NEW YORK (AP) — Amazon posted higher first-quarter profit and sales that beat analysts’ projections, underscoring the online behemoth’s hold on shoppers looking for low prices and a wide selection in an uncertain economy.

The Seattle-based company also reported strong sales growth for its prominent cloud computing arm Amazon Web Services, it said after the market closed Thursday.

However, uncertainty about President Donald Trump’s tariffs and consumer spending clouded Amazon’s outlook.

Trump’s erratic trade policies — including 145% tariffs on China — have paralyzed businesses and threaten to raise prices and hurt consumers. However, big companies like Amazon are expected to navigate the climate better than small retailers.

Amazon, along with many large retailers and suppliers, have tried to beat the clock by bringing in foreign goods before Trump’s tariffs took effect. And Amazon’s president and CEO Andy Jassy told analysts during its earnings call that many of its third party sellers did the same. And because of that move, a fair amount of third-party sellers haven’t changed their pricing yet, he said.

Jassy vowed that Amazon would do everything it could to keep prices low, and while he acknowledged challenges ahead, he touted Amazon’s model of vast selection that would help it navigate this new climate.

“When there are uncertain environments, customers tend to choose the provider they trust most,” Jassy told analysts. “Given our really broad selection, low pricing, and speedy delivery, we have emerged from these uncertain eras with more relative market segment share than we started, and better set up for the future.”

On Friday, Trump is also ending a trade exemption that allowed low-value shipments from China to bypass duties, an exemption that had given an advantage to China-founded e-commerce firms, such as Shein and Temu.

The new tariffs could benefit Amazon by increasing costs for its competitors. But it would also affect Chinese sellers who connect with American consumers on the company’s shopping platform. Furthermore, it could increase prices on a recently-launched online storefront that Amazon set up to ship low-cost products directly from China. The storefront, called Amazon Haul, was Amazon’s answer to Shein and Temu.

Amazon said that it earned $17.13 billion, or $1.59 per share, for the quarter ended March 31. That’s up from $10.43 billion, or 98 cents a share, in the year-ago period.

Revenue rose 9% to $155.7 billion, up from $143.3 billion from the year-ago period.

Sales for Amazon Web services rose 17% to $29.3 billion during the fiscal first quarter.

Amazon is one of the biggest players in the race around generative artificial intelligence. Like other tech companies, it has increased investments in the technology and is spending billions to expand data centers that bolster AI and cloud computing. The company is also investing in its own computer chips and those developed by Nvidia. It has also expanded its own AI models and integrated generative AI into other parts of its business.

In the first quarter, Amazon reported spending $25.02 billion on property and equipment, higher than the $14.92 billion spent in same period in 2024.

Amazon this week announced a $4 billion investment through 2026 to expand its rural delivery network to bring faster delivery to customers in less densely populated areas across the U.S.

The company said it expects sales in the second quarter to be anywhere from $159 billion to $164 billion. Analysts projected $161.2 billion, according to FactSet.

It also projects operating income to be in the range of $13 billion to $17.5 billion for the fiscal second quarter. Analysts expect $17.6 billion, according to FactSet.

Amazon shares fell more than 2% in after-hours trading on Thursday.

With seemingly little solution to their supply-chain issues, a trade group made up of prominent footwear brands, including Nike, adidas and Sketchers, made a plea to President Donald Trump for tariff relief this week.

A letter sent to the White House signed by 76 members of The Footwear Distributors and Retailers of America said the tariffs imposed result in an “existential threat” to their businesses.

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Friday marked one month since Trump initiated tariffs, which impose heavy penalties on imports to the United States, especially from Asia, where most products by American shoe and apparel companies are made.

Initial tariffs to Vietnam and Cambodia dropped from 45 percent to 10 percent for a three-month reprieve, but the sneaker companies told Trump greater reductions must happen.

“Many companies making affordable footwear for hardworking lower and middle-income families cannot absorb tariff rates this high, nor can they pass along these costs. Without immediate relief from the reciprocal tariffs they will simply shutter,” the note read.

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With payment for tariffs due at landing, the footwear manufacturers say they are holding orders back, which could result in lower supply and ultimately even higher prices.

Fewer than 1% of sneakers bought in the U.S. are made in the country. While the idea of tariffs is to motivate companies to bring manufacturers back to America, the shoe companies say the uncertainty the tariffs bring doesn’t encourage more business.

Said the association: “The American footwear industry does not have months to adjust business models and supply chains while absorbing this unprecedented and unforeseen tariff regime.”

Darren Rovell is the founder of cllct and one of the country’s leading reporters on the collectibles market. He previously worked for ESPN, CNBC and The Action Network.

HE Sheikh Joaan bin Hamad al-Thani, President of the Qatar Olympic Committee (QOC), met with General Waker-uz-Zaman, President of the Bangladesh Olympic Association (BOA), who is currently visiting Doha. The meeting focused on exploring ways to strengthen bilateral sports co-operation and promote the exchange of expertise between both committees in the period ahead.

The two sides discussed the ongoing progress of the Olympic movement in Bangladesh and the country’s growing engagement at the continental level, reflecting its broader aspirations to cement a stronger presence on the Asian sports stage. HE Sheikh Joaan reaffirmed the QOC’s commitment to supporting National Olympic Committees across Asia and globally through knowledge exchange and collaborative initiatives aimed at fostering sustainable sports development and the advancement of the Olympic Movement.

HE Sheikh Joaan also met Will Ahmed, Founder and CEO of WHOOP, for a forward-looking discussion on the role of innovation and wearable technology in enhancing athlete readiness and optimising competitive performance.

The meeting served as a platform to exchange insights on emerging trends in sports science, with a particular focus on smart monitoring tools and biometric data analysis. Discussions highlighted how these technologies are being used to improve recovery strategies, manage physical stress, and elevate sleep quality, all essential components of sustainable high-performance in elite sport.

This exchange reflects the QOC’s ongoing commitment to adopting global best practices in innovation and sports technology, and to leveraging data-driven knowledge to empower athletes and elevate national sports performance.

Buffalo, NY  – OnCore Innovations, creators of the Genius™ Ball — the world’s first smart golf ball delivering real-time putting and short game data — today announced its participation in the upcoming ONE Houlihan Lokey Global Conference, taking place May 13–15, 2025, at the New York Marriott Marquis.

Keith Blakely, CEO of OnCore Innovations, will represent the company as a featured panelist on “Down the Fairway: Insights in the Golf Market,” part of the Consumer Track on May 14. The panel will be moderated by Nathan Pund of Houlihan Lokey and will include leaders from Foray Golf, Imperial, Rapsodo, and TRUE linkswear.

Now in its largest-ever format, the ONE Global Conference is expected to host over 4,800 participants, representing 370 companies across 160+ sectors — making it one of the most comprehensive investment banking conferences of the year. OnCore’s inclusion signals growing interest in the convergence of sports, performance analytics, and connected product ecosystems.

“We’re honored to join this world-class event alongside some of the most forward-thinking brands in golf,” said Blakely. “As technology transforms every corner of sports, Genius is pioneering a new data category in putting and short game play — giving players and coaches unprecedented insight from the ball itself.”

The Genius Ball captures high-frequency motion data (including speed, direction, launch angle, skid, and more) directly from the moment of putter impact. Launching in 2025, it is poised to redefine how golfers train, fit equipment, and improve performance in their short games — where over half of strokes in a round are played.

While Genius is launching in golf, its underlying sensor platform and motion analytics engine have applications across a wide range of ball sports, including baseball, cricket, and lacrosse. By embedding intelligence directly into the ball, OnCore aims to unlock a new layer of data for athletes and coaches—capturing insights that were previously invisible and enabling smarter training, injury prevention, and performance enhancement in sports where precision and motion mechanics matter.

Finally, by starting with golf, OnCore has tackled the most demanding application first — where the ball is the smallest, the required data is extremely precise, and the g-forces from golf club impacts are among the highest in sports. This engineering challenge has enabled OnCore to develop a ruggedized, miniaturized platform that can be seamlessly adapted for larger ball, lower-impact sports.

About OnCore Innovations

OnCore Innovations is a sports technology company redefining performance training through sensor-enabled equipment and intelligent software. Its flagship product, the Genius Ball, is the first smart golf ball designed to capture putting and short game stroke data directly from the ball. For more information, visit www.geniusball.golf.

Media Contact: Kathy Butcher, Kbutcher@oncoregolf.com, 716-748-8622 Ext. 110

 

 

 

 

 

California in 2024 claimed the world’s fourth-largest economy, by some curious math.

Whether the state remains at this high, bragging-rights perch is very much in doubt.

California businesses produced $4.1 trillion worth of goods and services in 2024, according to the latest gross domestic product estimates from the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis. GDP is a broad measurement of economic production and is useful for comparisons of business heft.

When California’s economy is put on a global scale, only three nations were more productive last year, according to GDP stats from biannual reports from the International Monetary Fund.

The U.S. is easily No. 1 with $29 trillion, and it would still be tops without California. Next is China at $18.8 trillion. And there’s Germany at $4.66 trillion.

The “big news” is that California managed to bump up from its long-standing No. 5 ranking on this global totem pole by edging past Japan, which produced $4.03 trillion in GDP last year.

California is an economic powerhouse because its 18-million-people-strong workforce isn’t just the nation’s largest, it produces highly valued products. For all the talk of California’s “anti-business” policies, no state comes close to the Golden State in business output.

Texas is the nation’s No. 2 in GDP at $2.7 trillion. My trusty spreadsheet, using California’s bragging-rights calculations, found Texas ranks as the world’s No. 8 economy, on par with Italy.

New York’s $2.3 trillion GDP is No. 9 globally. That’s Canada’s ballpark. Florida, at $1.7 trillion, is No. 16, or roughly the size of Indonesia. And Illinois, at $1.1 trillion, is No. 19, comparable with Saudi Arabia.

Big headaches

Think about the challenges California’s lofty global ranking economy faces.

Start with the strength of the U.S. dollar. Its rise has been a relative economic norm for over a decade.

These economic rankings are made possible by converting the worldwide business output into its top currency, the American one. A strong U.S. dollar makes domestic output pricier to our global trading partners. It also devalues foreign production.

So ponder how currency gyrations affected the calculations of Japanese growth.

Throughout 2024, the Japanese yen lost 11% of its value compared with the U.S. dollar. That’s a key reason why Japan’s GDP growth was 2.9% for the year in yen, but only 0.1% in dollars.

That story is different today. In 2025’s first four months, the two currencies flip-flopped. The yen has appreciated 10% against the dollar as currency traders weigh trade wars started by the Trump administration and what they will do to the world’s business production.

It’s possible that California would lose the No. 4 spot on the GDP scorecard if output were priced at today’s currency rates.

Then there’s India, with an economic competition I’ve previously mentioned when writing about California’s GDP rank.

India is the world’s most populous nation with 1.46 billion people. California has “only” 40 million. India is blooming into one of the world’s economic superpowers that will surely surpass California’s output some year soon.

India’s $3.91 trillion GDP in 2024, just behind Japan. The IMF projects then Indian economy to grow 6.2% in U.S. dollars in 2025. Assuming California’s GDP can grow at the estimated 1.8% U.S. rate, the Indian economy could surpass the Golden State this year.

Of course, the immense wildcard in any chat about the world’s economy today is the business turmoil created by the Trump administration. Its ever-changing attempts to right what it perceives as the world’s unfair trading practices makes any business forecast a raw guestimate, at best.

We see new U.S. tariffs and ensuing retaliation by the targeted nations – plus talk of ripping up existing trade deals. Which national economies will win or lose these trade wars – not to mention California’s globally focused business climate? Who ends up where on the 2025 global GDP ladder?

It’s a big unknown.

Slow ending

California’s No. 4 global ranking is a fun fact, but it can’t hide a decidedly cooling economy.

Look at the state’s GDP growth against its domestic competition.

Last year, California’s business output grew 6% using the same GDP math. That was ninth-best among the states and topped the 5.3% national expansion.

However, the year’s end was worrisome.

GDP growth in California cooled to a 4% annual rate in the fourth quarter. A key factor is that the state’s information industries – from Silicon Valley to Hollywood – faced steep challenges.

That end-of-the-year expansion ranked No. 40 among the states and trailed the 4.8% U.S. pace.

So, California’s economic growth cooled by 33% when comparing all of 2024 to its finish. The nation’s growth shrank only 9%. And only four states slowed more than the Golden State.

Jonathan Lansner is the business columnist for the Southern California News Group. He can be reached at jlansner@scng.com