Amazon doesn’t seem to be missing a beat as it manages its retail and logistics business through the pandemic upheaval. The e-commerce behemoth nearly doubled its profits in the critical fourth quarter, the WSJ’s Sebastian Herrera reports, as it controlled its growing labor and supply costs better than expected. The company’s $14.3 billion net profit came on a 9.4% increase in revenue to $137.4 billion, a strong gain against a tough comparison with the fourth quarter of 2020 when pandemic restrictions drove a boom in online sales. Fulfillment costs rose more than 21% during a year in which the company extended its expansion of logistics properties across the U.S. and expanded its workforce to 1.6 million. Amazon spent nearly $23.7 billion on shipping in the last three months of the year, a 10% growth pace that was far lower than the expansion in earlier quarters.

Don’t expect much love for supply chains this Valentine’s Day. One of the top confectioners in the U.S. is running low on seasonal treats thanks to a shortage of labor and factory capacity. The WSJ’s Annie Gasparro and Jaewon Kang report many grocery shelves already are bare where heart-shaped chocolates should sit, and Hershey says it will likely stay that way leading up to the holiday. Numbers bear that out: The IRI CPG Supply Index says the candy aisle at the average store is currently out-of-stock of about one-fifth of its items, compared to a pre-pandemic norm of roughly 7%. Pandemic-driven disruptions have fractured the usual seasonal sales rhythms in the retail sector for suppliers and stores alike. The turmoil has undercut typical shipping and sales patterns built around annual markers like Valentine’s Day and defied merchants’ solutions aimed at getting ahead of shortfalls.

The end is coming for an American fracking boom that has helped redraw the map for global oil trade. Companies that less than 3½ years ago made the U.S. the world’s top oil producer have tapped many of their best wells, the WSJ’s Collin Eaton reports, and big shale drillers now may have to keep running in place. An analysis shows that if the largest drillers kept their output roughly flat they could continue drilling profitable wells for a decade or two, but increasing production would probably tap out prime locations in just a few years. The limited inventory suggests that the era in which U.S. shale companies could quickly flood the world with oil is receding, and that market power is shifting back to other producers. That casts a cloud over a tanker market that has benefited from U.S. exports and now is reeling from diminished pandemic-period demand.

Factory orders in the U.S. fell in December for the first time in eight months. (MarketWatch)

A measure of U.S. service-sector activity slipped in January to the lowest level in 11 months. (MarketWatch)

New U.S. unemployment claims have declined for two straight weeks. (WSJ)

U.S. corporate bankruptcies have fallen to their lowest level in more than 15 years. (WSJ)

Ford’s adjusted fourth-quarter net profit rose 19% to $2 billion. (WSJ)

Workers at a General Motors plant in northern Mexico voted for a new independent union to represent them. (Associated Press)

Fourth-quarter profit at engine maker Cummins fell 21% to $394 million on declining North American sales and continuing supply-chain problems. (MarketWatch)

FTR says net orders for Class 8 heavy-duty trucks dropped 8% from December to January to 21,400 orders. (Dow Jones Newswires)

Trucker Yellow plans to triple capital spending after reporting a $10.2 million adjusted fourth-quarter profit. (Dow Jones Newswires)

Authorities are working to free a Maersk container ship that ran aground just outside Germany’s Port of Bremerhaven. (Reuters)

Freight rates for large bulk carriers are off more than 90% from last year's peak amid sharply lower demand for iron ore in China. (Nikkei Asia)

Managers of the Poseidon Principles ship finance environmental agreement are toughening their stipulations for industry emissions-reduction progress. (Lloyd’s List)

Canada’s Port of Prince Rupert is expanding capacity by about 200,000 containers by 2024. (Canadian Press)

Swedish tanker carrier Concordia Maritime wrote down the value of its fleet by almost $30 million to account for the weaker oil transport market. (ShippingWatch)

Grains cooperative Ag Processing will build a soybean plant in Nebraska near BNSF Railway and Union Pacific rail lines. (Progressive Railroading)

Nintendo cut its Switch sales outlook for the second quarter in a row as console makers grapple with semiconductor shortage. (Bloomberg)

Real-estate firm IDI Logistics is planning a nearly 2 million-square-foot distribution center southeast of Atlanta for an unnamed customer. (Atlanta Journal-Constitution)

Amazon is building a 1.3 million-square-foot distribution center in Fayetteville, N.C. (Fayetteville Observer)

Paul Page is editor of WSJ Logistics Report. Write to him at paul.page@wsj.com.

Follow the WSJ Logistics Report team: @PaulPage, @jensmithWSJ, and @pdberger. and @LydsOneal. Follow the WSJ Logistics Report on Twitter at @WSJLogistics.