Amazon posts record profit, Twitter disappoints

Amazon on Thursday reported its biggest profit ever as consumers turned to the online retailer for their shopping needs and businesses paid it more to warehouse and advertise their products.

Since the start of the health crisis, shoppers in the U.S. have relied increasingly on Amazon for home staples and supplies.

Amazon has now posted four consecutive record quarterly profits - plus, attracted more than 200 million Prime loyalty subscribers and recruited over 500,000 workers to keep up with consumer demand.

Revenue came in at more than $108 billion in the first quarter thanks in part to its cloud computing unit, Amazon Web Services, which increased revenue 32% year over year.

Andy Jassy, who had been the CEO of AWS, is scheduled to succeed Amazon Founder Jeff Bezos as Amazon's chief this summer. Meanwhile, profit for Amazon more than tripled to $8.1 billion, sending the company share price higher.

Also reporting after the bell: Twitter.

But it was a different story there.

Shares of the social media company sank in post-market trading as it offered lower revenue guidance and warned of rising costs and expenses.

Adding to its challenges, Twitter said user growth could slow in the coming quarters as the boost seen during the health crisis fizzles.