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☆ Time to buy the tech rally? Wall Street pros weigh in with their top stock picks
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-06 | by ( Zavier Ong | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +6 min

Investors are flocking back into tech, after shunning the sector for the better part of 2022 amid broad risk-off sentiment. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite has been the best-performing Wall Street index in 2023, having gained about 15.6% since the start of the year. This could be the rebound," Wang told CNBC's "Street Signs Asia" on Thursday. " Some 87% of analysts covering the stock rate it a "buy," according to FactSet data, and give it average upside of 10.3%. Christopher Crawford, managing partner at Crawford Fund Management, told CNBC's "Street Signs Asia" on Tuesday that his firm is overweight tech "for the first time in our 10-year history."

☆ Did investors learn nothing from last year’s market meltdown?
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-05 | by ( Paul R. La Monica | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +6 min

Shares of movie theater chain AMC (AMC) have soared nearly 65% so far in 2023, and AMC (AMC)’s companion preferred stock (which trades under the ticker APE as a nod to the nickname AMC (AMC) fans have given themselves on social media) has more than doubled. So did investors learn nothing from last year’s market meltdown? I don’t agree with this market rally in meme stocks,” said Erik Ristuben, chief investment strategist with Russell Investments. Another strategist agrees this recent rally for meme stocks and other speculative bets may not end well. If they’re upbeat about spending, that could keep the rally in consumer stocks going.

☆ Despite big layoffs, it’s still a great time to work in tech, experts say: ‘I’ve seen bad job markets…this is not it’
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-03 | by ( Morgan Smith | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

Mathur is one of the more than 70,000 employees at U.S.-based tech companies that have lost their jobs in mass job cuts over the past 12 months. However, despite the recent barrage of pink slips, experts say it's still a great time to be a technology worker. Nearly 80% of laid-off tech workers found new roles within three months of beginning their job search, according to a November 2022 ZipRecruiter survey. Elliott has noticed increased interest in smaller companies among the tech professionals he coaches following the latest round of layoffs. "Tech workers are changing the parameters around their job search," he says.

☆ Did the economy end 2022 with a bang or a whimper?
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-22 | by ( Paul R. La Monica | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +7 min

But the United States economy still seems to be chugging along just fine after experiencing a hiccup in the first half of 2022. Despite worries about weaker consumer spending during the holidays, economists are forecasting solid growth for the fourth quarter. Yearning for earningsMore blue chip companies will report fourth quarter results (and perhaps give guidance about the first quarter of 2023 and beyond) this week. But according to FactSet senior earnings analyst John Butters, earnings for the tech sector are expected to fall nearly 10% in the fourth quarter compared to the fourth quarter of 2021. Verizon (VZ), Johnson & Johnson (JNJ), Travelers (TRV), 3M (MMM), Boeing (BA), Dow (DOW), Visa (V), Chevron (CVX) and American Express (AXP).

☆ A leaked Google memo compared it to slime mold
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-17 | by ( Jake Swearingen | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

It's like the start of a joke: What do Google and slime mold have in common? A lot, says a memo from an ex-Googler comparing the org to a "slime mold." (A key difference: Stanford grads aren't desperate to intern at a slime mold.) But with ChatGPT setting off alarm bells inside and outside the org, Google should probably move faster and with more intention than slime mold. The most memorable part of the memo compares Google's bottom-up organizational structure to a "slime mold," highlighting how both Google and a slime mold can work independently but still come together to solve complex problems.

☆ Microsoft will stop tracking vacation time for US salaried employees, internal memo shows
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-11 | by ( Ashley Stewart | Britney Nguyen | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Microsoft will no longer track vacation time for US salaried employees, an internal memo shows. Time-off will still require manager approval, as is standard for companies with "unlimited' vacation time. And as we've transformed, modernizing our vacation policy to a more flexible model was a natural next step." Time-off will still require manager approval, as is standard for companies with "unlimited' vacation time. Microsoft employees outside the US will keep existing vacation benefits.

☆ Google's most cutting-edge moonshot lab is refocusing on actually making money
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-10 | by ( Matt Weinberger | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

I'm Matt Weinberger, deputy editor of Insider's tech analysis team, filling in for my colleague Diamond Naga Siu for the next few days. It's yet another sign that the tech industry is very different than it was even a year ago. A moonshot in the foot for Google: Insider's Hugh Langley reports that Google's X Development is scaling back from its pioneering, famously envelope-pushing roots as a tech research lab. Instead, it'll focus on initiatives that actually make money for Google and its parent company Alphabet. Read Insider's in-depth review of the newest model of the iPad Pro, released in late 2022.

☆ Elon Musk has lost a bigger fortune than anyone in history
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-02 | by ( David Goldman | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +2 min

New York CNN —Elon Musk’s wealth destruction has become historic. The bulk of Musk’s wealth is tied up in Tesla (TSLA), whose stock plunged 65% in 2022. Musk’s $44 billion purchase of Twitter hasn’t helped Tesla’s stock or Musk’s personal wealth, either. Musk, Tesla’s largest shareholder, has sold $23 billion worth of Tesla shares since his interest in Twitter became public in April. Tesla’s stock may rebound, and Musk could once again become the world’s richest person.

☆ How 2022 shocked, rocked and rolled global markets
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-30 | by ( Marc Jones | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +6 min

The main drivers have been the war in Ukraine, combined with rampant inflation as global economies broke out of the pandemic, but China remained shackled by it. U.S. Treasuries and German bonds, the benchmarks of global borrowing markets and traditional go-to assets in troubled times, lost 17% and 25% respectively in dollar terms. Ten-year Treasury yields jumped to 1.8% from less than 1.5%, knocking 5% off MSCI's world stocks index (.MIWD00000PUS) in January alone. The Fed has delivered an eye-watering 400bps of rate hikes and the European Central Bank, a record 250bps, despite saying this time last year it was unlikely to budge. "What has gone in global markets this year has been traumatic," said EFG Bank Chief Economist and ex-Deputy Governor of Ireland's central bank, Stefan Gerlach.

☆ YouTube lands NFL Sunday Ticket deal, reportedly worth $2 billion a year
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-22 | by ( Travis Clark | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

YouTube has landed a multi-year deal for NFL Sunday Ticket. The package allows viewers to watch Sunday NFL games from outside of their local market. YouTube has landed the rights to NFL Sunday Ticket in a multi-year agreement, YouTube and the NFL announced on Thursday. NFL Sunday Ticket allows viewers to watch NFL Sunday games that are outside of their local market. NFL games are still some of the most-watched telecasts on broadcast networks in any given year.

☆ Salesforce employees say they were blindsided by Bret Taylor's departure
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-01 | by ( Jordan Parker Erb | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Today's not a typical day for the staff at Salesforce, some of whom told us they were blindsided by co-CEO Bret Taylor's decision to step down. Below, we've got details on what Salesforce employees — including now-solo CEO Marc Benioff — are saying about Taylor's announcement. Salesforce employees were blindsided by Bret Taylor's departure. The sudden announcement left many at the company feeling blindsided, employees and others close to the company told Insider. Here's what workers told us about Taylor's departure.

☆ From Python to Rust, these are the top coding languages for landing a gig on Wall Street
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-29 | by ( Bianca Chan | Carter Johnson | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Coding languages are a foundational element of any tech job, but not all are made equal. Coding languages, like Python and Java, are how humans can communicate with computers by providing a set of instructions for a system to execute. As it turns out, not all programming languages are made equal and some are more relevant to certain corners of Wall Street than others. Insider spoke with recruiters, Wall Street tech execs, and industry insiders, and analyzed job postings to get the low down on in-demand skill sets. Here are the top coding languages to know to land a tech job on Wall Street.

☆ Want to work in tech on Wall Street? These are the 8 coding languages that are most in demand.
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-18 | by ( Bianca Chan | Carter Johnson | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Coding languages are a foundational element of any tech job, but not all are made equal. But skilled technologists or those wanting to make a career switch into tech might still find a home on Wall Street. As it turns out, not all programming languages are made equal and some are more relevant to certain corners of Wall Street than others. Insider spoke with recruiters, Wall Street tech execs, and industry insiders, and analyzed job postings to get the low down on in-demand skill sets. Here are the top coding languages to know to land a tech job on Wall Street.

☆ 'Pronatalism' explained: Why tech titans like Elon Musk want to have tons of kids to save the world
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-18 | by ( Julia Black | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Tech titans like Elon Musk want to counteract the effects of population decline by having lots of children. Elon Musk, who has fathered 10 known children with three women (including twins last year with one of his employees), is the highest-profile figure currently associated with this movement. So some are turning to the next best thing: having lots of children, and funding new fertility technologies that one founder said are "reinventing reproduction." "The person of this subculture really sees the pathway to immortality as being through having children," said Simone Collins, a VC and co-founder of the nonprofit initiative Pronatalist.org. Read Insider's full feature, "Billionaires like Elon Musk want to save civilization by having tons of genetically superior kids.

☆ 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.

☆ After huge Meta layoffs, Mark Zuckerberg tells employees that he cut jobs more thoughtfully than Elon Musk at Twitter
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-12 | by ( Sydney Bradley | Rob Price | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

After a terrible week for thousands of Meta employees, Mark Zuckerberg shared some heartening thoughts at a companywide meeting on Friday: At least we didn't mess up as much as Elon Musk did at Twitter. Musk cut roughly 3,700 workers via an unsigned email, after making many staff work most of the prior weekend. On Friday, the Meta CEO and other executives hosted a town hall meeting for remaining employees and answered their questions. The Q&A touched on Twitter, and Zuckerberg weighed in, according to people who attended. Contact Rob Price via encrypted messaging app Signal (+1 650-636-6268), encrypted email (robaeprice@protonmail.com), standard email (rprice@insider.com), Telegram/Wickr/WeChat (robaeprice), or Twitter DM (@robaeprice).

☆ The tech boom is officially over - and the FTX fiasco will spark a crypto crackdown, ex-Treasury chief Larry Summers says
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-10 | by ( Theron Mohamed | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

The tech boom is over, thanks to the pandemic receding and interest rates rising, Larry Summers said. The ex-Treasury chief predicted the FTX fiasco will lead to greater crypto regulation. He warned some of the recent excesses in the tech sector won't return until the next speculative boom, if at all. Investors need to reset their expectations after years of venture capitalists subsidizing companies' user acquisition with zero regard for profits or sustainable growth, he continued. Summers also touched on the financial troubles of Sam Bankman-Fried's FTX and Alameda Research, which have roiled cryptocurrency markets this week.

☆ Arctic Wolf: 2022 Top Startups for the Enterprise
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-07 | by ( Cnbc.Com Staff | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

Rather than a single cybersecurity tool, its managed security approach builds a centralized operations platform internally for an organization's overall monitoring of threats. It has gained thousands of clients including banks, hospitals and municipal governments seeking to limit cyber risks. Partnering with U.S. tech titans has also contributed to its expansion, as its platform integrates with several third-party security tools. Last year, Arctic Wolf named Amazon Web Services as its primary cloud provider to power its security operations platform. The company also joined the Microsoft Intelligent Security Association, a coalition of partners with a shared mission to provide better security.

☆ The former assistant to Jack Ma reveals the 'secret sauce' behind Alibaba's meteoric rise in a new book
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-02 | by ( Jonathan A. Knee | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Brian A. Wong is a long-time Alibaba executive and former special assistant to Jack Ma, the company's founder. to Jack Ma, the company's founder. In a new book, Wong details Alibaba's management ethos and how it can be applied by others to achieve similar success. Brian Wong joined Alibaba as its first American employee shortly after meeting CEO Jack Ma in 1999, the same year the trailblazing e-commerce behemoth was founded. Like Steve Jobs, Jack Ma was haunted by the decline of once great technology companies like Hewlett Packard after the departure of their founding team.

☆ Investors should look for the bear market to be over in the first quarter of 2023, Morgan Stanley's Mike Wilson says
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-26 | by ( Jennifer Sor | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Investors could see the bear market end as soon as early next year, according to Morgan Stanley's Mike Wilson. "We think the market will hold up and that will be another positive catalyst," Wilson told Bloomberg. Wilson noted that the outlook was fluid and he would turn bearish again if the S&P 500 fell below 3650. "We think the market will hold up and that will be another positive catalyst, because if the market doesn't go down on bad news, and the market doesn't go down on bad news and fundamentals, what do you have?" Wharton professor Jeremy Siegel echoed those points, predicting stocks could rally 30% next year as long as the Fed doesn't overtighten the economy and tip the US into a recession.

☆ The economy may be in better shape than you think...for now
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-23 | by ( Paul R. La Monica | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +7 min

The consensus forecast from economists surveyed by Reuters is that GDP grew at an annualized pace of 2.1% in the third quarter. (This will be the first estimate for third-quarter GDP, and there will be several revisions in the coming weeks.) That also means the Fed will likely continue to sharply raise interest rates to finally choke off inflation once and for all. Those rate hikes helped cause a so-called double-dip recession, where the economy suffered two downturns between 1980 and 1982. In other words, the much-hoped-for “soft landing” for the economy could turn out to be a pipe dream.

☆ They were on the run from the Taliban, abandoned by their US allies — until a Wall Street banker decided to smuggle them out of Afghanistan
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-23 | by ( Nina Burleigh | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +29 min

His daughter worked for the US-backed government in Kabul, prosecuting the Taliban and their followers for acts of violence against women. The war in Afghanistan effectively began on 9/11, with the attacks on Wall Street and the Pentagon. Last summer, when the Taliban overran Kabul, Calbos was in Greece visiting his father. "I see kind of a mirror image to mine in his history and his family," Calbos says. With the clock ticking on the family's temporary visas, Calbos scrambled to arrange a flight out of Pakistan.

☆ Twitterverse vigilance scares LVMH CEO into dumping his private plane
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-19 | by ( Parija Kavilanz | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +2 min

Renault, 73, the world’s second-richest man with a net worth of over $149 billion, said he has sold his private jet because he was Twitter-shamed over his frequent plane use. “Indeed, with all these stories, the group had a plane and we sold it,” Arnault told an LVMH-owned radio station, on Monday. “It’s not very good that our competitors can know where we are at any moment,” Antoine Arnault told the radio station. Elon Musk tried to pay off a 19-year-old from Florida to stop tracking his private jet use. Jack Sweeney rejected the $5,000 offer from Musk to delete his Twitter account that tracks the Musk’s private jet journeys.

☆ The era of Big Tech moonshots is over. Amazon, Google, Facebook, and Microsoft are pulling back on ambitious, risky long-term projects after many of them failed.
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-29 | by ( Hugh Langley | Eugene Kim | Kali Hays | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +13 min

Amazon, Google, Microsoft, and Facebook have scaled back their ambitious "moonshot" projects. Moonshots like Google X and Amazon Grand Challenge allowed tech firms to build innovative projects. Before Amazon, Parviz led a similar team at Google called Google X. Page and Brin championed X projects they loved, helping them gain funding and headcount within the unit. Parviz, who created the once-hyped-up Google Glass, left Google X in 2014 to start Amazon's Grand Challenge.

☆ Wonder where the economy is heading? Pay close attention to earnings
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-20 | by ( Paul R. La Monica | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

Economic bellwether FedEx (FDX) stunned Wall Street last week with a massive earnings warning and tepid outlook for the global economy. Still, investors remain nervous about the health of the railroad business, a sign of the jitters about the overall economy. Most of Corporate America operates on a calendar year schedule for earnings, which means they will report third quarter results in October. That would be the worst quarter for earnings since a 5.7% decrease in the third quarter of 2020, when the economy was reeling from Covid-imposed lockdowns. That adds to the risk that a global spike in rates will lead to a further slowdown in earnings, consumer spending and the overall economy.

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