By Angela Palumbo
Amazon.com stock reobounded from an earlier selloff Tuesday after the company denied a report that it was planning to break down the tariff contribution to product cost on its website.
Shares were down 0.1%. The stock has dropped 14% this year, mostly on tariff worries.
Early Tuesday, Punchbowl News reported that Amazon was planning to show how much tariffs have impacted the prices of goods sold to shoppers by displaying a breakdown of the item's cost, including the charge from levies, next to the product's total listed price.
At a news briefing, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt responded to the report by saying: "This is a hostile and political act by Amazon."
"Why didn't Amazon do this when the Biden administration hiked inflation to the highest level in 40 years?" Leavitt said.
Amazon spokesperson Tim Doyle said in a statement to Barron's that "the team that runs our ultra low cost Amazon Haul store considered the idea of listing import charges on certain products. This was never approved and is not going to happen."
The White House didn't immediately respond to a request for comment on Amazon's statement.
The Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday that President Donald Trump called Amazon founder Jeff Bezos to raise concerns about the Punchbowl article. Trump then spoke about the matter when asked about it by reporters on Tuesday.
"Jeff Bezos was very nice. He was terrific. He solved the problem very quickly and he did the right thing," Trump told reporters as he was leaving the White House to travel to Michigan. "He's a good guy."
Other companies have started to show the impact of tariffs on their websites. Chinese e-commerce platform Temu has added an "import charge" line to its checkout page.
Amazon is scheduled to report first-quarter earnings after the stock market closes on Thursday. Wall Street will be listening closely for what management has to say about the Punchbowl report, and the impact of tariffs overall.
Many of Amazon's products are imported from China, which is subject to 145% tariffs put in place by the Trump administration.
Write to Angela Palumbo at angela.palumbo@dowjones.com
This content was created by Barron's, which is operated by Dow Jones & Co. Barron's is published independently from Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal.
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
April 29, 2025 15:58 ET (19:58 GMT)
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