NEW YORK — Amazon posted higher fiscal third quarter profit and sales compared with a year ago, fueled by accelerating growth in its cloud computing business and strong spending by its customers looking for low prices at a time when inflation is resurging.

The results, announced Thursday, beat Wall Street expectations. The company's prominent cloud computing arm also surpassed analysts' expectations, rising 20%. But Amazon issued a cautious sales outlook for the fiscal fourth quarter.

Shares, however, soared nearly 13% in after-hours trading.

Analysts are analyzing Amazon's results, along with other retailers' earnings performances, to get insight into how shoppers are spending heading into the holiday season and how the online behemoth is managing cost increases from President Donald T

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