Good Evening! On Friday, U.S. equities rose, completing the week on a positive note, driven by the technology sector.
The S&P 500 rose 1.89%, and the Dow Jones gained 1.00%. The Nasdaq Composite finished the day up 2.66%, its largest single-day rise since November!
THE LAYOFFS CONTINUE
Alphabet (GOOG, GOOGL) stated that it would eliminate 12,000 positions, marking the company’s largest-ever wave of layoffs. The layoffs are expected to have a wide-ranging impact on the corporation, although they will likely be concentrated outside the company’s core operations.
Sundar Pichai, Alphabet’s CEO since 2019, stated in a message on Friday that he accepted “full responsibility” for the company’s decision to fire off 6% of its workers. These layoffs are a result of the tremendous growth Google was anticipating during the pandemic, but which never happened.
Same Theme, Different Company… With Alphabet’s layoffs, four of the largest U.S. technology businesses, lead by Amazon.com Inc., have eliminated a combined 51,000 positions.
ANOTHER ONE FALLS
Genesis Global Capital, a New York-based crypto lender, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, becoming the latest company in the sector to do so as the aftermath of last year’s cryptocurrency price crash continues to reverberate across markets.
The cause? Genesis, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Digital Currency Group (DCG), incurred significant losses starting in June of last year and was eventually unable to continue operations after the collapse of the cryptocurrency exchange FTX.
It tried, but… Genesis was unable to attract further outside money despite their attempts. On January 5, Genesis terminated 30% of its workforce. DCG subsequently discontinued its wealth management branch, HQ, and, more recently, its shareholder dividend.