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☆ Amazon's layoff meltdown: Inside a week of turmoil when thousands lost their jobs.
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-19 | by ( Katherine Long | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +11 min

"I just don't know how to tell this news to my kids," one employee wrote. "At some point we have to stop calling them leadership," another employee wrote. In a memo to employees, Amazon's devices chief, Dave Limp, pinned the layoffs on an adverse economic climate. A new breaking point for corporate employeesIndeed, some Amazon employees had already reached a breaking point. On Discord, a small group of Amazon employees began broaching a taboo topic: Unionizing.

☆ Biogas producers Amp Americas, BerQ RNG up for sale -sources
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-18 | by ( Isla Binnie | David French | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Amp Americas, owned by investors including Houston-based buyout firm EIV Capital and infrastructure-focused Generate Capital, is seeking a valuation of around $1 billion, including debt, the sources said. Amp Americas, BerQ RNG, EIV, Generate and Starwood did not respond to requests for commentRNG, also known as biogas, is captured from organic waste in farms and landfills. The legislation includes tax credits for companies that build machines to capture these emissions, then convert them into natural gas, electricity and heat. Chicago-based Amp Americas builds and operates facilities that capture and compress methane on dairy farms for injection into fuel pipelines, and offers services to other developers. Most of the projects BerQ RNG has worked on in the United States and Canada since its founding in 2016 use animal, food and landfill waste as their source.

REUTERS/Octavio JonesNEW YORK, Nov 16 (Reuters) - Former President Donald Trump's entry on Tuesday into the 2024 presidential race confirmed the world's "worst kept secret" and created another variable for markets that some investors say remains a low priority for now. Trump's announcement, meanwhile, came as little surprise to investors, as the former president had telegraphed the possibility he might run again for some time. DIVIDED WE HURTUnlike during Trump's previous bid, the discord within the Republican party also worried some investors. The Republican president has claimed credit for the rise, tweeting often about Wall Street's performance. Both stocks rallied earlier this month on reports Trump was considering a third bid for the White House.

☆ Reactions to Trump announcing 2024 White House bid
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-16 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

SINGAPORE, Nov 16 (Reuters) - Donald Trump's aides filed paperwork for his 2024 White House bid on Tuesday as the former president launched a run to regain the title, aiming to pre-empt potential Republican rivals. Republicans are meanwhile closing in on the 218 seats they need to take a majority in the 435-seat House of Representatives. COMMENTS:ANTHONY SCARAMUCCI, FOUNDER, SKYBRIDGE CAPITAL, SINGAPORE (FORMER WHITE HOUSE COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR)"You know how you have a zombie that you can’t kill, like in the Night of the Walking Dead? If any one of those other candidates can present themselves with some of the Trump messaging without the Trump drama, there might be opportunities." Neil Young said 'it's better to burn out than fade away'...feels like Trump will go down this time with little glory."

☆ Even Nicki Minaj couldn't save Amazon's bet big on a live radio service. The business is badly missing a year-end goal and recently cut half its workers.
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-16 | by ( Katherine Long | Tom Dotan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Amazon launched the Amp live radio app earlier this year with A-list stars like Nicki Minaj. Earlier this fall, executives inside Amazon's live radio service, Amp, were dreaming about bringing on Taylor Swift as the next big name on the platform. The live radio app launched in March, touting a partnership with Minaj, who hosted a live call-in and music shows with her fans. An Amazon spokesperson said those figures were inaccurate but declined to specify how many monthly active users Amp has. "We've continued to see success since launching the product and are optimizing for product growth as we release more features."

☆ Amazon's job cut plans show that tech isn't out of the woods just yet
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-15 | by ( Matt Weinberger | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Indeed, as Insider reported last week, Mark Zuckerberg isn't ruling out the possibility of more layoffs at Meta. Amazon CEO Andy Jassy Dan DeLong/GeekWire1. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg Photo by Liu Jie/Xinhua via Getty2. The tech titans are known for paying the big bucks, but that's not the only way to make it in tech. Tech leaders like Ancestry CEO Deb Liu and Scale AI CEO Lucy Guo will appear on stage.

☆ Fed hopes buoy shares, China COVID easing boosts oil
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-11 | by ( Huw Jones | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

Oil prices jumped after health authorities in top global crude importer China eased some of the country's heavy COVID curbs. The S&P 500 (.SPX) and Nasdaq (.IXIC) racked up their biggest daily percentage gains in over 2-1/2 years on Thursday after U.S. data showed prices rose less-than-expected in October. Market bets on the Fed raising rates by 50 basis points instead of 75 basis points increased. US inflation, Fed rates and marketsDOLLAR DIVEInvestors poured into risky assets after the U.S. data, with the dollar suffering its biggest daily drop in 13 years on Thursday. Meanwhile, oil prices rose on Friday after the U.S. inflation data but were on track for weekly declines of more than 4% due to COVID-related worries in China.

☆ Asia stocks surge as cooling inflation feeds hopes Fed will ease up
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-11 | by ( Ankur Banerjee | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

After four consecutive 75 basis-point interest rate hikes to tame decades-high inflation, the case is now building for the Fed to moderate its aggressive stance, said Rodrigo Catril, senior currency strategist at National Australia Bank in Sydney. Financial markets have now priced in an 85% likelihood of a smaller, 50 basis-point interest rate hike at the conclusion of next month's FOMC policy meeting, according to CME's Fedwatch tool. Mainland China stocks (.SSEC) opened 2.1% higher, while Hong Kong shares (.HSI) shot up 6.5% in early trade. In the currency market, the U.S. dollar index slumped more than 2% overnight to 108.100, the most in over a decade. Meanwhile, oil prices rose on Friday as fears of a U.S. recession eased but they were on track for weekly declines of more than 4% due to COVID-related worries in China.

☆ Amazon has halted most internal transfers as it slashes positions, leaving workers scrambling to find new jobs
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-11 | by ( Katherine Long | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Amazon has frozen internal transfers, making it hard for some laid-off workers to find new jobs. Employees who had transfers in progress in the past month have had those job changes halted, one Amazon employee said. Amazon will continue to backfill openings created by attrition, Galetti wrote, "and there are some targeted places" where Amazon will continue to create new jobs. The company gave the hundreds of impacted employees three months to find a new job inside Amazon and promised assistance on their internal job hunt. Two other workers whose roles were cut said they found new jobs internally, one through an internal job fair that Amazon hosted.

☆ Apple will 'take years' to diversify away from China, says Counterpoint Research
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-10 | by ( Sheila Chiang | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

A display of iPhone 14 smartphones at the Apple Inc. Regent Street store in London, UK. Bloomberg | Bloomberg | Getty ImagesApple will take years to diversify from its Chinese factories, even as the country presses on with its zero Covid policy which is hurting iPhone production, according to Counterpoint Research's Jeff Fieldhack. "It will take years for Apple to diversify," the research director told CNBC's "Squawk Box Asia" Tuesday, explaining that Apple's latest iPhones will likely continue to be built in China for the next few years. In a statement on Sunday, Apple said that it temporarily reduced iPhone 14 production as its primary iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max assembly plant in Zhengzhou, China is operating at "significantly reduced capacity" due to Covid-19 restrictions. Apple has been diversifying its device assembly process away from China and opening factories in countries south of China, such as India and Vietnam.

☆ Amazon bet big on a live radio service with Nicki Minaj and Halsey. The business is wildly undershooting a year-end goal and just laid off half its workers.
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-04 | by ( Katherine Long | Tom Dotan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

☆ Layoffs have already started at Elon Musk's Twitter. Here's what we know so far.
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-04 | by ( Jordan Parker Erb | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Elon Musk began to terminate Twitter staffers last night, insiders told us. Last night Elon Musk's Twitter broke its silence with employees and sent a memo to staffers confirming that much-anticipated layoffs were happening the following day (so, today). But staffers told us the terminations started shortly after that email went out. Workers suddenly started to get locked out of services like Slack and email around 8 p.m. PT on Thursday night, multiple employees told Insider. Citing an "unusual macro-economic environment," Amazon told staff it'd put a pause on new corporate hires.

☆ A former Tesla engineer's new battery startup just raised a $17.5 million Series A. Here's why investors are betting on AMP to power the future of EV batteries.
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-01 | by ( Alexa St. John | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Startup AMP just raised $17.5 million for its tech that looks into battery health. Battery management is key to saving EVs from costly recalls. Monitoring battery health can help avoid costly recalls (like that of 142,000 Chevrolet Bolts), extend an EV's life, and manage the way EVs charge. AMP's energy management assesses battery health and performance as the battery sits in a car or in storage. AMP does so through its hardware, using an energy management unit manufactured by third-party partners, as well as a battery management system and software that provides insights.

☆ Twitter employees expect layoffs as Elon Musk preps 'aggressive' cuts
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-31 | by ( Jordan Parker Erb | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

And that's not to mention that employees are preparing for layoffs after Twitter leaders and VPs made lists of who to keep. Twitter employees expect layoffs to begin very soon. By Saturday afternoon, they handed Elon Musk lists of employees "to keep," two people said. Elon Musk fired Twitter execs "for cause" in a bid to avoid paying out tens of millions in severance. Among this year's biggest losers are those who've invested heavily in the metaverse (Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg) and crypto (Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao).

☆ Wall Street's biggest banks say Amazon is still a screaming 'buy' despite its ugly earnings results. Here's why, and where they see future growth coming from.
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-31 | by ( Morgan Chittum | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

The company's share price has dropped by more than 15% since then. Amazon's third-quarter earnings disappointed investors on Thursday, sending the company's stock into a tailspin. What's Wall Street saying? Outcry over grueling and unsafe working conditions from employees has not tipped the scale for shareholders or Wall Street analysts. His firm holds Amazon stock.

☆ Amazon slashes yet another division in attempt to cut costs, one day after share price bloodbath
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-28 | by ( Katherine Long | Tom Dotan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Amazon fired half of its Amp live radio division on Friday, notifying roughly 150 people they would need to take severance or find new jobs internally. Amazon is looking for ways to tighten its belt amid growing shipping costs and slackening consumer spending. The company reported weaker-than-expected sales and forecasts Thursday, causing its share price to tumble nearly 12%. Amazon fired roughly 150 people from its Amp live radio division Friday, one day after weaker-than-expected earnings caused its share price to plunge nearly 12%. The app allows users to broadcast their own live radio shows and has been courting content creators.

☆ Factbox: Who's in and out in Credit Suisse's day of reckoning
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-27 | by ( Pamela Barbaglia | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

Oct 27 (Reuters) - Credit Suisse's (CSGN.S) latest shake-up has led to the promotion of some senior executives to more powerful roles while others are leaving. IN:MICHAEL KLEINA former Citigroup Inc (C.N) dealmaker, Klein has been named adviser to Credit Suisse CEO Ulrich Körner. He was hired by former Credit Suisse boss Tidjane Thiam in 2017 to run equity derivatives globally. A Spanish national, Lopez Lorenzo joined Credit Suisse in 2015 from JPMorgan (JPM.N) where he was a managing director in New York. The 47-year-old banker was part of a new crop of executives who had been tasked to restore Credit Suisse's reputation after a series of scandals.

☆ World stocks at 5-week high, earnings in the spotlight
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-26 | by ( Dhara Ranasinghe | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

But European shares headed higher (.STOXX), having opened softer, drawing some comfort from upbeat bank earnings. Deutsche Bank (DBKGn.DE) posted a better-than-expected jump in third quarter profit, while British bank Barclays (BARC.L) too beat profit forecasts on a trading boom. MSCI's World Stock Index (.MIWO00000PUS) touched a five-week high, while Asian shares rallied. The Bank of Canada is widely expected to raise rates by another 75 bps later in the day to contain stubbornly high inflation. In Australia, inflation raced to a 32-year high last quarter as the cost of home building and gas surged.

GAZA, Oct 24 (Reuters) - In a scrapyard near Gaza's fence with Israel, thousands of old batteries are piling up - one of several such sites in the enclave set up to mitigate the environmental repercussions of the blackouts that are a feature of daily life. To minimize the impact of the thousands of tonnes of old batteries that have built up after 15 years of blockade, environment officials have set up five storage sites away from heavily populated areas. "Keeping batteries exposed to the environment is certainly dangerous," said Ahmed Al-Manama, of the Water and Quality Environment Authority. "Lead can get into drinking water reserves and dust from the batteries can blow away and pollute plants, trees and the soil." For the enclave's ever-inventive scrap dealers, however, they provide an opportunity, and scavengers tour the streets in donkey carts, buying up old batteries or picking them off garbage dumps for resale and recycling.

Oct 21 (Reuters) - Money managers such as Janus Henderson Group (JHG.N) and investment firms including Blue Owl Capital Inc (OWL.N) are weighing potential offers for Credit Suisse Group AG's (CSGN.S) U.S. asset management unit, people familiar with the matter said on Friday. read moreJanus and rival asset manager AllianceBernstein Holding (AB.N), and Blue Owl as well as private equity firms Centerbridge Partners and Clearlake Capital are considering bids, the sources said. Credit Suisse, Blue Owl, Clearlake, Invesco and Janus Henderson declined to comment. Janus Henderson emerged in 2017 from the combination of Janus Capital Group and Henderson Group, and Blue Owl was formed last year from the three-way merging of Owl Rock Capital Group, Dyal Capital Partners and a blank check firm. Meanwhile, both Ameriprise and Invesco have been active buyers of asset managers in recent years.

☆ Asian shares lower, yields rise on aggressive rate hike jitters
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-21 | by ( Ankur Banerjee | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

SINGAPORE, Oct 21 (Reuters) - Asian shares tracked Wall Street lower on Friday while Treasury yields scaled 14-year highs as the prospect of aggressive interest rate hikes from the Federal Reserve and recession risks soured investor sentiment. MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan (.MIAPJ0000PUS) was down 0.55% but above the two-and-a-half year low it touched on Thursday. Australia's resources-heavy share index (.AXJO) lost 0.74%, while Japan's Nikkei (.N225) opened 0.38% lower. U.S. benchmark 10-year Treasury yields to as much as 4.234%, its highest level since June 2008. Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com RegisterReporting by Ankur Banerjee; Editing by Lincoln FeastOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ AMP Australian wealth management unit's Q3 outflows drop
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-20 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: 1 min

Oct 21 (Reuters) - AMP Ltd (AMP.AX) on Friday reported lower third-quarter outflows at its Australian wealth management unit, largely due to reduced withdrawals at one of its pension trusts. Net cash outflows at AMP's main wealth management business were A$0.8 billion ($502.40 million) for the three months to September, compared with A$1.9 billion recorded a year earlier. ($1 = 1.5924 Australian dollars)Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com RegisterReporting by Harish Sridharan in Bengaluru; Editing by Vinay DwivediOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ AMP Australian wealth management unit's net outflows more than halve
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-20 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Oct 21 (Reuters) - AMP Ltd (AMP.AX) on Friday reported third-quarter net outflows at its Australian wealth management unit more than halved due to increased inflows into its flagship online investment platform, North, and reduced withdrawals at its pension trusts. "We've seen a reduction in cash outflows to other superannuation funds and we’re winning new customers on our North platform, which has continued to grow cashflows from independent financial advisers," AMP Chief Executive Officer Alexis George said. Net cash outflows at AMP's main wealth management business were A$0.8 billion ($502.40 million) for the three months to September, compared with A$1.9 billion recorded a year earlier. Assets under management at the unit, however, fell A$3.7 billion to A$121.4 billion due to a downturn in investment markets and continued cash outflows. AMP said net interest margins at its banking unit remained on track to meet their annual forecast range of 135 basis points (bps) to 140 bps.

☆ Most Asian shares extend rally, markets await UK inflation data
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-19 | by ( Stella Qiu | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan (.MIAPJ0000PUS) edged up 0.2%, but further gains were capped by slight falls in Chinese shares. Japan's Nikkei (.N225) advanced 0.4%, Australia's resources-heavy shares (.AXJO) gained 0.4%, while South Korea (.KS11) rebounded 0.5%. Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com RegisterU.S. S&P 500 futures rose 0.8% and the Nasdaq futures jumped 1.3%. Netflix Inc (NFLX.O) reversed customer losses that had hammered its stock this year and projected more growth ahead, sending shares 14% higher in after-hours trading. Chris Turner, global head of markets at ING, said a quiet week for U.S. data could also see the dollar correction extend a little.

☆ Robust or vulnerable? Experts are split on Australia's economic outlook
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-16 | by ( Lee Ying Shan | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +5 min

According to Australia's Bureau of Statistics, Australia's inflation rate rose to 6.1 in June, a 21-year high. Australia's unemployment rate stood at 3.5% in August, and household savings ratio fell to 8.7% in the March to June quarter. Additionally, a small share of borrowers with high debt and low savings are "vulnerable" to payment difficulties. In addition, Assistant Treasurer Stephen Jones cautioned that Australia's economy is not "hermetically sealed" from the forecasted downturn of the international economy, Sky news reported. This will in turn have an impact on Australia's growth forecast.

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