Amazon Surges to New All-Time High

Online retailer Amazon

continued to surge on Monday, up around 2 percent for the day. Shares traded over $274, a new all-time high for the stock. Former Citigroup analyst Mark Mahaney told CNBC he would be rating Amazon as one of his top buys in 2013. Mahaney is now working for RBC Capital. Additionally, the company had several bouts of good news last week, perhaps leading to a positive hangover. On January 7, Morgan Stanley upgraded the stock to Overweight. Then, on January 9,

on the Kindle's success in Japan after its October launch. A survey had indicated that Amazon had captured 40 percent of the e-book market in the Asian country. Its closest competitor, Kinokuniya, had 13.4 percent. The Japanese e-book market was valued at $720 million in the year through March of 2012, and is expected to triple in the next five years. Thus, if Kindle remains the go-to e-reader in Japan, this market could continue to support Amazon. Additionally, on January 10, Amazon announced the launch of Amazon AutoRip. At no extra charge, Amazon will offer mp3 versions of their CD purchases in users' Cloud Libraries, allowing them to listen instantly instead of waiting for the physical item to arrive. It will also backdate this service for CDs purchased since 1998. This move could help the firm compete with Apple's iTunes service, possibly taking market share away from the enormously popular creation of the late Steve Jobs. However, there has been some negative news for the Seattle company, most notably

that Best Buy

has seen a boost in sales in states where Amazon has begun collecting sales taxes. If this trend continues, it could leave investors jittery about Amazon's ability to continue to dominate the brick-and-mortar retailer. Shares of Amazon traded near $274 on Monday.