Amazon sales to decelerate as pandemic high wanes

The Seattle-based company’s shares fell 6 percent in after-hours trading.

Amazon.com Inc.’s second-quarter sales and forecast for the current period fell short of analysts’ expectations, suggesting the biggest online retailer’s rapid growth through the pandemic is waning as people revert to old shopping habits. Shares fell more than 6% in extended trading. The Seattle-based company rallied through the pandemic as shoppers shifted much of their spending from stores to websites. Amazon invested billions on pandemic safety measures to keep operating while minimizing the spread of Covid-19 through its facilities and hiring hundreds of thousands of workers to meet crushing demand. New Chief Executive Officer Andy Jassy, who took the helm from founder Jeff Bezos on July 5, has to show investors he can continue the company’s rapid sales growth and rising profits beneath the heightened scrutiny of regulators in the U.S. and Europe. Investors overlooked better-than-predicted profits and a strong performance in the quarter from the company’s advertising business and Amazon Web Services cloud unit. Instead, they focused on slowing momentum for its central e-commerce business, said Pedro Palandrani, an analyst at GlobalX.