<p class="ingestion featured-caption">MediaNews Group/The Riverside Press-Enterprise via Getty Images</p><ul class="summary-list"><li>Amazon reports fourth-quarter earnings on Thursday.</li><li>Investors will be watching growth in the AWS cloud unit and profitability levels in the retail division.</li></ul><p><a target="_blank" href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/stocks/amazon-q4-earnings-preview-retail-aws-advertising-outlook-amzn-stock-2024-1">Amazon</a> will report fourth-quarter earnings on Thursday after the closing bell.</p><p>Growth in Amazon's AWS cloud unit, profitability levels in its retail division, and progress in growing its advertising <a target="_blank" rel href="https://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-invests-4-billion-in-anthropic-2023-9?utm_medium=ingest&utm_source=markets"><u>and artificial intelligence business</u></a> will be top of mind for Wall Street analysts.</p><p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener" href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/stocks/amzn-stock"><u>Amazon's stock</u></a> was up 2.3% year-to-date through Wednesday's close, slightly outpacing the <a target="_blank" rel="noopener" href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/index/s&p_500"><u>S&P 500</u></a>'s 1.8% gain.</p>