Amazon shares surge on higher-than-expected profits

Amazon announced earnings of $0.52 per share in the third quarter, well above analyst expectations of $0.03 per share, with the news sending the stock up more than 7% in after-hours trading.

• The Seattle retailer beat bottom-line expectations all while maintaining sizable investments in a dizzying variety of business lines from its suite of Alexa-enabled products, to brick-and-mortar book stores, to its wind farm business — which launched its largest ever 100-turbine farm in Texas this quarter.
• The bottom line: Amazon looks unstoppable in 2017, especially when compared to many of its peers in the largely struggling retail sector. If there's one statistic that reveals Amazon's dominance, it's that the firm will account for 43.5% of all e-commerce sales this year, according to eMarketer, up from 38.1% last year.