Amazon is fast becoming a player in the logistics and shipping industry, as the company recently expanded Amazon Air to include 50 new planes and several new regional hubs, including a $1.5 billion hub opening in northern Kentucky in 2021. The move is to handle 26% of the Company’s shipping of online orders through its dedicated air network.By bringing shipping in-house, this will be reduced to about $6 per box which means even cheaper products along with faster deliveries. Currently Amazon Air has planes at 21 U.S. airports and it's opening new regional hubs this year in Fort Worth, Texas, Wilmington, Ohio, and expanding one in Rockford, Illinois.

Amazon is apparently upping the ante against video streaming leader Netflix. Planning to release 30 original movies every year and having splurged a record $47 million for the rights to stream Sundance Film Festival’s five independent films, Amazon seems gung-ho on beefing up content and boosting subscriber growth for its video streaming portal Prime. Amazon Studios chief Jennifer Salke, who joined the company in May, indicated (in an interview to The Hollywood Reporter) that expanding Prime membership and attracting new members were among her primary goals for the streaming platform.Apple Inc. has reportedly invested more than $1 billion into producing original content this year, according to the Wall Street Journal.

For years, rumors have been building of Amazon.com's (NASDAQ:AMZN) intentions in logistics and delivery.The company has added fulfillment and logistics services to the list of competitors in its 10-K report, and has unveiled a program called Amazon Shipping, whereby the company picks up and delivers other shippers' packages. In recent earnings calls, CFO Brian Olsavsky has also begun talking more about the company's ambitions in logistics. Read More...

Amazon is one of the world's most valuable companies, valued at nearly $800 million, and the e-commerce giant pulled in $232.9 billion in global revenue in 2018. And yet, Amazon's federal tax bill this year: $0.READ MORE...

Amazon has decided it won't build its so-called HQ2 in New York.The company abruptly pulled out of the deal that would have brought approximately 25,000 jobs to the city. Local politicians and activists objected to the nearly $3 billion in incentives promised to what is already one of the world's richest, most powerful companies. "We are disappointed to have reached this conclusion — we love New York," the online giant retailer said in a blog post announcing its withdrawal. Amazon announced in November that it had chosen the Long Island City section of Queens for one of two new headquarters, with the other in Arlington, Virginia.

Amazon has secured central London retail space for its checkout-free Amazon Go food stores concept, according to trade publication, The Grocer.This is expected to be the company's first expansion of its automated convenience shops outside the United States. Amazon currently sells food in Britain through its Amazon Fresh, Amazon Pantry and Amazon Prime Now services.

Amazon and General Motors are currently negotiating a deal valued at $1 - $2 billion with Rivian Automotive LLC, a Michigan-based start-up specializing in electric pickup truck manufacturing.If the negotiations conclude successfully, a deal could be announced as early as this month. Tesla, currently the world’s biggest electric car maker, may have a tough time competing with this deal as it is already struggling to balance the production and profits of its flagship Model 3 sedan.

India could lose a vital U.S. trade concession, under which it enjoys zero tariffs on $5.6 billion of exports to the United States, amid a widening dispute over its trade and investment policies, people with close knowledge of the matter said. Read More...

Last December, the Indian government published a circular that prohibits Amazon and Flipkart from selling a companies' products if they have an equity stake in the company.Amazon's e-commerce presence in the country is at a nascent stage, and the region has huge growth potential. According to global consultancy firm PWC, India's e-commerce market is expected to cross the $100 billion mark by 2022, with online retail and travel holding more than a 90% share. Amazon has already invested roughly $5 billion in the market and plans to pour in an additional $2 billion into its Indian wing.

One man’s clearance aisle is another man’s treasure. So goes the mantra for Ryan Grant, a 30-year-old entrepreneur whose company notched over $6 million in sales last year, in part by buying items at his local Walmart and reselling them on Amazon. READ MORE...

A private survey on China's manufacturing sector showed on Friday that factory activity contracted more-than-expected in January — confirming views that the world's second-largest economy started the new year on soft footing. Read More...

E-commerce giant -- and the second most valuable public company in Asia after Tencent -- Alibaba Group’s quarterly report confirmed record slow growth.Third-quarter revenue notched 117.28 billion yuan ($17.47 billion), compared with 83 billion yuan a year earlier — owing to the weakening impact of Chinese economy and a damaging Sino-U.S trade war.  Alibaba’s sales are often considered a benchmark to evaluate consumer spending across the world, and diminishing sales are concerning for  investors, as they are proof of the pressures the company is facing. However, net income rose 33% to 30.96 billion yuan, beating forecasts and sending Alibaba's stock up by about 1.6% in pre-market trade. Typically, Alibaba’s highest sales come from its biggest online sales event, "Singles' Day," that even surpasses the combined sales figure of U.S.’s Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales.

China is expected to report on Monday that economic growth cooled to its slowest in 28 years in 2018 amid weakening domestic demand and bruising U.S. tariffs, adding pressure on Beijing to roll out more support measures to avert a sharper slowdown.Read More...

Chinese foreign direct investment into the U.S. plummeted for a second year in a row, according to new data.Read More...

Chinese internet firm Alibaba (Nasdaq: BABA) has been hit hard by the trade war and a slowing Chinese economy.The worst part is that the company has really strong fundamentals and hasn’t been able to break the downward trend. We see on the daily chart that the highs from June and December connect to form an upper rail to a downward sloped trend channel.

Internet retailer Wayfair (NYSE: W) has seen its stock trend lower since the beginning of October.The stock bounced back from that low and moved back above the $100 level before falling again in December. If you connect the highs from October and December, you get what appears to be the upper rail of a downward sloped trend channel.

Amazon Web Services (AWS) has invested in semiconductor firm Wiliot Inc. Wiliot is  an Israel and San Diego-based company that produces wireless technology for tracking the location of goods during manufacturing.Wiliot is planning to launch a battery-free bluetooth sticker-sized sensor tag, which is expected to be embedded in the production phase of consumer goods.  Amazon’s cloud service is rapidly emerging as one of its most successful businesses.

According to a recent Information Report, Amazon has upped its services by foraying to develop an online videogame steaming service that would stream gameplay over the internet. Currently, the videogame sector is undergoing a paradigm distribution shift from its earlier physical discs to online download.In light of this shift, the emergence of game streaming services will be a significant development, as it may release players from the pressure of buying expensive hardware as the processing power needed to play complex games shifts to data centers, simplifying user devices. According to Amazon, this service will not hit the market until early next year as the company is yet to collaborate with game publishers, whom they have recently approached to consider bringing their content to the streaming service. However, the development of a Web-based gaming hub would mark a significant step for Amazon in a market place already inhabiting players like Microsoft (MSFT) and Google (GOOGL

At a time when traditional brick and mortar retailers are finding it extremely difficult to keep their doors open, Amazon-owned Whole Foods has been gearing up to enhance its omni-channel footprint. Now that Sears has closed stores in 123 locations and Kmart in 205 locations over the last three years, Whole Foods is gearing up to occupy these vacant spots and widen its national presence. This move would mark a major phase of expansion for Whole Foods, which currently has a little more than 470 stores spread across the country, centered mainly around coastal cities and affluent neighborhoods.470 may sound like a lot, but is a far cry from competitors like Walmart (WMT) and Kroger (KR) in the grocery space. With the financial backing of Amazon, Whole Foods has the opportunity to make its presence felt in areas that were once out of reach and to scale up the business at a relatively low cost.

Over the past year, Europe's tech sector has been overshadowed by privacy scandals, stricter regulation and the trade war between the U.S. and China. But there's one bright spot where the outlook isn't quite so bleak: cloud computing.READ MORE...