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Amazon.com Inc AMZN-Q is reviewing unprofitable business units, including the devices unit, to cut costs, the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday, citing people familiar with the matter. Shares of the company rose 11 per cent in morning trade. Amazon did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment. As part of the months-long review, Amazon has told employees in some unprofitable divisions to look for jobs elsewhere in the company because the teams they were working on were being suspended or closed, the report said. Alexa, Amazon’s voice assistant business, is also under review, the Journal reported, adding that the unit had an operating loss of more than $5-billion a year. https://www.tausiinsider.com/amazon-reportedly-reviewing-unprofitable-business-units-in-bid-to-cut-costs/?feed_id=443268&_unique_id=649f39059fcb3

U.S. consumer sentiment fell in November, pulled down by persistent worries about inflation and higher borrowing costs, a survey showed on Friday. The University of Michigan’s preliminary November reading on the overall index on consumer sentiment came in at 54.7, down from 59.9 in the prior month. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast a preliminary reading of 59.5. The survey’s reading of one-year inflation expectations edged up to 5.1 per cent from 5.0 per cent in October. The survey’s five-year inflation outlook rose to 3.0 per cent from 2.9 per cent in October. https://www.tausiinsider.com/u-s-consumer-sentiment-falls-in-november-inflation-expectations-rise/?feed_id=426210&_unique_id=649acd6a29cb9

Tesla has considered plans for exporting made-in-China electric vehicles to the United States and Canada, two people with knowledge of the planning told Reuters, a step that would connect its largest factory to North America, its largest market. Tesla has been evaluating whether Model 3 and Model Y electric vehicles made in Gigafactory Shanghai could be sold in North America as soon as next year, according to the people, who declined to be named because the process was confidential. Tesla’s evaluation has included consideration of whether parts made by Tesla’s China-based suppliers would be compliant with regulations in the United States and Canada, they said. The Shanghai plant has been working toward an initial plan for a small-batch test run of production of vehicles in the first quarter of 2023 that would be compliant with North American standards for potential export, one of the people said. After Reuters published its article on Friday, Tesla Chief Executive Elon Musk, in a Twi...

Twitter Blue will probably “come back end of next week,” billionaire owner Elon Musk said in a tweet on Saturday. Twitter on Friday paused its recently announced $8 blue check subscription service on Friday as fake accounts mushroomed. The coveted blue check mark was previously reserved for verified accounts of politicians, famous personalities, journalists and other public figures. But a subscription option, open to anyone prepared to pay, was rolled out earlier this week to help Twitter grow revenue as Musk fights to retain advertisers. Several users reported on Friday that the new subscription option for the blue verification check mark had disappeared, while a source told Reuters the offering has been dropped. “To combat impersonation, we’ve added an ‘Official’ label to some accounts,” Twitter’s support account - which has the “official” tag - tweeted on Friday. The label was originally introduced on Wednesday - but “killed” by Musk just hours later. On Thursday, in his first com...

Amazon.com Inc founder Jeff Bezos will give away a majority of his $124-billion wealth during his lifetime, the billionaire told CNN in an interview on Monday. Without providing further details, Bezos said he and partner, journalist-turned-philanthropist Lauren Sánchez, were “building the capacity to be able to give away this money.” The billionaire has committed $10-billion to fight climate change and protect nature through the Bezos Earth Fund, where he is the executive chair. The fund did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment. Country music star and philanthropist Dolly Parton received $100-million through the “Bezos Courage & Civility Award,” an honor recognizing leaders who “pursue solutions with courage and civility,” he said on Twitter on Saturday. Bezos, who stepped down as chief executive of Amazon in 2021, owns about 10 per cent of the ecommerce giant, along with news organization Washington Post and space tourism company Blue Origin. https://www...

Amazon.com Inc AMZN-Q is planning to lay off about 10,000 people in corporate and technology jobs starting as soon as this week, the New York Times reported on Monday, citing people with knowledge of the matter. The cuts will focus on the e-commerce giant’s devices unit, which houses voice-assistant Alexa, as well as its retail division and human resources, according to the report, which also said the total number of layoffs remains fluid. The company did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment. As of Dec. 31 last year, Amazon had about 1,608,000 full-time and part-time employees. Amazon joins a bandwagon of U.S. companies making deep cuts to its employee base to brace for a potential economic downturn. Last week, Facebook-parent Meta Platforms said it would cut more than 11,000 jobs, or 13 per cent of its workforce, to rein in costs. https://www.tausiinsider.com/amazon-reportedly-plans-to-lay-off-10000-people-in-corporate-technology-jobs-starting-this-week/?fee...

U.S. producer prices increased less than expected in October, further evidence that inflation was starting to subside. The producer price index for final demand rose 0.2 per cent last month, the Labor Department said on Tuesday. Data for September was revised lower to show the PPI rebounding 0.2 per cent instead of 0.4 per cent as previously reported. In the 12 months through September, the PPI increased 8.0 after climbing 8.4 per cent in September. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast the PPI rising 0.4 per cent and advancing 8.3 per cent year-on-year. Government data last week showed consumer prices rose less than expected in October, pushing the annual increase below 8 per cent for the first time in eight months. Inflation is slowing as higher interest rates dampen demand and supply chains recover. But with spending rotating back to labor-intensive services and the jobs market still tight, price pressures could remain elevated for a while. The Fed early this month delivered a...

Elon Musk sent a message to Twitter Inc TWTR-N staff telling them they had until Thursday to decide whether they wanted to stay on at the company to work “long hours at high intensity” or take a severance package of three months pay. Musk told Twitter employees that anyone who had not clicked on a link confirming “you want to be part of the new Twitter” by Thursday evening New York time would be considered to have quit. A copy of the message, which was reported by The Washington Post, was reviewed by Reuters. Three sources who had received the message at Twitter confirmed its content. Twitter did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Reuters. The latest move to restructure the company comes after Twitter slashed half of its workforce earlier this month as Musk took control of the social media company. Musk has criticized Twitter’s spending and work culture, and said that the company needs steep cost cuts and a reboot of its services. “Going forward, to build a breakth...

Airbnb Inc ABNB-Q said on Wednesday it had recorded a “disproportionate” 31 per cent rise in single-room listings on its platform in the third quarter, as more people sought extra income in the face of a cost-of-living crisis. The company said property listings rose across regions, without disclosing specific numbers, and to aid the growth, it unveiled an app update on Wednesday to make the process easier. “We have seen a lot of people being more interested than even before in hosting to defray their cost of living,” Airbnb Chief Executive Brian Chesky said, as high inflation due to the Ukraine war puts fragile household budgets under pressure. About 46 per cent of hosts on Airbnb said they used the extra money from renting out properties to pay for food and other items, while one in 10 said it helped them avoid eviction or foreclosure, the company said, citing a survey. Some popular tourist destinations have, however, blamed the company for aggravating housing shortages, as landlord...

Activists participate in a protest at the COP27 UN Climate Summit on Nov. 18, in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt. Peter Dejong/The Associated Press The COP27 negotiations in Egypt remained in deadlock late on Friday, the day the UN-sponsored climate conference was to finish, in spite of a late intervention by the European Union to help developing countries pay for the damages inflicted by catastrophic climate events with a so-called loss and damage fund. The talks have been extended until Saturday. Delegates and environmental groups on Friday afternoon, local time, said that the summit faced collapse unless breakthroughs were made in the commitment to launch such a fund, and in the effort, also from developing countries, to ensure that any final agreement calls for the gradual elimination of all fossil fuels, not just coal. “The success or failure of this COP27 depends on the equitable phase-out of all fossil fuels,” Catherine Abreu, founder of the environmental group Destination Zero and a m...

Paper-based compostable capsules of Nespresso coffee, in Vevey, Switzerland, on Nov. 21. DENIS BALIBOUSE/Reuters Nestle’s Nespresso coffee business is launching paper-based compostable capsules to attract customers put off by the Swiss packaged food giant’s metal ones, which despite being recyclable often end up in landfill. Nespresso CEO Guillaume Le Cunff told Reuters that not all customers were aware that its aluminum capsules are recyclable, and may be more comfortable with the compressed paper pulp pods. “The objective is not to replace all the aluminum pods with paper, but to give the consumer more choice. It’s an alternative for sustainable options,” Le Cunff said in an interview. “You can compost the paper capsules or recycle the aluminum ones. We let the customer choose,” he added. Nespresso is one of Nestle’s biggest brands, with 2021 sales of 6.4 billion Swiss francs ($6.7-billion), and also one of its most profitable. After surging sales during the COVID-19 pandemic, Nesp...

FTX was run as a “personal fiefdom” of former CEO Sam Bankman-Fried, attorneys for the collapsed crypto exchange said in its first bankruptcy hearing as they detailed ongoing challenges such as hacks and substantial missing assets. In the highest-profile crypto blowup to date, FTX filed for protection in the United States after traders pulled $6 billion from the platform in three days and rival exchange Binance abandoned a rescue deal. The collapse has left an estimated 1 million creditors facing losses totalling billions of dollars. An attorney for FTX said at a bankruptcy hearing on Tuesday that the company now intends to sell off healthy business units, but has been the subject of cyberattacks and had “substantial” assets missing. FTX said on Saturday it has launched a strategic review of its global assets and is preparing for the sale or reorganization of some businesses. The hearing was held at the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington, Delaware and was livestreamed to around 1,50...

Benchmark Brent oil edged lower on Thursday while West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude held steady, hovering in sight of two-month lows as the level of a proposed G7 cap on the price of Russian oil raised doubts about how much it would limit supply. A bigger-than-expected build in U.S. gasoline inventories and widening COVID-19 controls in China also added downward pressure on crude prices. Brent crude futures were down 29 cents, or 0.3%, to $85.12 a barrel by 15.15 p.m. ET (2015 GMT), while U.S. WTI crude futures rose 2 cents, to $77.96. Trading volumes were thin because of the Thanksgiving holiday in the United States. Both benchmarks plunged more than 3% on Wednesday on news the planned price cap on Russian oil could be above the current market level. European Union governments remained split over what level to cap Russian oil prices at to curb Moscow’s ability to pay for its war in Ukraine without causing a global oil supply shock, with more talks possible on Friday if positions c...

Foxconn said on Thursday a pay-related “technical error” occurred when hiring new recruits at a COVID-hit iPhone factory in China and apologized to workers after the company was rocked by fresh labour unrest. Men smashed surveillance cameras and clashed with security personnel as hundreds of workers protested at the world’s biggest iPhone plant in Zhengzhou city on Wednesday, in rare scenes of open dissent in China sparked by claims of overdue pay and frustration over severe COVID-19 restrictions. Workers said on videos circulated on social media that they had been informed that the Apple Inc AAPL-Q supplier intended to delay bonus payments. Some workers also complained they were forced to share dormitories with colleagues who had tested positive for COVID. “Our team has been looking into the matter and discovered a technical error occurred during the onboarding process,” Foxconn said in a statement, referring to the hiring of new workers. “We apologize for an input error in the comp...

Unfinished apartment buildings at a residential complex in Guilin, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, China, on Sept. 17. STAFF/Reuters China’s biggest commercial banks have pledged at least US$162-billion in fresh credit to property developers, bolstering recent regulatory measures to ease a stifling cash crunch in the sector and triggering a rally in property shares. Three state-owned banks lined up around US$131-billion worth of credit lines to developers on Thursday, a day after three other lenders committed US$31-billion, responding to Beijing’s call for support. The authorities have been stepping up measures in recent weeks to support developers, after many defaulted on their debt obligations and were forced to halt construction. Economic prospects are also worsening due to renewed COVID-19 lockdowns and other curbs in cities nationwide. China reported record high COVID-19 infections on Thursday. The massive, co-ordinated injection of liquidity into the property sector buoyed t...

Manulife Financial Corp MFC-T will outsource its property operations in Canada to commercial real estate broker JLL Inc as part of a longer-term strategy to focus on its entrepreneurial investment management unit, Canada’s biggest life insurer said Thursday. The change to a new structure will result in Manulife Investment Management, which overseas the real estate portfolio, shedding 50 jobs, two sources familiar with the matter told Reuters on Thursday. The sources declined to be identified because the details are not public. Manulife Investment Management, which manages about C$807-billion ($605-billion), benefited from a favorable credit market experience in the latest quarter, but that was partially offset by lower-than-expected returns from its real estate business, Manulife Chief Financial Officer Philip Witherington told analysts during the post earnings earlier this month. Toronto-based Manulife will outsource leasing services to Chicago-based JLL under a short-term contract,...

Adidas AG on Thursday said it has launched an investigation into allegations of inappropriate behaviour by Kanye West, after the German sporting goods maker last month ended its partnership with the rapper and fashion designer. Adidas said it initiated the probe after receiving an anonymous letter making several allegations against the musician, who now goes by Ye. The investigation follows a report by Rolling Stone magazine that detailed alleged incidents of inappropriate behaviour by Ye toward staff and prospective employees. Rolling Stone cited interviews with more than two dozen former Yeezy and Adidas staff. According to the magazine, former members of the team sent an anonymous letter to Adidas in which they said senior leaders at the company were aware of Ye’s behaviour, but had turned a “blind eye” and “turned their moral compass off.” “It is currently not clear whether the accusations made in an anonymous letter are true,” an Adidas spokesperson said in a statement to Reuter...

Twitter’s TWTR-N decision to shut down its Brussels office and the laying off of thousands of employees are drawing concerns on whether the company can comply with new tough European Union rules against illegal online content, EU justice chief Didier Reynders said on Thursday. Reynders, who met with Twitter representatives at the social media platform’s European headquarters in Dublin, sought clarifications from the company, a European Commission official told Reuters. “Twitter representatives reaffirmed the commitment of the company to ensure full compliance with EU rules. Commissioner Reynders took note of it and asked Twitter to translate this commitment into concrete measures,” the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity. The new rules known as the Digital Services Act, which will apply from February 2024, require online platforms to do more to police the internet for illegal content or risk fines as much as 6% of their annual global turnover. Twitter has fired top exec...

People walk past the Europa-Center shopping mall, in Berlin, on Dec. 14, 2020. MICHELE TANTUSSI/Reuters The German economy grew slightly more in the third quarter than suggested by preliminary figures on the back of consumer spending, adding to signs that a coming recession will not hit as hard as initially feared, data showed on Friday. Europe’s largest economy expanded by 0.4 per cent quarter on quarter and by 1.3 per cent on the year, adjusted for price and calendar effects, the federal statistics office said. Analysts polled by Reuters had expected the economy to grow by 0.3 per cent on the previous three months and by 1.2 per cent annually. Household spending was the main reason for the increase, as consumers travelled and went out more after nearly all pandemic restrictions had been lifted. “It’s by no means a foregone conclusion that the third quarter’s GDP growth marks the end of positive growth rates for the time being,” said VP Bank chief economist Thomas Gitzel, who added ...

Foxconn’s flagship iPhone plant in China is set to see a further reduction in November shipments after the latest bout of worker unrest this week, a source with direct knowledge of the matter said on Friday, as thousands of employees quit. The world’s largest Apple AAPL-Q iPhone factory has been grappling with strict COVID-19 restrictions that have fuelled discontent among workers and disrupted production ahead of Christmas and January’s Lunar New Year holiday, as many workers were either put into isolation or fled the plant. Following Wednesday’s escalation that saw workers clash with security personnel, Foxconn could now see more than 30 per cent of the site’s November production affected, up from an internal estimate of up to 30 per cent when the labour issues erupted in late October, the source said. The factory is the only one that makes premium iPhone models, including the iPhone 14 Pro, and the source said it is unlikely to resume full production by the end of this month. Foxc...