (10,915200 in the hour) in the peak shopping hour of 2pm to 3pm,
> 13%
> > higher than last year.
> >
> > So, the US consumer has not given up yet but is not as aggressive as
> he/she
> > was last year when sales were 6.2% higher than the previous year.
> >
> > This data should support US equity prices, particularly those of
> retailers
> > and Etailers.
> >
> >
> > ######################################################################
> > This e-mail message has been scanned and cleared by MailMarshal
> >
> > ######################################################################
> >
> >
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