Amazon prepares to deliver quarterly numbers

The final tech major to report in the week will be ecommerce giant Amazon Inc (NASDAQ:AMZN) when it reports its numbers after the Wall Street close on Thursday, the first set of results since founder Jeff Bezos stepped back from the CEO’s chair. However, the change of leadership (if you can call it that with Bezos still serving as executive chairman) is unlikely to bring much change in company direction, while new lockdown measures in several countries are likely to have produced increased sales as consumers have found themselves shut out of the high street. READ: Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos at it again as Amazon boss protests Moon contract The accelerated shift towards digital services caused by the pandemic is also likely to benefit the firm going forward, particularly its Amazon Web Services cloud computing arm despite it facing stiff competition from both Microsoft and Alphabet, both of which reported strong results earlier this week. Investors may also be hoping that the company has managed to effectively handle the ongoing backlash over the working conditions of some of its warehouse workers after memos surfaced earlier this year chastising workers for urinating and defecating in bottles and bags, sparking outrage from multiple sources and increasing calls for US labour law reform and unionisation. Speaking of Bezos, while Amazon’s founder has taken something of a back seat in terms of running the business, his other ventures have landed him back in the spotlight amid something of a billionaire’s tiff. Earlier this week, Bezos locked horns with Tesla Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) boss Elon Musk as the Amazon chairman lodged a formal protest over the award of NASA’s contract to return astronauts to the Moon. Space-X, Musk’s rocket business, won the contract earlier this week sparking the official complaint and another war of Twitter words. Bezos' Blue Origin has accused US Space agency NASA of a last-minute change of terms for the contracts, sparking a mocking retort from Musk on Twitter.