Jeff Bezos, the ever-ebullient chief executive of online retailer Amazon.com Inc. ( AMZN ), said on Friday he remained optimistic about the Christmas season, despite widespread gloom, but declined to discuss his prior projection of turning a profit in the fourth quarter. 
"It could be a very promising Christmas season," Bezos told Reuters during an appearance in New York on Friday to flip the opening "switch" at the Nasdaq Marketsite on Times Square. 
In mid-afternoon Nasdaq trading Amazon shares were down 24 cents, or nearly 3 percent, at $7.91. Earlier this week, the stock fell briefly to a three-year low of $6.85. 
Bezos has repeatedly stuck by his forecast that the Seattle company, which has never turned a profit, would be profitable in the fourth quarter, albeit on a basis that excuses a wide range of costs. On Friday, he declined to discuss that projection. 
Wall Street analysts are forecasting a fourth-quarter result ranging from breakeven to a loss of 11 cents per share for Amazon, according to research firm First Call/Thomson Financial. The mean estimate among 24 analysts is for a loss of 7 cents per share. 
Overall retail sales for the holiday season are forecast to rise 4 percent to 4.5 percent from last year's tallies, according to the National Retail Federation. But that forecast recently has been ratcheted back from earlier projections of holiday sales growth of 5 percent or more. 
Bezos, meanwhile, pegs a lot of his optimism for the coming holiday season on new products. 
"I think there are a bunch of great new products coming out ... there are a lot of great video games and other exciting products around the corner," he said. 
During a Tuesday presale, retailer Toys R Us Inc. ( TOY ) and Amazon sold out the first batch of Microsoft Corp.'s ( MSFT ) up and coming XBox video game console in 30 minutes. The XBox will not be available at retail outlets until Nov. 8. 
Amazon, which sells everything from CDs to kitchenware, has been adding more and more products to its catalog in an effort to boost sales and become profitable. 
Last month, Seattle-based Amazon opened the doors to its new online computer store, in times of slack PC sales. 
Amazon now offers computers from Apple Computer Inc. ( AAPL ), Compaq Computer Corp. ( CPQ ), Hewlett-Packard Co. ( HWP ), International Business Machines Corp. ( IBM ) and Toshiba Corp. ( 6502.T ). 
"For us, PC sales are incremental, we are very optimistic about PC sales," Bezos said. REUTERS