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.
Two years after its launch, Disney's streaming service is celebrating Disney+ Day by offering new and eligible returning customers a reduced subscription price of $2 for one month. The regular $7.99 monthly fee will kick in at the end of the promotion.
Christine Short, VP of research at corporate event data firm Wall Street Horizon, joined Cheddar to discuss AMC's upcoming Q3 earnings report. Short said that she expects the movie theater chain to see another quarter of growth with a 500 percent increase in revenue as people continue to return to theaters. She also noted AMC is expected to show a strong Q4 with a return to the $1 billion mark for the first time since before the pandemic and discussed its plans for diversifying revenue streams with retail popcorn sales and accepting bitcoin payments.
Dr. Nasia Safdar, Doctor at UW Madison, joined Wake Up With Cheddar to discuss the implications of Merck sharing its antiviral pill, which has been shown in early trials to cut hospitalizations and deaths by half, with poorer nations around the globe.
Nationwide job openings are about 50 percent higher than they were prior to the pandemic, yet the country is still seeing a skills gap disconnect between workers looking for jobs and employers looking for workers. Julia Pollack, Chief Economist at ZipRecruiter, explained the disconnect, and which workers are returning to the workforce after taking a step back during the pandemic.
Jason Fudin, CEO of WhyHotel, joined Cheddar's On the Job: The October Jobs Report to break down what the next few months could look like for the travel and hospitality sectors, which were hit hard by the pandemic.
The Federal Reserve finally announced its taper plan on Wednesday saying that it planned to scale back on bond purchases as growth slows, and would not rush to raise interest rates. Ross Mayfield, Investment Strategy Analyst at Baird spoke on whether or not a decrease in inflation could be in the country’s future amidst comments made by Fed chairman Jerome Powell. Baird also broke down ADP jobs numbers ahead of the Labor Department's October jobs report.
