Amazon posts record $2.5bn profit fueled by ad and cloud businesses

Shares climb after quarterly profits that were twice what analysts expected, as revenue grows 39% to $53bn

Amazon posted a record profit of $2.5bn in the second quarter of 2018, thanks to strong performance by the retail giant's non-retail divisions - advertising and cloud-computing, the company announced Thursday,

The favorable profit results, which were double analyst expectations, buoyed tech investors a day after weak growth saw Facebook's market value plunged by $119bn, the single greatest one-day loss in US history.