Shares in Amazon surged more than 17% as the online retailer posted an unexpected quarterly profit, pushing its market value above that of the world's largest retailer, Wal-Mart Stores.
Amazon reported a profit of $92m between April and June of this year, compared with a loss of $126m a year earlier.
Revenue rose 19.95% to $23.19bn for the same period.
Amazon also forecast third-quarter revenue above estimates, and reported strong sales in North America, and unprecedented growth in its popular Prime two-day unlimited shipping service.
For the second quarter, sales in North America, the company's biggest market, rose 25.5% to $13.8bn in the second quarter from a year earlier, helped by strong demand for electronics and general merchandise.
Revenue from the company's cloud computing division, Amazon Web Services, soared 81.5% to $1.82bn, accounting for nearly 8% of the quarter's revenue.
Amazon shares, which began as an online bookstore 20 years ago, jumped more than 17%to $566.02 after the Seattle-based company reported results.
If the stock maintains this level today, Amazon's market value would well exceed Wal-Mart's $233.52bn.
