Stocks In News: Amazon.com, Inc.(NASDAQ:AMZN) & Nordstrom, Inc.(NYSE:JWN)

Department store Nordstrom, Inc.(NYSE:JWN) said on Thursday that same store sales rose 21 percent in August, assisted by an anniversary sales event that was held later than usual.

For the combined July and August period, revenue in stores open at least one year rose 8.4 percent.

In the four weeks ended Aug. 25, revenue rose 25 percent to $866 million from $691 million.

The results beat the average prediction by analysts, who expected the department store chain's revenue metric rise 11.1 percent, according to Thomson Reuters.

Revenue at stores open at least a year is an important measure of a retailer's health, because it strips out sales at stores that recently opened or closed.

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Results of the department store got a boost because the company's biggest sale of the year, a 17-day event, started a week later this year than last year. That pushed some of the promotions into August.

On a year-to-date basis, same store sales rose 8 percent, and total revenue rose 12 percent to $6.31 billion.

Shares of Nordstrom added 31 cents to $58.07 in morning trading, just short of its 52-week high of $58.41.

Meanwhile Amazon.com, Inc.(NASDAQ:AMZN) made a startling announcement on Thursday when it said that its Kindle Fire tablet was `sold out'.

Analysts are reading this to mean that the company may have stopped production of the product. This statement by the internet retailer comes at a time when consumers are eagerly anticipating the launch of a new version of the Kindle Fire on September 6, when t has called for a press conference.

Amazon had launched its first tablet, Kindle Fire, in November last year. At $199 the tablet was offering stiff competition to Apple's iPad, making it more attractive.

Amazon hasn’t revealed the number of Kindle Fires it has sold so far but has claimed that it captured 22 percent of U.S. tablet sales over nine months.

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That would make it the second-most popular tablet, after the iPad. Based on iPad sales reported by Apple, Fire sales can be estimated at somewhere around 5 million units.

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