Amazon surges, eyes Wall Street record gain in value

 A day after Facebook owner Meta Platforms suffered the biggest loss of stock market value in history for a U.S. company, Amazon was on track to log the greatest ever one-day increase in value.

Shares of the online retail and cloud computing giant surged almost 15% on Friday following its blowout quarterly report, expanding its market capitalization by more than $200 billion as of mid-day.

If Amazon's stock were to close at that level, it would beat Apple's record $181 billion one-day gain in stock market value on Jan. 28 following the iPhone maker's own blockbuster quarterly report, according to Refinitiv data.

Amazon is now valued at about $1.6 trillion. With Meta Platforms' stock dipping an additional 2% on Friday, its stock market value stood at about $653 billion.

Amazon's shares jumped after company reported better-than-expected profits late on Thursday and said it was hiking the price of its annual U.S. Prime subscriptions by 17%.

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

"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."

Apple, Microsoft and Google owner Alphabet remain Wall Street's most valuable companies, with market capitalizations of $2.8 trillion, $2.3 trillion and $1.9 trillion, respectively, according to Refinitiv.