Let's Not Go Crazy About Amazon's Earnings

Instead of putting "crush" in their headline, Business Insider went the right route. They put "equity-method investment" in their headline. The cartoonishly large portion of Amazon beat, after all, came from equity-method investments. This -- Amazon's investments in companies like Living Social -- is legitimate income, but not as predictable, reliable or meaningful as income from their operations. Rather than hyperventilate about a beat the size of Bolivia, the media should (like Business Insider) make the apt distinction:

"Equity-method investment income accounted for around $0.19. If that generated no income, then Amazon would've reported EPS of around $0.09, which is still ahead of the $0.07 that analysts were expecting."

It was a really solid beat, part of a really good quarter. But let's not get crazy.