Amazon forecasts second-quarter operating income below estimates

(Reuters) – Amazon.com Inc <AMZN.O> on Thursday forecast second-quarter profit below estimates, as the e-commerce company spent more on hiring workers and their pay due to a surge in online shopping during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The company forecast operating income in the range of a loss of $1.5 billion and profit of $1.5 billion for the second quarter. Analysts were expecting operating income of $3.80 billion, according to research firm FactSet.

Amazon’s forecast assumes about $4 billion in costs related to COVID-19, the company said.

(Reporting by Akanksha Rana in Bengaluru and Jeffrey Dastin in San Francisco; Editing by Vinay Dwivedi)