(Reuters)

A day after Facebook owner Meta Platforms suffered the deepest loss of stock market value in history for a United States company, Amazon logged the greatest ever one-day increase in value.

Shares of the online retail and cloud computing giant surged 13.5 per cent today (February 4) following its blowout quarterly report, expanding its market capitalisation by around US$190 billion by the end of trading.

That beat Apple Inc’s record US$181 billion one-day gain in stock market value on January 28 following the iPhone maker’s own blockbuster quarterly report, according to Refinitiv data.

Amazon is now valued about US$1.6 trillion. With Meta Platforms’ stock slipping 0.3 per cent on Friday, its value stood about US$660 billion.

Amazon’s shares jumped after the company reported better-than-expected profits late on Thursday and said it was hiking the price of its annual US Prime subscriptions by 17 per cent.

Amazon’s surge comes a day after Meta Platforms’ stock market value plunged more than US$200 billion in the biggest single-day loss for a US company after the social media giant issued a dismal forecast.

MOST TRADED STOCK

“After fighting the post-lockdown blues in 2021, we believe Amazon’s fortunes have the potential to improve as 2022 unfolds,” Monness Crespi Hardt analyst Brian White wrote in a research note.

“Amazon is uniquely positioned to exit this crisis as one of the biggest beneficiaries of accelerated digital transformation.”

Retail investors appeared to use Amazon’s rally to take profits. Data on Fidelity’s website showed Amazon was the most traded stock among its customers on Friday, with sell orders outnumbering buy orders by more than two to one.

Apple, Microsoft Corp and Google owner Alphabet Inc remain Wall Street’s most valuable companies, with market capitalisations of US$2.8 trillion, US$2.3 trillion and US$1.9 trillion, respectively, according to Refinitiv.

Amazon’s stock price remains down around 25 per cent from its record high close of US$3,731.41 in July.