Amazon surpasses Walmart as most valuable retailer

WASHINGTON, July 25 (UPI) -- Amazon is now the most valuable retailer in the world after earning a surprising $92 million profit on its second quarter earnings report.

The 20-year-old e-commerce giant's market value zoomed past Walmart's late Thursday. Amazon is now worth $250 billion, while its longtime competitor is at a bit more than $230 billion, according to reports.

A week after celebrating Prime Day -- which despite some customer dissatisfaction, still made a bigger splash than Black Friday -- Amazon's stock prices soared up to 17 percent Friday.

Amazon is now the 11th most valuable company according to the blue chip S&P 500 index. It trails JPMorgan Chase and General Electric, CNN says. The outlet reports Amazon's stock is up at least 70 percent this year -- about 200 times some 2016 earnings estimates. Walmart's shares, however, have fallen 15 percent.

The spike in quarterly earnings also boosts CEO Jeff Bezo's pay. As of July 23, Bezo's net worth was a little more than $43 billion, but the soaring stock prices and news of Amazon's profit may cause him to pass the Koch brothers, worth $50 billion each, to become one of the top 5 wealthiest people in the world.