Amazon needs a boost. It hasn't reported a quarterly net loss since the third quarter of 2003, according to Thomson Reuters, and the company's outlook for the next quarter is uncertain.

Despite predicting fourth-quarter net sales will rise by between 16 percent and 31 percent year on year, Amazon said the $260 million profit it made in the fourth quarter last year could almost double -- or turn into a $490 million loss. The company's results are inherently unpredictable, it said, because of fluctuations in consumer spending, exchange rates and Internet growth.

Amazon's North American segment sales -- which includes retail sales of consumer products and subscriptions through North America-focused websites as well as money made from Amazon Web Services (AWS) -- were $7.9 billion, up 33 percent from the third quarter last year.

International segment sales were up 20 percent year-on-year, and totalled $5.9 billion.