Here is a rundown of Cheddar News' top market stories of the day.
TECH LAYOFFS
Multiple outlets are reporting that Microsoft will begin a series of planned layoffs on Wednesday that could cut around 5 percent of its workforce, or 10,000 employees. CEO Satya Nadella warned the cuts were coming, and said the next couple of years were likely to be challenging, as the tech sector contracts after a decade plus of rapid growth. Amazon is also set to move ahead with plans to cut 6 percent of its 350,000 corporate employees.
ADOBE'S DATA DEBACLE
Adobe is facing backlash from customers who are concerned the software company is using personal images and video to train artificial intelligence models such as OpenAI’s Dall-E. Chief Product Officer Scott Belsky denied the accusations in an interview with Bloomberg, saying: "We have never, ever used anything in our storage to train a generative AI model."
UNITED AIRLINES EARNINGS
United Airlines' fourth quarter earnings beat Wall Street estimates on the heels of a rebound in travel demand. The company reported a 31 percent increase from the same period before the pandemic. The gains were made despite the airline flying 9 percent fewer trips and a litany of other challenges, from winter storms to labor shortages to supply chain disruptions.
UNIVERSITY BANS TIKTOK
The University of Texas at Austin is blocking access to TikTok on its Wi-Fi and wired networks. The move is a response to Gov. Greg Abbott's requirement that all state agencies delete the app from government-issued devices. The administration said it is also seeking to eliminate risks to information on the university's networks. University of Texas at Dallas and Texas A&M University System have since implemented similar restrictions.
Jim Riordan, Director of the MBA Sport Management program at Florida Atlantic University, joins Cheddar Reveals to break down the successes, failures, and chaos of the first seven months of the Name, Image, Likeness policy in college athletics.
Adi Kunalic, President of Opendorse, joins Cheddar Reveals to discuss the first-ever association-wide deal in college athletics between Opendorse and the NAIA, and how Opendorse is marketing and educating student-athletes to make the most of their NIL deal potential.
Jason Chinnock, CEO of Ducati North America, discusses ways demand has changed over the last year and what supplying race bikes for the MotoE World Cup series means for Ducati's future.
The value of most cryptocurrencies have plummeted in recent months since reaching all-time highs in November, wiping out more than $1 trillion in value globally. The steep crash has some talking about the possibility of a crypto winter, a term referring to a prolonged bearish period where asset prices persistently fall over many months. This all comes as the Fed is expected to raise interest rates, and the Biden administration is working on an executive order to regulate Bitcoin and other assets. Josh Goodbody, COO of Qredo, joined Cheddar's Opening Bell to discuss the crypto crash, and how the industry might recover from it.
Logitech posted better-than-expected earnings in its third quarter, reporting sales of $1.63 billion dollars, down 2% from the year ago quarter, but well ahead of the Wall Street consensus of $1.48 billion dollars. The PC and gaming peripherals company also raised its annual guidance for both sales and profitability. Bracken Darrell, Logitech CEO, joined Cheddar to break down his reaction to the results, how the pandemic played a role in its growth, and where he wants to take the company next.
Starbucks is scheduled to report its fiscal first quarter 2022 earnings Tuesday, February 1 after the bell. The coffee giant is expected to report revenue of nearly $8 billion and earnings per share of 79 cents. Starbucks has seen a solid recovery in demand since the beginning of pandemic lockdowns, but is now facing a unionization push, labor shortage, and the Omicron variant. Thomas Hayes, chairman of Great Hill Capital, joined Cheddar's Opening Bell to give a preview of Starbucks earnings.
GM is scheduled to report its Q4 earnings after the bell on Tuesday February 1. Wall Street expects a miss as the automaker navigates the global chip shortage, which has hit car sales hard. Investors are looking for an update on production, as well as outlook for the electric vehicles that GM is investing billions to bring to market. Karl Brauer, executive analyst at iseecars.com, joined Cheddar to give a preview of the automaker's report.
Recent data reveals that streaming giants are struggling to retain subscribers in the months following a major release.
According to data from Antenna, subscriber trends show that users will subscribe to a given streaming service just to watch a particular show, and then cancel those subscriptions shortly after. This comes as the streaming space continues to heat up as new entrants crowd the space. Jon Christian, Founding Partner + Digital Supply Chain Leader at OnPrem joined Cheddar's Opening Bell to discuss.
As airlines continues to face massive pilot shortages, United Airlines is opening a training academy for future pilots. United projects that the academy will train around 5,000 new pilots by 2030. David Slotnick, Senior Aviation Business Reporter at The Points Guy joined Cheddar's Opening Bell to discuss.
Stocks opening mostly higher to close out a wild week on Wall Street. It comes as investors continue to digest comments from the Federal Reserve, as well as the latest slew of earnings. Gene Goldman, Chief Investment Officer at Cetera, joined Cheddar's Opening Bell to discuss.
