The new tool — called Alexa for Shopping — supplants Rufus, the shopping assistant bot that summarized product reviews and suggested purchases.

Some gauges are at their highest since the 2020-23 period, when economies locked down because of COVID, shortages emerged and shipping snarls persisted. 

Amazon Now, first launched in India last June, is now available in urban areas of Brazil, Mexico, Japan, the United Arab Emirates, the U.K. and the U.S.

“Ultimately, it’s still going to come back to the primary issues of risk and safety," that shippers have to evaluate.

MSC plans a new service linking Europe with isolated Middle East ports, using trucking across Saudi Arabia and smaller vessels in the Persian Gulf.

The largest U.S. ports said rising supply chain uncertainty is affecting the flow of goods into the country, complicating forecasting and import comparisons.

Amazon on April 29 reported a strong increase in profit and net sales during the first quarter, helped by surging growth in its prominent cloud computing unit.

Revenue dipped 11%, with the transpacific route seeing the biggest growth decline.

For the first three years of the AI boom, Amazon watched as cloud customers seeking the latest and greatest from OpenAI took their business to Microsoft.

UPS pressed ahead with an ongoing transformation strategy while contending with a challenging first quarter, the company reported April 28.