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.
Joseph Gordon-Levitt, CEO and co-founder of HitRecord, and Jared Geller, president and co-founder of HitRecord, join Cheddar News to discuss the platform's 'Class Projects'. Gordon-Levitt also talked about playing Jiminy Cricket in Disney's live-action 'Pinocchio.'
One e-commerce company is putting diverse beauty brands first. 'thirteen lune' was launched last year and carries 100 brands, 90% percent of which are founded by Black, indigenous, people of color (BIPOC). The company has grown tremendously within the past year and just landed a $3 million funding round led by Fearless Fund, a venture capital firm created by women of color, for women of color. Nyakio Grieco, co-founder of thirteen lune joins Cheddar News to talk about the new funding.
Evan Vandenberg, the founder and CEO of Dibbs, a sports card trading platform, joined Cheddar to break down how his company allows sports fans to buy and sell fractions of sports cards. The physical trading cards are typically held in a vault while fans are provided with a digital representation of that card that they can go on to sell or even buy more fractions of the item. Vanderberg also talked about the company's $13 million Series A funding round and investments from major sports figures like the NBA's Chris Paul and NFL's DeAndre Hopkins.
Johan Grahn, Head of ETFs at Allianz Investment Management, joins Cheddar News' Closing Bell to discuss today's market close which saw all major indexes reaching record highs on the back of a strong October jobs report, low-interest rates, and more.
Earlier this week, crypto investors who got in on a 'Squid Game'-inspired coin were shocked when the asset turned out to be part of a scam. The people involved made off with close to $3 million after the Netflix-inspired coin's valuation went from $0.01 to $3,000 and back down to $0 within several days. CoinDesk Anchor Christine Lee joins Cheddar News' Closing Bell to discuss the pump-and-dump scheme, how investors can be on the lookout for similar scams, and what crypto platform Binance is doing to investigate the incident.
Nela Richardson, Chief Economist at ADP, joins Cheddar News' Closing Bell, where he discusses the sector growth in the October Jobs report, and how labor shortages and wage growth will impact the economy going forward.
More American tech companies continue to pull their businesses out of China as the Communist Party cracks down on firms — both foreign and domestic. Yahoo and Fortnite have become the latest companies to withdraw from the country, and the withdrawals come just days after Microsoft announced it would take LinkedIn offline. Shehzad Qazi, managing director at China Beige Book International, joined Cheddar to provide some insight into how the crackdowns in China would also impact the tech companies at home in the United States.
Yelp reported Q3 earnings on Thursday, matching its best quarterly performance in company history, according to CFO David Schwarzbach who joined Cheddar's "Between Bells" to break down the report and business forecast. He also talked about the impact that the pandemic has had on marketing campaigns on the platform and noted that while service pros are doing well, campaigns for restaurants, retail, and other sectors continue to face challenges.
