Amazon’s profit is up 38% on strong performance

Amazon reported unexpectedly strong sales and profit on Thursday across both its consumer and its cloud businesses, and said another robust quarter might be ahead.

The company’s sales totalled $180.2 billion from July through September, up 13% from a year earlier. Profit was $21.2 billion, up 38%. The overall results were buoyed by the enduring strength of consumer spending online, despite tariffs and an uneven economy, and by a resurgence in cloud computing.