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.
Chris Vecchio, senior strategist at DailyFX, says the James Bullard and the Fed's bark may be louder than its bite when it comes to potential rate hikes in May. Investors brushed off any causes for concerns during Tuesday's session, which led to stocks ending the day sharply higher.
While rising wages might be positively impacting workers, inflation continues to rear its ugly head. Will pay increases be able to keep up with the costs of living? Mark Hamrick, a senior economic analyst at Bankrate.com, joined Cheddar News to talk about how the American worker is contending with inflation. "I'm a little skeptical whether wages are going to keep that pace that some are fearful about," he said. "We don't have a historical record that makes that case, and we think about how through the last economic recovery that we had before the pandemic really began to take hold in March and April of 2020 wage growth was really sort of the last part of that chapter."
Chipotle is investing $50 million into a venture capital fund to aid tech startups that focus on operations. Chief Technology Officer Curt Garner joined Cheddar News to talk about how the fast-casual chain is innovating its brand strategy with the fund. "We look for technologies that elevate the human experience, and that human experience can occur with our customers as they come into our restaurants and very importantly our employees as well," he said.
The telecom giant AT&T is looking to make online learning more fun for students by engaging them with content from its partners at Warner Bros. Discovery. Mylayna Albright, the assistant vice president of corporate social responsibility for AT&T, joined Cheddar to discuss how the company came about with the free digital e-learning program that it's calling The Achievery. "We knew that once students went home as a result of the pandemic, it was very difficult for them, and we knew from research, specifically through Morning Consult, that parents and teachers realized that probably 80 percent of students felt that they would be more engaged if they had a more entertaining approach," she said.
