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☆ Yahoo to lay off more than 20% of staff
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-09 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

Feb 9 (Reuters) - Yahoo said on Thursday it plans to lay off more than 20% of its total workforce as part of a major restructuring of its ad tech division. The cuts will impact nearly 50% of Yahoo's ad tech employees by the end of this year, including nearly 1,000 employees this week, the company said. This comes as many advertisers have pared back their marketing budgets in response to record-high inflation rates and continued uncertainty about a recession. Axios first reported the news of the layoffs at Yahoo. Reporting by Tiyashi Datta in Bengaluru; Editing by Anil D'Silva and Shailesh KuberOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Expedia profit misses as severe weather weighs on holiday quarter, shares fall
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-09 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

Feb 9 (Reuters) - Online travel booking company Expedia Group Inc (EXPE.O) missed Wall Street estimates for fourth-quarter profit on Thursday, as severe weather conditions toward the end of the year hurt its business despite strong travel demand. "While our Q4 results were negatively impacted by severe weather, demand was otherwise strong and accelerating," Expedia Chief Executive Officer Peter Kern said in the company's earnings release. Expedia reported fourth-quarter adjusted profit of $1.26 per share for the quarter ended Dec. 31, short of estimates of $1.67 per share, according to Refinitiv data. Expedia's revenue of $2.62 billion missed Street estimates of $2.7 billion. Meanwhile, the Seattle-based company reported $20.5 billion in total gross bookings across its travel products including lodging and flights, up 17% a year prior.

☆ APA strikes oil off Suriname coast
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-08 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

Feb 8 (Reuters) - U.S. oil producer APA Corp (APA.O) said on Wednesday that it had found oil after drilling Sapakara South-2 (SPS-2) appraisal well in Block 58, offshore Suriname. Exploration off the South American country's coast has been watched closely as it is just over the border from massive oil discoveries made by an Exxon Mobil Corp (XOM.N)-led consortium in Guyana that are estimated to hold nearly 11 billion barrels of oil equivalent. The well is located about 4.6 kms south of the Sapakara South-1 (SPS-1) appraisal well, where APA found oil in 2021. The company had in November wound up drilling operations at the Awari well in Block 58 as it was "deemed noncommercial." French energy major TotalEnergies SE (TTEF.PA) operates Block 58, with a 50% working interest, while APA holds the other half.

Analysts said the new cash may afford Bed Bath only a few quarters to revive its business, and a weakening economy would diminish any chance of a successful turnaround. Bed Bath declined to comment on Hudson Bay Capital's role in the share sale. "All is on hold," a maker of children's apparel said last week, adding that it had stopped shipping products to Bed Bath since early January. A shopping cart is seen at a Bed Bath & Beyond store in Manhattan, New York City, U.S., June 29, 2022. Reuters reported late last month that Bed Bath had lined up liquidators to close additional stores unless a last-minute buyer emerged.

☆ Twitter outage leaves some users unable to tweet
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-08 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

Feb 8 (Reuters) - Some Twitter users were unable to tweet on Wednesday, prematurely encountering a message that said "You are over the daily limit for sending Tweets." Twitter was down for about 9,000 users in the United States at 5 p.m. Eastern time, according to outage tracking website Downdetector.com. "Twitter may not be working as expected for some of you. read moreThe Information reported Musk told Twitter employees on Wednesday to pause on new feature development "in favor of maximizing system stability and robustness, especially with the Super Bowl coming up." Reporting by Khushi Mandowara in Bengaluru and Sheila Dang in Dallas; Editing by Anil D'Silva and Christopher CushingOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Meta's Facebook, Instagram down for thousands of U.S. users - Downdetector
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-08 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: 1 min

Feb 8 (Reuters) - Meta Platforms Inc's (META.O) Facebook and Instagram were down for thousands of users in the United States on Wednesday, according to outage tracking website Downdetector.com. More than 12,000 Facebook users reported errors and about 7,000 incidents were reported for Instagram, according to Downdetector.com. Users also reported issues with Facebook's online messaging service Messenger. Downdetector tracks outages by collating status reports from several sources, including user-submitted errors on its platform. Reporting by Mrinmay Dey in Bengaluru; Editing by Anil D'SilvaOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ India's Adani faced margin call on $1.1 bln loan before repaying in full- FT
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-08 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: 1 min

Feb 8 (Reuters) - Adani Group Chairman Gautam Adani faced a margin call of more than $500 million on a $1.1 billion share-backed loan, prompting him to repay the whole debt, the Financial Times reported on Wednesday, citing four people with direct knowledge of the matter. The repayment was meant to avoid any further damage to investor confidence, which has been rocked by allegations of fraud by short-selling firm Hindenburg, the report added. An Adani spokesperson did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment outside business hours. Reporting by Juby Babu in Bengaluru; Editing by Anil D'SilvaOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Hudson Bay Capital is unrelated to Canadian department store chain Hudson's Bay Co. Bed Bath & Beyond declined to comment earlier Tuesday on Hudson Bay Capital leading investment in the share sale. A shopping cart is seen at a Bed Bath & Beyond store in Manhattan, New York City, U.S., June 29, 2022. REUTERS/Andrew KellyPrices on Bed Bath & Beyond bonds due in 2024 climbed to 24 cents on the dollar from around 5 cents, a level still indicating financial distress. Bed Bath shares rose 2.7% in extended trading, after closing down 49% on Tuesday.

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His comments renewed investor hopes for less aggressive monetary policy that wavered after a strong U.S. jobs report last Friday. The tech-heavy Nasdaq (.IXIC) rallied on news form Microsoft Corp (MSFT.O), and the S&P 500 (.SPX) also got a boost. Most sectors on the S&P 500 ended higher. So far, more than half of the companies on the S&P 500 have reported quarterly earnings, with 69.1% of them beating expectations, according to Refinitiv. The S&P 500 posted 5 new 52-week highs and 2 new lows; the Nasdaq Composite recorded 90 new highs and 31 new lows.

His comments came after a strong jobs report last week stymied rising hopes of less aggressive monetary policy. The Nasdaq and the S&P 500 fluctuated during and after Powell's remarks. Boosting the tech-heavy Nasdaq (.IXIC) and the S&P 500 (.SPX) was Microsoft Corp (MSFT.O). Six of the top 11 sectors on the S&P 500 fell, but technology (.SPLRCT) was among top gainers, up 1.61%. So far, more than half of the companies on the S&P 500 have reported quarterly earnings, with 69.1% of them beating expectations, according to Refinitiv.

☆ Microsoft Outlook back up for most users after outage
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-07 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

Feb 7 (Reuters) - Microsoft Corp's (MSFT.O) Outlook was back up for most users, the company said on Tuesday, after an hours-long outage disrupted the email service application for users primarily in North America. The company said it had identified a recent change that might have caused issues within Outlook.com, without giving further details. The outage comes shortly after Microsoft's cloud platform, Azure, faced disruptions, taking down services such as Teams and Microsoft 365 used by millions around the globe. Many users took to Twitter to share updates and memes about the service disruption, with #Microsoft365 trending as a hashtag on the social media site. Reporting by Sneha Bhowmik and Akriti Sharma in Bengaluru; Additional reporting by Maria Ponnezhath; Editing by Dhanya Ann Thoppil and Anil D'SilvaOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Bed Bath said it was planning to raise just over $1 billion through sales of preferred stock and warrants and from securities when the warrants are exercised. Bed Bath will receive a waiver on its recent bank default should the proposed offering succeed, the company said. Bed Bath & Beyond also appointed Holly Etlin, a bankruptcy expert, as interim chief financial officer. "It’s a similar situation in which a deeply financially distressed company is attempting to sell securities," said Lynn LoPucki, a professor at the University of Florida. Sources have told Reuters that Bed Bath & Beyond has lined up liquidators to close additional stores unless a last-minute buyer emerges.

☆ Hertz has fewer Teslas in its fleet than planned
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-07 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

Feb 7 (Reuters) - Hertz Global Holdings Inc's (HTZ.O) rental fleet has less than half the number of Tesla (TSLA.O) cars it planned to order in 2022, its regulatory filing showed on Tuesday. Hertz's fleet in the Americas peaked at 428,700 vehicles for the year ended Dec. 31, 2022, of which 11% were Tesla cars, the filing showed. Hertz's decision to bolster its fleet with Teslas had briefly helped the EV maker hit $1 trillion in market value in 2021. Hertz did not give details on why it has added fewer Teslas than it originally planned to order. The car rental service on Tuesday forecast upbeat revenue and profit for its second and third quarters as it expected a weak economy to boost demand for rental cars.

☆ AI stocks rally in latest Wall Street craze sparked by ChatGPT
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-06 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

Feb 6 (Reuters) - Shares of C3.ai Inc, BigBear.ai and SoundHound AI extended a rally on Monday as artificial intelligence becomes a new buzzword on Wall Street with the viral success of ChatGPT chatbot, attracting interest from retail punters. Software firm C3.ai (AI.N) rose 11%, analytics firm BigBear.ai (BBAI.N) jumped nearly 21% and conversation artificial intelligence company SoundHound (SOUN.O) surged 40%. "Any company that mentions ChatGPT or something about AI, sees this rally ... it's just the hot buzzword of the month," said Dennis Dick, a trader at Triple D Trading. The success of OpenAI's ChatGPT, which drew multi-billion dollar investment from Microsoft Corp (MSFT.O), has left investors scouring for companies that develop AI-related technologies. C3.ai and SoundHound have more than doubled in value this year while BigBear.ai has surged more than 700%.

☆ Bed Bath & Beyond moves to raise $1 bln as bankruptcy clouds loom
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-06 | by ( Noor Zainab Hussain | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Feb 6 (Reuters) - Bed Bath & Beyond Inc (BBBY.O) said on Monday it was planning to raise some $1 billion through an offering of preferred stock and warrants, in a last-ditch effort to stave off bankruptcy. Bed Bath said it was planning to raise about $225 million through an offering of Series A convertible preferred stock and an additional $800 million by issuing securities to buy shares of preferred stock in future installments. Bed Bath will receive a waiver on its recent bank default should the proposed offering succeed, the company said. On Monday, Bed Bath said it planned to close an additional 150 stores, on top of 250 previously announced store closures. Sources have told Reuters that Bed Bath & Beyond has lined up liquidators to close additional stores unless a last-minute buyer emerges.

☆ 'Call of Duty' steers Activision sales in tough quarter for game makers
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-06 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Feb 6 (Reuters) - Videogame publisher Activision Blizzard (ATVI.O) beat Wall Street estimates for fourth-quarter adjusted sales on Monday, thanks to the success of the latest game in its "Call of Duty" franchise. The company expects its full-year adjusted sales to grow at least in high-single digits, bolstered by the launch of games including "Diablo IV." Adjusted sales in the quarter ended Dec. 31 came in at $3.57 billion, compared with analysts' average estimate of $3.16 billion, according to Refinitiv data. Activision's $69-billion takeover by Microsoft is being challenged by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission and being investigated by EU authorities. Fourth quarter net income fell to $403 million, or 51 cents per share, from $564 million, or 72 cents per share, a year earlier.

☆ Stocks are getting a boost from a key indicator that's been a reliable sign of more gains to come
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-03 | by ( Phil Rosen | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

In case you missed it, the European Central Bank Thursday made a half-point interest rate hike, marking its fifth consecutive move as part of its inflation-fighting efforts. Speaking of rates, today we're going over a key economic indicator that suggests more upside ahead for stocks. Ever since the Fed started tightening policy last March, the stock market has been highly susceptible to interest-rate volatility. Specifically, the MOVE Index — which measures volatility of US Treasury yields — has dipped to lows that haven't been seen since the Fed's first rate hike of this cycle. This means potentially smaller swings in the stock market as highly rate-sensitive equities get some relief after big rate moves battered indexes in 2022.

☆ BofA trims CEO Moynihan's pay to $30 mln as Wall Street curbs compensation
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-03 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

Moynihan's pay included a base salary of $1.5 million and restricted stock. In deciding his compensation, the bank's board cited the executive's leadership in a period of "considerable economic uncertainty." U.S. lending giants have cut or frozen pay for their top executives in recent weeks, citing challenging economic and business conditions. Goldman Sachs Group Inc (GS.N) slashed compensation for CEO David Solomon by 29% to $25 million for 2022, while his counterpart at Morgan Stanley (MS.N), James Gorman, got a 10% pay cut to $31.5 million. At JPMorgan Chase & Co (JPM.N), Jamie Dimon's compensation was held steady at $34.5 million.

☆ Twitter to share ad revenue with some content creators
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-03 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

Feb 3 (Reuters) - Twitter will start sharing revenue from advertisements with some of its content creators, Chief Executive Elon Musk said on Friday. The user must be a subscriber of Blue Verified, Musk said. Twitter has seen advertisers flee amid worries about Musk's approach to content moderation rules, impacting its revenue. Days after taking charge of the company, Musk said Twitter had seen a "massive" drop in revenue and blamed activist groups for pressuring advertisers. As Twitter CEO, Musk has focused on reducing costs and introducing new plans for Twitter Blue subscription service, which offers the sought-after "verified" badge.

And while Amazon's holiday revenue beat Wall Street's expectations, sales growth from its lucrative cloud-computing division slowed during the fourth quarter. Amazon Chief Financial Officer Brian Olsavsky told reporters that the company expects slower cloud growth rates for the next few quarters as it worked with customers to optimize costs. Olsavsky also said the company remains nervous about consumer spending and how people will prioritize budgets moving forward. Facing high inflation and an uncertain economy, CEO Andy Jassy has aimed to slash costs across Amazon's vast array of businesses. The division fell short of estimates of more than $22 billion in fourth-quarter cloud sales, increasing them 20% to $21.4 billion.

☆ Gautam Adani in talks to prepay share pledges to boost confidence - Bloomberg News
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-02 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

Feb 2 (Reuters) - Adani Group Chairman Gautam Adani is in talks with lenders to prepay and release pledged shares as he seeks to restore confidence in the financial health of his conglomerate, Bloomberg News reported on Thursday. The move would see lenders release some of the stock in Adani Group companies that was pledged as collateral, Bloomberg reported, citing a person with knowledge of the matter. The group hasn't faced margin calls on these pledges and is seeking the prepayment proactively, according to the report. The key priority is to remove any concern about margin calls and Adani officials will speak with investors in coming days and will make all payments on time, Bloomberg reported. A spokesperson for Adani Group did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment outside business hours.

Feb 1 (Reuters) - Meta Platforms Inc's (META.O) stricter cost controls this year and a new $40 billion share buyback sent shares soaring on Wednesday, as CEO Mark Zuckerberg called 2023 the "Year of Efficiency." The parent of Instagram and Facebook cut its cost outlook for 2023 by $5 billion to a range of $89 billion-95 billion, and projected first-quarter sales that could beat Wall Street estimates. Shares of peer Alphabet Inc (GOOGL.O) were up 3.3% and Snap Inc (SNAP.N) stock rose 1% in after-hours trade on Wednesday. "Despite all the challenges Meta must deal with, there are signs the business is still doing well," Cohen said. The company forecast first-quarter revenue between $26 billion and $28.5 billion, compared with analysts' average estimates of $27.14 billion, according to Refinitiv.

Feb 1 (Reuters) - Meta Platforms Inc's (META.O) stricter cost controls this year and a new $40 billion share buyback sent shares soaring on Wednesday, as CEO Mark Zuckerberg called 2023 the "Year of Efficiency." The parent of Instagram and Facebook cut its cost outlook for 2023 by $5 billion and projected first-quarter sales that could beat Wall Street estimates. The company forecast first-quarter revenue between $26 billion and $28.5 billion, compared with analysts' average estimates of $27.14 billion, according to IBES data from Refinitiv. Meta stock was up 18.3% in after-hours trade. The company reported adjusted earnings of $1.76 per share, missing the average analysts' estimate of $2.22 per share.

The Jan. 24 report has triggered an $86 billion erosion in market capitalisation of seven listed Adani Group companies. "To go through this exercise of a share sale and to call it off raises more questions." After the share sale was pulled, yields of dollar-denominated bonds issued by Adani companies rose on Wednesday. Adani Group was working with its bankers to refund the proceeds received by in the secondary share sale of Adani Enterprises. The share sale had succeeded on Tuesday even when the Adani Enterprises stock price in Mumbai markets traded below the offer price of the share sale.

The company gave a lackluster quarterly revenue forecast a day earlier that it blamed on a tough economy, a strong dollar and "significant" poor product execution at Tinder. The cuts have already taken place in the United States and are being implemented in other countries. "In addition to the cuts, we expect Match to place greater emphasis on marketing its Tinder and Hinge brands, core areas of growth for 2023," CFRA Research analyst Angelo Zino said. It forecast first-quarter revenue between $790 million and $800 million, lower than analysts' estimates of $817.3 million, according to Refinitiv data. The company also reported its first-ever quarterly revenue decline.

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