While Wall Street remains fixated on the selloff in software stocks—sparked by fears that artificial intelligence is commoditizing complex code and reducing the need for outsourced SaaS—another warning sign is flashing in the labor market. U.S. employers slashed over 100,000 jobs in January — the worst start to a year since 2009. According to a report released Thursday by Challenger, Gray & Christ...
While Wall Street remains fixated on the selloff in software stocks—sparked by fears that artificial intelligence is commoditizing complex code and reducing the need for outsourced SaaS—another warning sign is flashing in the labor market. U.S. employers slashed over 100,000 jobs in January — the worst start to a year since 2009. According to a report released Thursday by Challenger, Gray & Christmas, 108,435 job cuts were announced last month, marking a 205% increase from December and a 118% increase from January 2025. The only steeper January came during the depths of the Great Recession, when 241,749 cuts were reported in 2009. Don't Miss: The AI Marketing Platform Backed by Insiders from Google, Meta, and Amazon — Invest at $0.85/Share Deloitte's #1 Fastest-Growing Software Company Lets Users Earn Money Just by Scrolling — Accredited Investors Can Still Get In at $0.50/Share. The current wave suggests companies ended 2025 with worsening expectations for the economic outlook in 2026. "It means most of these plans were set at the end of 2025, signaling employers are less-than-optimistic about the outlook for 2026," said Andy Challenger, the firm's chief revenue officer. While layoffs ballooned, hiring plans collapsed to just 5,306 positions, the lowest January level ever recorded by Challenger. The figure is down 13% from a year ago and 49% from December's total. AI Isn't Just Disrupting Code – It's Taking Jobs In January alone, 7,624 job cuts were directly attributed to AI, representing 7% of all layoffs. Since the metric began in 2023, AI has been cited in nearly 80,000 job cuts. "It's difficult to say how big an impact AI is having on layoffs specifically," said Challenger. "The market appears to be rewarding companies that mention it." Trending: Blue-chip art has historically outpaced the S&P 500 since 1995, and fractional investing is now opening this institutional asset class to everyday investors. Dow Inc. (NYSE:DOW) triggered 4,701 layoffs in January, the ...
England flirted with one of the great T20 World Cup upsets in Mumbai before getting their campaign under way with victory against Nepal by four runs and, although they did not lose the game, Sam Curran insisted they had lost any sense of complacency. “We take those two points and take great confidence, because it wouldn’t have been a nice dressing room this evening,” said Curran, who conceded just...
England flirted with one of the great T20 World Cup upsets in Mumbai before getting their campaign under way with victory against Nepal by four runs and, although they did not lose the game, Sam Curran insisted they had lost any sense of complacency. “We take those two points and take great confidence, because it wouldn’t have been a nice dressing room this evening,” said Curran, who conceded just five runs in the final over to decide the game. “I’ve played a lot of T20 cricket. When you win the close ones they’re actually the ones that give you a little boost and a bit of a smile on your face. “The associate nations are getting so much better. Some of the shots in the last few overs … it’s serious stuff. You can’t underestimate these guys any more.” Will Jacks said of Curran: “He’s won us that game. It was ebbs and flows the whole way. I thought it was almost lost with six balls to go. Winning ugly is a great trait. It’s incredibly difficult to replicate that experience and a game like today, where we potentially weren’t expecting it to go down to the last ball and it has. “When we get in that situation in the rest of the tournament, which we definitely will at some stage, we’ll be able to look back on this experience and take that with us.” Quick Guide Roundup: Ireland slip to Sri Lanka defeat, NZ make record chase Show Ireland slipped to a 20-run defeat against T20 World Cup co-hosts Sri Lanka in their Group B opener in Colombo. Having won the toss and opted to bowl, Ireland restricted Sri Lanka to 71 for three by the end of the 11th over after George Dockrell picked up two wickets. Kusal Mendis finally gave the home crowd something to get behind as he pushed the total on, but was fortunate to be dropped three times in the 17th over. Barry McCarthy then took two wickets in two balls to dismiss Kamindu Mendis for 44 off just 19 balls, and Sri Lanka captain Dasun Shanaka for a golden duck. Kusal Mendis then brought up his half-century as the co-hosts made 163 for s...
Over the last year, US corporate leaders have often explained layoffs by saying the positions were no longer needed because artificial intelligence had made their companies more efficient, replacing humans with computers. But some economists and technology analysts have expressed skepticism about such justifications and instead think that such workforce cuts are driven by factors like the impact o...
Over the last year, US corporate leaders have often explained layoffs by saying the positions were no longer needed because artificial intelligence had made their companies more efficient, replacing humans with computers. But some economists and technology analysts have expressed skepticism about such justifications and instead think that such workforce cuts are driven by factors like the impact of tariffs, overhiring during the Covid-19 pandemic and perhaps simple maximising of profits. In short, the CEOs are allegedly engaged in “AI-washing”. “You can say, ‘We are integrating the newest technology into our business processes, so we are very much a technological frontrunner, and we have to let go of these people,’” said Fabian Stephany, a departmental research lecturer at the Oxford Internet Institute. In 2025, AI was cited as a reason for more than 54,000 layoffs, according to a December report from the consulting firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas. In January, Amazon alone laid off 16,000 workers after making 14,000 reductions in October. Beth Galetti, senior vice-president of people experience and technology at Amazon, explained in an October memo that they were trimming staff because “AI is the most transformative technology we’ve seen since the internet, and it’s enabling companies to innovate much faster than ever before. “We’re convinced that we need to be organized more leanly,” Galetti added. The Hewlett-Packard CEO, Enrique Lores, also said in a November earnings call that the company would use AI to “improve customer satisfaction and boost productivity”, which means the company could cut 6,000 people in the “next years”. In April, Luis von Ahn, CEO of the language-learning app company Duolingo, announced that the venture would “gradually stop using contractors to do work that AI can handle”. But the reason for such layoffs is often actually financial, according to a January report from the market research firm Forrester. The company projects that only 6% ...
August Strindberg’s portrait of marriage is unremittingly bleak in Dance of Death. It features the kind of couple who find their partner’s way of breathing offensive – or just that the other is still breathing. She wishes him dead, he pretends to rise above it but is biding his time. They seem to exist on co-dependent hate, not love. So if in bleakest British mid-winter this Nordic blast of nihili...
[The content of this article has been produced by our advertising partner.] For most Hong Kong residents, Towngas is felt in those everyday moments—turning on the hob to cook dinner or firing up the boiler for a hot shower. After more than 160 years serving the city, the utility operates as reliably as Hong Kong itself. Yet beneath this steady presence, a quiet transformation has been underway. Fr...
[The content of this article has been produced by our advertising partner.] For most Hong Kong residents, Towngas is felt in those everyday moments—turning on the hob to cook dinner or firing up the boiler for a hot shower. After more than 160 years serving the city, the utility operates as reliably as Hong Kong itself. Yet beneath this steady presence, a quiet transformation has been underway. From underground pipe maintenance to green energy exploration, Towngas is weaving cutting-edge technology into its daily operations, preparing for a new era of energy demands. The AI pipe joint analysis system uses non-destructive testing technology to rapidly detect defects in pipe connections on-site by analysing reflected ultrasound waves, determining whether replacement is needed and ensuring gas supply safety. Stability meets innovation Advertisement This pragmatic evolution is most visible where it matters most to residents: safety. With over 3,700 kilometres of underground pipework spanning Hong Kong, Towngas’s engineering team has developed detection systems that use ultrasound reflection to essentially “see through” pipe joints in real-time. This allows engineers to assess whether replacements are needed with far greater precision, boosting both inspection efficiency and supply safety. Similarly, for gas risers running up building facades, the Company has trained imaging systems to identify corrosion levels. These technologies make maintenance far more targeted—potential issues are resolved before residents even notice anything amiss. It’s precisely this approach that keeps gas supply reliability above 99.99%. Advertisement This marriage of craftsmanship and technology extends to Towngas Group’s renewable energy operations on the Chinese mainland, where drones and robots equipped with AI algorithms conduct inspections and cleaning for solar power stations. Across the Company’s network of liquefied natural gas facilities nationwide, AI-powered monitoring systems detec...
A Friday bounce may have left some investors feeling better heading into the weekend, but a violent sell-off in tech names focused on the software industry this past week had Wall Street strategists trying to steady clients' nerves across the investment world. Software names were crushed on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday last week as investors priced in even more aggressive disruptions to these ...
A Friday bounce may have left some investors feeling better heading into the weekend, but a violent sell-off in tech names focused on the software industry this past week had Wall Street strategists trying to steady clients' nerves across the investment world. Software names were crushed on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday last week as investors priced in even more aggressive disruptions to these businesses amid AI advances, with the uptake of Anthropic’s Claude Code the latest source of angst. And despite a rebound on Friday, the tech-heavy Nasdaq posted a weekly decline of more than 2%, with software giants Salesforce (CRM) and ServiceNow (NOW) shares falling more than 9%, among a host of other names in the space that also dropped. Still, the magnitude of the selling had several strategists urging patience and suggesting these moves may have actually overshot the potential risks facing these industries. "You're getting to a point where this probably seems overdone," Invesco chief global market strategist Brian Levitt told Yahoo Finance last week. "We've seen some names taken out pretty significantly." "Clearly, there's concern about what some artificial intelligence programs are going to mean for different software businesses, but we've seen some names taken out pretty significantly," he added. Strategists believe the disruption won't be severe across all companies. "Larger software companies that are positioned to adapt, [they're] going to be fine," said JonesTrading chief market strategist Mike O'Rourke. "The problem is there are new risks out there." O’Rourke said productivity commentary during Alphabet’s earnings call only reinforced “the alarm” the market has sounded about AI agents. Software stocks year-to-date. Earnings from Big Tech giants over the last week also revealed the sheer amount of capital being poured into AI, as capital expenditures from Amazon (AMZN), Alphabet (GOOG, GOOGL), Meta (META), and Microsoft (MSFT) are set to top $650 billion. "Inves...
After rebounding Friday to nearly erase a brutal mid-week slide, US stocks are facing more selling this week from trend-following algorithmic funds, according to Goldman Sachs Group Inc.’s trading desk. The S&P 500 Index has already breached its short-term trigger that prompted Commodity Trading Advisers, or CTAs, to sell stocks. Goldman expects these systematic strategies — which follow the stock...
After rebounding Friday to nearly erase a brutal mid-week slide, US stocks are facing more selling this week from trend-following algorithmic funds, according to Goldman Sachs Group Inc.’s trading desk. The S&P 500 Index has already breached its short-term trigger that prompted Commodity Trading Advisers, or CTAs, to sell stocks. Goldman expects these systematic strategies — which follow the stock market direction rather than fundamental factors — to remain net sellers over the coming week, regardless of market direction . A renewed decline could trigger about $33 billion of selling this week, according to Goldman. If pressure continues and the S&P 500 falls below 6,707, it could unlock up to $80 billion of additional systematic selling over the next month, the bank’s data show. In a flat market, CTAs are projected to unload roughly $15.4 billion of US equities this week, and even if stocks rise, the funds are expected to shed about $8.7 billion. Investor stress was running high last week. The firm’s Panic Index — which combines one-month S&P implied volatility , VIX volatility, S&P one-month put-call skew and the slope of the S&P volatility term structure — most recently stood at 9.22, a level indicating markets are not far from “max fear” on Thursday. The S&P 500 surged 2% on Friday , ending a volatile week with its biggest gain since May. The rally followed a sharp early-week drop in both the S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 , triggered by the launch of a new AI automation tool from Anthropic PBC that wiped billions of dollars off software, financial services and asset-management stocks as investors reassessed disruption risks. Positioning across the so-called systematic strategies was the most common question among Goldman’s clients Friday, underscoring the demand for a view of financial flows. On top of the CTA selling, thin liquidity and ‘short gamma’ positioning will keep the market choppy, potentially magnifying swings in either direction as dealers buy into rallies a...
2026-02-08 | Microsoft Corporation (MSFT) Investigation: Bronstein, Gewirtz & Grossman, LLC Encourages Shareholders to Contact the Firm to Learn More About the Investigation | TSX:MSFT | Press Release Stockhouse
2026-02-08 | Microsoft Corporation (MSFT) Investigation: Bronstein, Gewirtz & Grossman, LLC Encourages Shareholders to Contact the Firm to Learn More About the Investigation | TSX:MSFT | Press Release Stockhouse
This should be your top priority if you haven't already done it. Part of why saving for retirement is so intimidating is that there are so many ways you could get it wrong. You could underestimate how much you need to save and wind up running short in retirement. Or you could put too much in a single investment and risk a huge loss. But one of the biggest retirement savings mistakes anyone can mak...
This should be your top priority if you haven't already done it. Part of why saving for retirement is so intimidating is that there are so many ways you could get it wrong. You could underestimate how much you need to save and wind up running short in retirement. Or you could put too much in a single investment and risk a huge loss. But one of the biggest retirement savings mistakes anyone can make is one that most people don't even think of as being related to retirement at all. Emergency savings are key to keeping your retirement plan on track We think of an emergency fund as a tool that helps you avoid unexpected debt and financial setbacks. But you can also see it as a way to keep your finances, including your retirement savings, running smoothly. If you lack an emergency fund and an unexpected cost arises, you might have to stop making retirement account contributions while you're trying to put out the present financial fire. When you're finally able to resume saving, you'll have to set aside even more money per pay period to retire when you originally planned. This is why an emergency fund of at least three to six months of living expenses is one of the best financial tools you can have. When unplanned expenses arise, you can fall back on this money to cover your bills so that your retirement contributions can continue as scheduled. Once you've got the immediate crisis under control, you can focus on slowly rebuilding your emergency fund until it's back where you need it to be. Then, you'll be ready for the next unplanned expense.