Instant View: Amazon's income leaps 56 percent in holiday quarter

Amazon.com Inc posted a 56 percent jump in operating income and its highest profit margin in years, after grabbing a big share of online spending during the crucial holiday period.

Commentary:

JORDAN ROHAN, ANALYST, STIFEL NICOLAUS

"Incredibly strong margins. This is the highest fourth-quarter margin in North America that they've reported since the third quarter of 2009. The highest in over three years."

KEN SENA, ANALYST, EVERCORE PARTNERS

"It was a much better-than-expected gross margin, a strong forward indicator to drive margin expansion. What is really important is gross profit dollars and that line is stronger."

KERRY RICE, ANALYST, NEEDHAM & COMPANY

"Revenue was light. In general, weaker than everyone expected on the top line and guidance was similarly weaker than what everyone was expecting on the top line. There was a massive selloff at the beginning.

"I'm not that surprised. We've had a lot of negative retail data points. General suggestions have been that e-commerce was not as strong as people had expected."

(Reporting By Jennifer Saba and Liana Baker in New York, and Alexei Oreskovic in San Francisco)