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Amazon stock price hits $1,000 for first time

Amazon's new device
Amazon's Echo Show digital assistant has a touch screen and a camera 05:50

Online retail colossus Amazon (AMZN) briefly saw its stock rise over the $1,000 mark in Tuesday morning trading, capping a strong surge over the past 12 months.

That price puts Amazon in an elite club, with only four other U.S.-listed companies with shares that trade above $1,000. After hitting the $1,000 mark, Amazon slipped back below it to finish the day just beneath $997. 

As the market reopened after its Memorial Day hiatus, stocks in general traded slightly down, which didn't help Amazon to finish above $1,000. 

Meanwhile, Google parent Alphabet (GOOG) resumed its slower march toward four figures, with shares worth $976, up Tuesday by 0.45 percent

The quartet of U.S. companies already trading above $1,000 a share are Warren Buffett's conglomerate Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A), homebuilder NVR (NVR), online booking service Priceline (PCLN) and Seaboard (SEB), a diversified company involved in pork and poultry production, as well as ocean transportation.  

Amazon launches toy delivery service 00:48

The new price put Amazon 's market value at about $477 billion. That is double that of brick-and-mortar rival Walmart Stores (WMT).

Amazon's advance underscores its dominance of the U.S. retail scene. When it opened  in 1995, the company was mainly an online book seller. Now its wares range from toys to groceries to small appliances, and it gets blamed for yanking business away from physical stores. 

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