Amazon Handily Beats Estimates for Holiday Quarter; Sales surge

Bloomberg) -- Jeff Bezos showed Amazon.com Inc. can still pull out a profit, though the chief executive officer made no promises that he'll do it again next quarter.

The stock soared as much as 12 percent after the online retailer reported a fourth-quarter profit of $214 million on sales of $29.3 billion, following two straight periods of losses. The results, posted Thursday after the markets closed, helped blunt investor concerns that Bezos was spending too much on initiatives including speedier package delivery and original video programming -- instead of making money.