*By Mike Teich*
Amazon shares jumped nearly 4 percent Friday after the e-commerce juggernaut delivered blockbuster earnings results on Thursday.
The tech giant impressed investors by delivering operating profit of $1.9 billion. Amazon's blockbuster numbers reflected its success in retail sales and growth in its cloud services business, said Michael Pachter, an analyst from Wedbush Securities.
Amazon also announced that it would be raising its Prime membership fee by $20, up to $119 a year. Pachter said the "odds are less than 1 percent that there is a decline in membership" as a result of the price hike.
Pachter compared Amazon Prime's cost to Netflix, noting that Prime was priced below Amazon's video-streaming rival and offers content that is "75 percent as good."
The Week's Top Stories is a guided tour through the biggest market stories of the week, from winning stocks to brutal dips to the facts and forecasts generating buzz on Wall Street. This week we look at the debt deal, Amazon, Nvidia and C3.ai.
Bobbi Rebell, financial expert and author of Launching Financial Grownups: Live Your Richest Life by Helping Your (Almost) Adult Kids Become Everyday Money Smart, gives some tips on how to negotiate your bills to save serious money.
JPMorgan said it plans to close 21 around 25 percent of First Republic's branch location by the end of the year. The financial giant purchased the regional bank after it effectively collapsed amid an ongoing crisis in the banking sector.
Airbnb sued New York City on Thursday over an ordinance that the company says imposes arbitrary restrictions that would greatly reduce the local supply of short-term rentals.
