US technology giant Amazon is putting the brakes on its global recruitment spree after reporting its second loss in a row.
However, the Telegraph reports that investors seized on rising sales to send shares about 13% higher in after-hours trading - adding around £11billion to the fortune of founder Jeff Bezos.
The company will continue to hire software engineers, particularly for its Amazon Web Services and advertising businesses, but will be cautious about hiring for other departments, said chief financial officer Brian Olsavsky.
He added: "We will continue to add headcount, but are also mindful of the economic condition."
Investors overlooked the tech firm's £3.12billion fall into the red to focus instead on unexpected growth in sales driven by US consumers and demand for the company's cloud-computing services.
Amazon posted gross quarterly revenues of £99.49billion on Thursday - outperforming market analysts' predictions of £97.73billion.
However, the net losses in the three months to June 30 - its second in a row - was a sharp reversal of the previous year's £6.65billion profits.
Amazon employed 1.5million people globally at the end of June - down about 100,000 from the previous quarter. Most of the decrease was due to attrition in the company's warehouse and delivery network.
It plans to create 4,00 new jobs in the UK, taking the total workforce to 75,000 people by 2025. It would make it bigger than the British Army, which last year cut its target from a total headcount of 82,000 to 72,000 over the next three years.
Apple sales
Meanwhile, iPhone giant Apple has posted quarterly sales of £68.08billion, just beating analyst expectations. The market cap of the world's largest company stood at £2.09trillion on Thursday evening.
Apple's market performance has remained largely untroubled by macroeconomic challenges. Its shares were up 8% over the past year and showed growth of 14% in the last four weeks, trading at around $157. They were up nearly 3% in after-hours trading following its positive results.
Former Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster told the Telegraph: "Apple is outperforming because it's a place of safety for investors."
Meanwhile, the US economy has shrunk for the second quarter in a row - a milestone that in many countries would be considered an economic recession.
The BBC says that is not the case in the US, which uses additional data to make that call.
But the contraction, at an annual rate of 0.9% in the three months to July, has drawn widespread attention as worries about the economy grow.
Prices for groceries, petrol and other basics are rising at the fastest pace since 1981.
As the US central bank raises borrowing costs quickly to try to cool the economy and ease price pressures, fears are rising that a recession is coming - if it has not officially started already.
FTSE 100
The UK's top share index, the FTSE 100, was up 11 points at 7,356 shortly after opening this morning, following yesterday's almost-flat performance.
Brent crude futures were 0.43% higher at $107.70 a barrel.
Companies reporting today
- Half-year results: Croda International, IMI, International Consolidated Airlines, Intertek, Jupiter Fund Management, Morgan Advanced Materials, NatWest, Rightmove, Standard Chartered
- Trading update: AstraZeneca