Microsoft, Amazon and other tech companies have laid off more than 60,000 employees in the last year (7 min read)
The layoffs in the tech sector are creeping up, and this article lists out the major cuts that have happened so far. The most recent was from Microsoft this week, when the company said it’s letting go of 10,000 employees. Amazon is also expected to begin another round of job cuts, eliminating 18,000 workers, the largest workforce reduction since the company started. Most of these companies agreed that the layoffs were due to slowing growth and over hiring during the pandemic.
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America’s largest party supply store files for bankruptcy (2 min read)
Party City announced that they have filed for bankruptcy protection. The company reached an agreement with debtholders to cut its debt load and secured financing that will allow it to keep its stores open and operations running. Party City has long struggled to compete with big-box chains and online retailers, with sales declining and money lost year after year. Its stock was recently at risk of getting delisted because it fell below an average of $1 per share for 30 days.
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5 Lessons From an Awful Year For Financial Markets (5 min read)
This article highlights five lessons that you can learn from the financial market sell-off last year. Anything can happen in the short run - it’s rare for stocks and bonds to fall in the same year. Predicting the future is hard - no one expected the mortgage rate to more than double in less than a year. Nothing works forever - tech stocks fell from all-time highs after leading the bull market since 2010. Big gains are typically followed by big losses - some of the best performers in 2020 were also the worst performers last year. Losses in the markets are inevitable - keep a long-term mindset, so the gains will outweigh the losses.
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Aramco chief warns of possible oil supply shortages (3 min read)
The chief of the world’s largest oil company warns of a potential shortage in global oil as demand from China is set to surge. China’s slowdown has kept demand relatively subdued, but that is likely to change as the country reopens. As the largest crude importer, China opening up can add a lot to the demand side. The latest report from the International Energy Agency also forecasts global oil demand will hit a record this year, with nearly half of it coming from China.
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Bond Funds Remain Investors’ Top Pick (2 min read)
US ETFs netted $14 billion in inflows last week and more than half of it was in fixed income ETFs. The asset class with the second most inflow was international equity, while US equity had an outflow despite the large weekly gains in US stocks. ETFs with the biggest outflows were mostly in technology, treasury bonds, or small caps. More on the flows by asset classes, ETFs, and the list of top weekly performers is available in the article.
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Digital Assets See Highest Weekly Gain Since October 2021 (2 min read)
The recent price appreciation in digital assets has led to a weekly gain of over 13% in AUM for most related investment funds. However, digital asset investment products lost about $9.2 million in the same week, while maintaining a low trading volume, which suggests that the latest price rally was not led by investment products. This article provides a breakdown of digital asset flows by assets, products, providers, and countries.
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That's it for today! You can reply to this email if you have any comments or feedback.
Thanks,
Thomas
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