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Business

Spotify to trim 6% of workforce in latest tech layoffs

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Jan 23 (Reuters) – Spotify Technology SA (SPOT.N) said on Monday it plans to cut 6% of its workforce and would take a related charge of up to nearly $50 million, adding to the massive layoffs in the technology sector in preparation for a possible recession.

The tech industry is facing a demand downturn after two years of pandemic-powered growth during which it had hired aggressively. That has led firms from Meta Platforms Inc (META.O) to Microsoft Corp (MSFT.O) to shed thousands of jobs.

“Over the last few months we’ve made a considerable effort to rein in costs, but it simply hasn’t been enough,” Chief Executive Daniel Elk said in a blog post announcing the roughly 600 job cuts.

“I was too ambitious in investing ahead of our revenue growth,” he added, echoing a sentiment voiced by other tech bosses in recent months.

Spotify’s operating expenditure grew at twice the speed of its revenue last year as the audio-streaming company aggressively poured money into its podcast business, which is more attractive for advertisers due to higher engagement levels.

Reuters Graphics

At the same time, businesses pulled back on ad spending on the platform, mirroring a trend seen at Meta and Google parent Alphabet Inc (GOOGL.O), as rapid interest rate hikes and the fallout from the Russia-Ukraine war pressured the economy.

The company, whose shares rose 5.8% to $103.55, is now restructuring itself in a bid to cut costs and adjust to the deteriorating economic picture.

It said Dawn Ostroff, the head of content and advertising, was leaving after an over four-year stint at the company. Ostroff helped shape Spotify’s podcast business and guided it through backlash around Joe Rogan’s show for allegedly spreading misinformation about COVID-19.

The company said it is appointing Alex Norström, head of the freemium business, and research and development boss Gustav Söderström as co-presidents.

Spotify had about 9,800 full-time employees as of Sept. 30.

($1 = 0.9196 euros)

Reporting by Eva Mathews in Bengaluru; Editing by Sherry Jacob-Phillips and Shailesh Kuber

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Business

Wall St slips as labor market data fuels Fed worry

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  • Procter & Gamble falls after commodity cost pressure warning
  • Netflix down ahead of quarterly results
  • Dow down 0.76%, S&P 500 down 0.76%, Nasdaq down 0.96%

NEW YORK, Jan 19 (Reuters) – U.S. stock indexes closed lower on Thursday after data pointing to a tight labor market renewed concerns the Federal Reserve will continue its aggressive path of rate hikes that could lead the economy into a recession.

A report from the Labor Department showed weekly jobless claims were lower than expected, indicating the labor market remains solid despite the Fed’s efforts to stifle demand for workers.

Expectations the central bank would further dial down the size of its interest rate increases at its policy announcement next month were unchanged by the report.

Investors have been looking for signs of weakness in the labor market as a key ingredient needed for the Fed to begin to slow its policy tightening measures.

Jobless claims

Other data showed manufacturing activity in the mid-Atlantic region was subdued again in January, while data from the commerce department confirmed the recession in the housing market persisted.

“What we are seeing is the market carving out a bottom in the uncertainty so the news is having less of an effect and what we are seeing today is really just a continuation of that,” said Brad McMillan, chief investment officer for Commonwealth Financial Network, an independent broker-dealer in Waltham, Massachusetts.

“The fact we are not seeing more of a reaction says a lot of the bad news is out there.”

The Dow Jones Industrial Average (.DJI) fell 252.4 points, or 0.76%, to 33,044.56, the S&P 500 (.SPX) lost 30.01 points, or 0.76%, to 3,898.85 and the Nasdaq Composite (.IXIC) dropped 104.74 points, or 0.96%, to 10,852.27.

Traders work at the post where Carvana Co. is traded on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York City, U.S., December 7, 2022. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid

Recent comments from Fed officials continue to highlight the disconnect between the central bank’s view of its terminal rate and market expectations.

Boston Fed President Susan Collins echoed comments from other policymakers to support the case for interest rates to rise beyond 5%.

But stocks moved off their session lows after Fed vice chair Lael Brainard said the Fed is still “probing” for the level of interest rates that will be necessary to control inflation.

Markets, however, see the terminal rate at 4.89% by June and have largely priced in a 25-basis point rate hike from the U.S. central bank in February, with rate cuts in the back half of the year. .

Both the S&P 500 and the Dow fell for a third straight session, their longest streak of declines in a month.

On the earnings front, Procter & Gamble Co (PG.N) declined 2.11% after warning of commodity costs pressuring profits, despite raising its full-year sales forecast.

Analysts now expect year-over-year earnings from S&P 500 companies to decline 2.8% for the fourth quarter, according to Refinitiv data, compared with a 1.6% decline in the beginning of the year.

Netflix Inc (NFLX.O) closed 3.23% lower ahead of its results scheduled for release after the closing bell on Thursday. But the stock rebounded to gain 3.33% after posting subscriber gains for the quarter and the departure of co-founder Reed Hastings as chief executive to an executive chairman role.

Declining issues outnumbered advancing ones on the NYSE by a 1.49-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 1.70-to-1 ratio favored decliners.

The S&P 500 posted 1 new 52-week highs and 3 new lows; the Nasdaq Composite recorded 46 new highs and 33 new lows.

Reporting by Chuck Mikolajczak, editing by Deepa Babington

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Technology

Microsoft faces EU antitrust warning over Activision deal – sources

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BRUSSELS, Jan 16 (Reuters) – Microsoft (MSFT.O) is likely to receive an EU antitrust warning about its $69 billion bid for “Call of Duty” maker Activision Blizzard (ATVI.O), people familiar with the matter said, that could pose another challenge to completing the deal.

The European Commission is readying a charge sheet known as a statement of objections setting out its concerns about the deal which will be sent to Microsoft in the coming weeks, the people said.

The EU antitrust watchdog, which has set an April 11 deadline for its decision on the deal, declined to comment.

Microsoft said: “We’re continuing to work with the European Commission to address any marketplace concerns. Our goal is to bring more games to more people, and this deal will further that goal.”

The U.S. software giant and Xbox maker announced the acquisition in January last year to help it compete better with leaders Tencent (0700.HK) and Sony (6758.T).

U.S. and UK regulators, however, have voiced concerns, with the U.S. Federal Trade Commission going to court to block the deal.

Microsoft was expected to offer remedies to EU regulators in an attempt to avert a statement of charge and shorten the regulatory process, other sources familiar with the matter told Reuters in November.

The EU competition enforcer, however, is not expected to be open to remedies without first sending out its charge sheet, although there are ongoing informal discussions on concessions, the people said.

Microsoft last month reached a 10-year deal with Nintendo (7974.T) to make “Call of Duty” available on Nintendo consoles, saying it was open to a similar agreement with Sony, which is critical of the acquisition.

The deal has received the green light without conditions in Brazil, Saudi Arabia and Serbia.

Reporting by Foo Yun Chee
Editing by Mark Potter

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Business

Shares rise, yen climbs as BOJ battles bond bears

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  • BOJ under intense pressure as it defends yield policy
  • Yen hits 7-mth high, yuan climbs as dollar eases
  • More earnings ahead, many central bank speakers
  • Britain’s FTSE flirts with record high

SYDNEY/LONDON, Jan 16 (Reuters) – Shares firmed on Monday as optimism over corporate earnings and China’s reopening offset concerns the Bank of Japan (BOJ) might temper its super-sized stimulus policy at a pivotal meeting this week, while a holiday in U.S. markets made for thin trading.

The yen climbed to its highest since May after rumours swirled the BOJ might hold an emergency meeting on Monday as it struggles to defend its new yield ceiling in the face of massive selling. read more

That had local markets in an anxious mood, and Japan’s Nikkei (.N225) slipped 1.3% to a two-week low.

Yet MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan (.MIAPJ0000PUS) added 0.27%, with hopes for a speedy Chinese reopening giving it a gain of 4.2% last week.

And European shares opened positively with the STOXX 600 (.STOXX) up 0.1% by 0850 GMT driven by healthcare stocks (.SXDP) which gained 0.6%.

Britain’s benchmark FTSE index (.FTSE) edged close to the record high of 7903.50 it hit in 2018, with banks and life insurance companies among the top gainers.

Earnings season gathers steam this week with Goldman Sachs (GS.N), Morgan Stanley (MS.N) and Netflix (NFLX.O) among those reporting.

World leaders, policy makers and top corporate chiefs will be attending the World Economic Forum in Davos, and there are a host of central bankers speaking, including no fewer than nine members of the U.S. Federal Reserve.

The BOJ’s official two-day meeting ends on Wednesday and speculation is rife it will make changes to its yield curve control (YCC) policy given the market has pushed 10-year yields above its new ceiling of 0.5%. read more

The BOJ bought almost 5 trillion yen ($39.12 billion) of bonds on Friday in its largest daily operation on record, yet 10-year yields still ended the session up at 0.51%.

Early on Monday, the bank offered to buy another 1.3 trillion yen of JGBs, but the yield stuck at 0.51%.

“There is still some possibility that market pressure will force the BOJ to further adjust or exit the YCC,” JPMorgan analysts said in a note. “We can’t ignore this possibility, but at this stage we do not consider it a main scenario.”

“Although domestic demand has started to recover and inflation continues to rise, the economy is not heating up to the extent that a sharp rise in interest rates and potential risk of large yen appreciation can be tolerated,” they added.

THE YEN UN-ANCHORED

The BOJ’s uber-easy policy has acted as a sort of anchor for yields globally, while dragging down the yen. Were it to abandon the policy, it would put upward pressure on yields across developed markets and most likely see the yen surge.

The dollar has been undermined by falling U.S. bond yields as investors wager the Federal Reserve can be less aggressive in raising rates given inflation has clearly turned the corner.

The Japanese yen rose to a more than seven-month peak against the dollar on Monday, as market sentiment was dominated by expectations that the BOJ would make further tweaks to, or fully abandon, its yield control policy.

The yen jumped roughly 0.5% to a high of 127.215 per dollar, before easing to 128.6 by 0915 GMT.

The dollar index, which measures the U.S. unit against a basket of major currencies, recovered from a 7-month low touched earlier in the session to be at 102.6 .

Futures now imply almost no chance the Fed will raise rates by half a point in February, with a quarter-point move seen as a 94% probability.

Yields on 10-year Treasuries are down at 3.498%, having fallen 6 basis points last week, close to its December trough, and major chart target of 3.402%.

Alan Ruskin, global head of G10 FX Strategy at Deutsche Securities, said the loosening of global supply bottlenecks in recent months was proving to be a disinflationary shock, which increases the chance of a soft landing for the U.S. economy.

“The lower inflation itself encourages a soft landing through real wage gains, by allowing the Fed to more readily pause and encouraging a better behaved bond market, with favourable spillovers to financial conditions,” Ruskin said.

“A soft landing also reduces the tail risk of much higher U.S. rates, and this reduced risk premia helps global risk appetite,” Ruskin added.

Commodities prices which had rallied last week, dipped on Monday.

The drop in yields and the dollar had benefited the gold price, which jumped 2.9% last week, but the precious metal slipped 0.4% to $1,911 an ounce in early trading on Monday .

Oil prices slid as a rise in COVID cases clouded the prospects for a surge in demand as China reopens its economy.

Brent crude fell 73 cents, or 0.83%, to $84.57 a barrel by 0857 GMT, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude CLc1 was down 61 cents, or 0.6%, at $79.24 a barrel.

($1 = 127.8000 yen)

Reporting by Wayne Cole and Lawrence White;
Editing by Shri Navaratnam and Emelia Sithole-Matarise

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Business

China acquires ‘golden shares’ in two Alibaba units

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BEIJING, China, Jan 13 (Reuters) – China has acquired minority stakes with special rights in two domestic units of tech giant Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (9988.HK), business registration records showed, as Beijing extends a campaign to strengthen control over online content.

Beijing has been taking ‘golden shares’ in private online media and content companies for more than five years, and in recent years expanding such arrangements to companies with vast troves of data.

The stakes taken over the last four months in the Alibaba units are the first ones to come to light for the e-commerce firm. Alibaba has been one of the most prominent targets of China’s two-year-long regulatory crackdown on tech giants.

These golden shares, typically equal to about 1% of a firm, are bought by government-backed funds or companies which gain board representation and/or veto rights for key business decisions.

Public business registration records showed that in September last year an investment vehicle of state-owned Zhejiang Media Group took a 1% stake in Alibaba’s Youku Film and Television unit, which is based in Shanghai.

Zhejiang Media Group has also appointed Jin Jun, the general manager of one of its subsidiaries, to the board of the Alibaba unit, the records showed.

[1/3] The logo of Alibaba Group is seen at its office in Beijing, China Jan. 5, 2021. REUTERS/Thomas Peter

Separate business registration records showed that in December WangTouSuiCheng (Beijing), an entity under the China Internet Investment Fund (CIIF) set up by the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC), acquired a 1% stake in Alibaba unit Guangzhou Lujiao, whose main focus is “research and experimentation”.

The Financial Times, which first reported the WangTouSuiCheng investment on Friday, said the goal of the investment is for Beijing to tighten control over content at the e-commerce giant’s streaming video unit Youku and web browser UCWeb.

Alibaba didn’t respond to a request to comment.

The FT also reported, citing unidentified sources, that discussions was under way for the government to take golden shares in gaming giant Tencent Holdings (0700.HK) which would involve a stake in one of the group’s main subsidiaries. Tencent declined to comment.

Other firms that have such golden share arrangements include Full Truck Alliance Co (YMM.N), as well as mainland subsidiaries of TikTok owner ByteDance, Kuaishou Technology (1024.HK) and Weibo , Reuters previously reported.

Having such golden shares can be helpful to firms when they try to secure licences to disseminate online news and to show online visual and audio programmes, sources have told Reuters.

Reporting by Yingzhi Yang, Brenda Goh and Josh Horwitz; Additional reporting by Rishabh Jaiswal and Mrinmay Dey; Editing by Uttaresh.V, Rashmi Aich and Kenneth Maxwell

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Business

Startups spring from ashes of Big Tech purge

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  • Mass tech layoffs spawn new wave of startups
  • Early-stage VC funding at around record levels
  • Echoes of dotcom crash that fueled Facebook, others

Jan 3 (Reuters) – Nic Szerman lost his job at Meta Platforms (META.O) in November, just two months after joining full-time, falling victim to a sweeping 13% reduction of its workforce as the advertising market cratered.

Days later he was back working, seeking investment for his own company Nulink, a blockchain-based payment company, and sent pitches to startup accelerator Y Combinator and Andreessen Horowitz’s cryptocurrency fund.

“As counterintuitive as it may sound, this layoff left me in a really good position,” the 24-year-old said. “Because I don’t have to pay back the sign-on bonus, I get four months of pay, and now I have time to focus on my own project.”

Szerman is part of a wave of would-be entrepreneurs who are emerging from the ashes of the mass job losses seen in Silicon Valley in the second half of 2022, according to venture capitalists.

U.S. tech giants including Meta, Microsoft (MSFT.O), Twitter and Snap (SNAP.N) have purged more than 150,000 staff, according to Layoff.fyi, which tracks technology job losses.

While overall venture capital (VC) financing fell 33% globally to about $483 billion in 2022, early-stage funding was robust, with $37.4 billion raised in so-called angel or seed rounds, in line with the record level seen in 2021, according to data from research firm PitchBook.

Day One Ventures, an early stage venture fund in San Francisco, launched a new initiative in November to fund startups founded by people who had been laid off from their tech jobs, touting the slogan “Funded, not Fired”.

The program aims to cut 20 checks for $100,000 by the end of 2022. Day One said it had received over 1,000 applications, most of them from people who were cut loose by Meta, Stripe and Twitter.

“We’re investing $2 million in 20 companies – if we just find one unicorn it almost returns the fund, which I think is a really unique opportunity for us as fund managers,” said Masha Bucher, co-founder at Day One Ventures.

“Looking at the last economic cycle, companies like Stripe, Airbnb, Dropbox have been created in crisis.”

HOT: GAMING AND AI

Also in November, multi-stage fund Index Ventures, which has bankrolled Facebook, Etsy and Skype, launched its second Origins fund, which will invest $300 million in early-stage startups.

Silicon Valley investor U.S. Venture Partners and Austrian VC firm Speedinvest have meanwhile earmarked a similar amount for newly founded companies.

Investors highlighted gaming and artificial intelligence among hot areas of interest.

“With advances in game design, new innovations like cloud gaming, and the emergence of social networking in this sphere, gaming has really transcended into mainstream culture,” said Sofia Dolfe, partner at Index Ventures.

“In every period of economic uncertainty, there is opportunity – to reset, re-prioritize and re-focus energy and resources.”

DOTCOM BUBBLE 2.0

Szerman said his project was rejected by Y Combinator, while he hasn’t heard back from Andreessen Horowitz yet, though he added that other early-stage venture capitalists had expressed interest.

“I told the investors we’ll chat in two or three months,” he added. “I’ll focus on scaling the system now.”

Some investors compared the 2022 downturn to the dotcom crash of the early 2000s, when dozens of overvalued startups went bust, flooding the market with talent and helping to spark a wave of new companies such as Facebook and YouTube.

“Many great companies have been created in relatively dark times,” said Harry Nelis, partner at investment firm Accel, who sees a new generation of risk takers emerge among the swathe of people left unemployed.

Some industry players say former Big Tech employees are uniquely placed to start their own companies, having seen first-hand how some of the biggest firms in the world operate, and enjoying ongoing access to their network of highly skilled colleagues.

One former Googler has sought to help others like him looking for life after technology giants. In 2015, Christopher Fong, who spent almost a decade working for the tech titan in California, launched Xoogler, a project designed to help former employees hoping to start their own companies. Since then, the group’s membership has since swelled to more than 11,000.

Fong told Reuters that experience in Big Tech firm gave founders a “strong brand that can be leveraged to meet investors, potential customers, and recruit team members”.

(This story has been refiled to correct Harry Nelis’ designation to partner from managing partner in paragraph 19)

Reporting by Martin Coulter in London, Supantha Mukherjee in Stockholm and Krystal Hu in New York; Editing by Pravin Char

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Business

Elon Musk’s Twitter suspension of journalists draws global backlash

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Dec 16 (Reuters) – Twitter’s unprecedented suspension of at least five journalists over claims they revealed the real-time location of owner Elon Musk drew swift backlash from government officials, advocacy groups and journalism organizations across the globe on Friday.

In a 24-hour poll later by Musk on Twitter on whether to restore the journalists’ accounts, 58.7% votes were in favor of restoring them immediately.

The accounts were still suspended approximately 15 minutes after the poll closed, a check by Reuters showed.

Twitter did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.

The suspensions on Thursday evening drew criticism from government officials, advocacy groups and journalism organizations in several parts of the world, with some saying the microblogging platform was jeopardizing press freedom.

Officials from France, Germany, Britain and the European Union condemned the suspensions.

The episode, which one well known security researcher labeled the “Thursday Night Massacre”, is being regarded by critics as fresh evidence of the billionaire, who considers himself a “free speech absolutist,” eliminating speech and users he personally dislikes.

Shares in Tesla (TSLA.O), an electric car maker led by Musk, slumped 4.7% on Friday and posted their worst weekly loss since March 2020, with investors increasingly concerned about his being distracted and about the slowing global economy.

Roland Lescure, the French minister of industry, tweeted on Friday that, following Musk’s suspension of journalists, he would suspend his own activity on Twitter.

Melissa Fleming, head of communications for the United Nations, tweeted she was “deeply disturbed” by the suspensions and that “media freedom is not a toy.”

The German Foreign Office warned Twitter that the ministry had a problem with moves that jeopardized press freedom.

ELONJET

The suspensions stemmed from a disagreement over a Twitter account called ElonJet, which tracked Musk’s private plane using publicly available information.

On Wednesday, Twitter suspended the account and others that tracked private jets, despite Musk’s previous tweet saying he would not suspend ElonJet in the name of free speech.

Shortly after, Twitter changed its privacy policy to prohibit the sharing of “live location information.”

Then on Thursday evening, several journalists, including from the New York Times, CNN and the Washington Post, were suspended from Twitter with no notice.

In an email to Reuters overnight, Twitter’s head of trust and safety, Ella Irwin, said the team manually reviewed “any and all accounts” that violated the new privacy policy by posting direct links to the ElonJet account.

“I understand that the focus seems to be mainly on journalist accounts, but we applied the policy equally to journalists and non-journalist accounts today,” Irwin said in the email.

The Society for Advancing Business Editing and Writing said in a statement on Friday that Twitter’s actions “violate the spirit of the First Amendment and the principle that social media platforms will allow the unfiltered distribution of information that is already in the public square.”

Musk accused the journalists of posting his real-time location, which is “basically assassination coordinates” for his family.

The billionaire appeared briefly in a Twitter Spaces audio chat hosted by journalists, which quickly turned into a contentious discussion about whether the suspended reporters had actually exposed Musk’s real-time location in violation of the policy.

“If you dox, you get suspended. End of story,” Musk said repeatedly in response to questions. “Dox” is a term for publishing private information about someone, usually with malicious intent.

The Washington Post’s Drew Harwell, one of the journalists who had been suspended but was nonetheless able to join the audio chat, pushed back against the notion that he had exposed Musk or his family’s exact location by posting a link to ElonJet.

Soon after, BuzzFeed reporter Katie Notopoulos, who hosted the Spaces chat, tweeted that the audio session was cut off abruptly and the recording was not available.

In a tweet explaining what happened, Musk said “We’re fixing a Legacy bug. Should be working tomorrow.”

Reporting by Sheila Dang in Dallas; Additional reporting by Hyunjoo Jin in San Francisco, Eva Mathews, Rhea Binoy and Sneha Bhowmik in Bengaluru; Editing by Nick Zieminski, Jonathan Oatis and Muralikumar Anantharaman

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Business

Wall St rises after CPI data but Fed concerns persist

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  • Consumer prices rise moderately in November
  • Growth, real estate stocks climb as yields fall
  • Moderna surges on upbeat trial data
  • Dow up 0.3%, S&P 500 up 0.73%, Nasdaq up 1.01%

NEW YORK, Dec 13 (Reuters) – U.S. stocks rose on Tuesday after a unexpectedly small consumer price increase buoyed optimism that the Federal Reserve could soon dial back its inflation-taming interest rate hikes, but concerns remained the central back could stay aggressive.

The benchmark S&P 500 (.SPX) jumped as much as 2.76% to a three-month high early in the trading session on news that November U.S. consumer prices barely rose as gasoline and used cars cost less, leading to the smallest annual inflation increase in nearly a year at 7.1%.

Rising expectations for smaller and slower Fed rate hikes sent U.S. Treasury yields sharply lower and helped lift rate-sensitive gauges like the S&P 500 growth index (.IGX), up 1.18%, and the S&P 500 real estate index (.SPLRCR) up 2.04% to their highest intraday levels in nearly three months. The real estate sector notched its biggest daily percentage gain in two weeks as the best performing of the 11 major sectors.

Fed funds futures prices implied a better-than-even chance that the Fed will follow an expected half-point rate hike this week, with smaller 25-basis point hikes at its first two meetings of 2023, and stopping shy of 5% by March.

Morgan Stanley’s chief U.S. economist Ellen Zentner now sees even smaller Fed rate hikes, of 25 basis points at the central bank’s February meeting, and no further increases in March, leaving the peak fed funds rate at 4.625%.

Still, equities pared gains ahead of the Fed’s policy statement on Wednesday, in which the central bank is widely expected to announce a 50 basis point rate hike.

“There was some excitement early on that the CPI number was once again below expectations – it shows some sequential cooling – but once we saw that initial pop, stock investors kind of reassessed,” said Jason Ware, chief investment officer at Albion Financial Group in Salt Lake City, Utah.

“That probably took some of the steam out of the markets once investors realized tomorrow very well may be (Fed Chair) Jerome Powell throwing cold water on the rally today.”

The Dow Jones Industrial Average (.DJI) rose 103.6 points, or 0.3%, to 34,108.64, the S&P 500 (.SPX) gained 29.09 points, or 0.73%, to 4,019.65 and the Nasdaq Composite (.IXIC) added 113.08 points, or 1.01%, to 11,256.81.

[1/3] Screens display the trading information for ExxonMobil on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York City, U.S., December 9, 2022. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid

Energy (.SPNY), up 1.77%, was among the best performing S&P sectors on the day as the softer-than-anticipated inflation data sent the dollar lower and boosted crude oil prices.

The consumer inflation numbers follow November’s producer prices report last week, which was slightly higher than expected but pointed to a moderation in the trend.

Still, some questioned whether the trend in prices could continue.

“Today’s CPI print is incrementally good, but it needs to be sustained,” said Venu Krishna, head of U.S. equity strategy at Barclays in New York.

“There is a big question mark whether we can really come to the 2% inflation (Fed target). Perhaps we live in a world in which it will be higher and that means rates will be higher and then multiples will certainly be lower.”

Moderna Inc (MRNA.O) surged 19.63% after the biotechnology firm’s experimental vaccine in combination with Merck & Co Inc’s (MRK.N) blockbuster drug Keytruda showed promising results in a skin cancer study. Merck shares advanced 1.78%.

Pinterest Inc (PINS.N) jumped 11.90% after Piper Sandler upgraded the social media platform’s stock to “overweight” from “neutral.”

Advancing issues outnumbered declining ones on the NYSE by a 2.83-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 1.49-to-1 ratio favored advancers.

The S&P 500 posted 18 new 52-week highs and 1 new lows; the Nasdaq Composite recorded 92 new highs and 212 new lows.

Reporting by Chuck Mikolajczak, additional reporting by Carolina Mandl; Editing by Richard Chang

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Business

Wall Street ends lower as investors digest economic data

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  • U.S. producer prices increase in November
  • Consumer sentiment improves in December
  • Lululemon tumbles after downbeat forecast
  • Indexes close: S&P 500 -0.73%, Nasdaq -0.70%, Dow -0.90%

Dec 9 (Reuters) – Wall Street ended lower on Friday as investors assessed economic data and awaited a potential 50-basis point interest rate hike by the U.S. Federal Reserve at its policy meeting next week, while apparel company Lululemon slumped following a disappointing profit forecast.

U.S. producer prices rose slightly more than expected in November amid a jump in the costs of services, but the trend is moderating, with annual inflation at the factory gate posting its smallest increase in 1-1/2 years, data showed.

“Today’s data shows that inflation is coming down, but it’s lingering and is stickier than most assume,” said Anthony Saglimbene, chief market strategist at Ameriprise Financial in Troy, Michigan.
However, in December, consumer sentiment improved, while inflation expectations eased to a 15-month low, a University of Michigan survey showed.

Futures trades suggest a 77% chance the Fed will raise interest rates by 50 basis points next week, with a 23% chance of a 75-basis point hike, with those odds little changed after Friday’s economic data.

Consumer prices data for November, due Tuesday, will provide fresh clues on the central bank’s monetary tightening plans.

Lululemon Athletica Inc (LULU.O) tumbled almost 13% after the Canadian athletic apparel maker forecast lower-than-expected holiday-quarter revenue and profit.

Netflix Inc (NFLX.O) gained 3.1% after Wells Fargo upgraded the video streaming giant to “overweight” from “equal weight”.

The S&P 500 declined 0.73% to end the session at 3,934.38 points.

The Nasdaq declined 0.70% to 11,004.62 points, while Dow Jones Industrial Average declined 0.90% to 33,476.46 points.

[1/7] Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York City, U.S., December 9, 2022. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid

Of the 11 S&P 500 sector indexes, 10 declined, led lower by energy (.SPNY), down 2.33%, followed by a 1.28% loss in health care (.SPXHC).

The energy index recorded a seventh straight session of losses, its longest losing streak since December 2018, as oil prices looked set for weekly losses on recession concerns.

Wall Street’s main indexes have fallen this week after logging two straight weekly gains. Weighing heavily on investors are fears of a potential recession next year due to extended the central bank’s rate hikes.

For the week, the S&P 500 dropped 3.4%, the Dow lost 2.8% and the Nasdaq shed 4%.

U.S. stocks ended a recent run of losses on Thursday after data showed initial jobless claims rose modestly last week.

Broadcom Inc (AVGO.O) jumped 2.6% after the chipmaker forecast current-quarter revenue above Wall Street estimates.

Boeing Co climbed 0.3% after Reuters report the plane maker plans to announce a deal with United Airlines (UAL.O) for orders of 787 Dreamliner next week.

Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones within the S&P 500 (.AD.SPX) by a 3.3-to-one ratio.

The S&P 500 posted 5 new highs and 1 new lows; the Nasdaq recorded 54 new highs and 213 new lows.

Volume on U.S. exchanges was relatively light, with 9.9 billion shares traded, compared to an average of 10.9 billion shares over the previous 20 sessions.

Reporting by Sruthi Shankar, Ankika Biswas and Johann M Cherian in Bengaluru, and by Noel Randewich in Oakland, Calif.; Editing by Vinay Dwivedi, Sriraj Kalluvila, Shounak Dasgupta and Aurora Ellis

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Google must remove ‘manifestly inaccurate’ data, EU top court says

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LUXEMBOURG, Dec 8 (Reuters) – Alphabet unit Google (GOOGL.O) must remove data from online search results if users can prove it is inaccurate, Europe’s top court said on Thursday.

Free speech advocates and supporters of privacy rights have clashed in recent years over people’s “right to be forgotten” online, meaning that they should be able to remove their digital traces from the internet.

The case before the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) concerned two executives from a group of investment companies who had asked Google to remove search results linking their names to certain articles criticising the group’s investment model.

They also wanted Google to remove thumbnail photos of them from search results. The company rejected the requests, saying it did not know whether the information in the articles was accurate or not.

A German court subsequently sought advice from the CJEU on the balance between the right to be forgotten and the right to freedom of expression and information.

“The operator of a search engine must de-reference information found in the referenced content where the person requesting de-referencing proves that such information is manifestly inaccurate,” the Court of Justice of the European Union said.

The Google logo is pictured at the entrance to the Google offices in London, Britain January 18, 2019. REUTERS/Hannah McKay/File Photo

To avoid an excessive burden on users, judges said such proof does not have to come from a judicial decision against website publishers and that users only have to provide evidence that can reasonably be required of them to find.

Google said the links and thumbnails in question were no longer available through web search and image search and that the content had been offline for a long time.

“Since 2014, we’ve worked hard to implement the right to be forgotten in Europe, and to strike a sensible balance between people’s rights of access to information and privacy,” a spokesperson said.

The same court in 2014 enshrined the right to be forgotten, saying that people could ask search engines like Google to remove inadequate or irrelevant information from web results appearing under searches for their names.

The judgment preceded landmark EU privacy rules that went into effect in 2018 and state that the right to be forgotten is excluded where the processing of personal data is necessary for the exercise of the right of information.

The case is C-460/20 Google (Déréférencement d’un contenu prétendument inexact).

Reporting by Foo Yun Chee, additional reporting by Benoit Van Overstraeten in Paris; editing by Barbara Lewis, Robert Birsel

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