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.
Buying a new home is tough right now; but for first-time buyers, it's an especially challenging time, with obstacles like rising mortgage rates and record-breaking home prices. The housing market is not expected to get much friendlier, as mortgage rates are expected to continue to climb as the Federal Reserve proceeds with its plans for rate hikes in an effort to stifle inflation. Jonathan Miller, President and CEO of real estate appraiser Miller Samuel, joins Cheddar News' Closing Bell to discuss.
Virtual care and digital medicine provider Biofourmis recently raised $300 million in a Series D round led by General Atlantic and with participation from CVS Health. Biofourmis offers at-home care and digital therapies backed by artificial intelligence, which can remotely monitor patients while they are at home. The company says it hopes its technology can improve patient outcomes while reducing the cost and burden of care. Kuldeep Signh Rajput, Founder and CEO of Biofourmis, joins Cheddar News' Closing Bell to discuss.
The world’s largest producer and shipper of palm oil, Indonesia, announced that it’s banning all exports of the commodity. Besides being the most widely used cooking oil globally, it’s also used in about half of all consumer products in supermarkets such as shampoo and detergent. John Quelch, Dean of Miami Herbert Business School at the University of Miami joins Cheddar News to explain how the ban could impact prices in the United States.
Dave Gray, the head of workplace retirement offerings and platforms at Fidelity Investments, dives into the financial services company's newest initiative to allow investors to allocate up to 20 percent of their savings to Bitcoin. He also discussed some of the educational opportunities Fidelity is providing when it comes to crypto."What we've created here is really a first of its kind account that can be in a workplace 401(k) plan that employers can make available to their employees that allow them to defer money from their paycheck in the account or transfer money from a mutual fund in the account or from that Bitcoin account into a mutual fund," he said.
Dr. Michael Bottlang and Dr. Steve Madey, co-founders of WaveCel, join Cheddar Innovates to share their breakthrough in hard hat design that could have ramifications for protecting against head trauma across industries.
