STOCK MARKET NEWS: Amazon layoffs, FTX fallout, stocks slip ahead of retail earnings

Getty Images in giving back some gains. The visual content creator and marketplace is lower in after-hours trading after missing Wall Street revenue estimates.

Shares rose 31% ahead of its third quarter report.

Revenue for the three months ended September 30 fell 2.8% to $230.5 million, lower than the estimate of $241.66 million.

The net loss was $149.4 million compared to net income of $15.3 million in Q3 2021. This result included a $161.3 million net loss on fair value adjustment for the warrant liabilities, which is nondeductible for tax purposes and will also impact the effective tax rate in 2022.

For the full year, the company expects revenue of $929 million to $953 million, representing growth of 1.1% to 3.8%.

Adjusted EBITDA is expected to decline between 4% to 0.9% year over year.

Google logo during the Viva Tech start-up and technology summit in Paris, France, May 25, 2018. (Reuters/Charles Platiau)

Alphabet's Google will pay $391.5 million to settle allegations by 40 states that the search and advertising giant illegally tracked users' locations, the Michigan attorney general's office said Monday.

The investigation and settlement, which was led by Oregon and Nebraska, is a sign of mounting legal headaches for the tech giant from state attorneys general who have aggressively targeted the firm's user tracking practices in recent months.

In addition to the payment, Google must be more transparent with consumers about when location tracking is occurring and give users detailed information about location-tracking data on a special web page, the Iowa attorney general's office said.

Azenta is higher in after-hours trading. The life sciences company topped Wall Street revenue expectations and said revenue next quarter will be higher than the reported quarter.

Fiscal fourth quarter revenue was flat at $138 million. Analysts expected a decline to $133.7 million. For the first quarter, revenue is expected to be in the range of $175 to $190 million.

The diluted earnings per share from continuing operations was 7 cents, matching the analyst estimate.

For the full year, total revenue is expected to grow approximately 30%.

Graduating student waits for the start of the Commencement ceremony at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Cambridge, Mass., May 27, 2022. (Reuters/Brian Snyder)

POLITICS

Biden student debt relief handout blocked by federal appeals court

A federal appeals court on Monday blocked the Biden administration's student debt relief plan, the second such blow in a matter of days

A U.S. appeals court has extended a block on President Joe Biden's administration from fulfilling his plan to cancel hundreds of billions of dollars in student loan debt at the urging of six Republican-led states, a court filing on Monday showed.

The St. Louis-based 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals issued an injunction barring the U.S. Department of Education from erasing student loan debt as part of Biden's plan to deliver "life-changing relief" to tens of millions of borrowers.

The court on Oct. 21 temporarily barred Biden's administration from discharging student loans while it considered an emergency request by the six states for an injunction. The states' case was dismissed, though they are appealing that decision.

ECONOMY

Apple CEO Tim Cook talks 'very deliberate' hiring strategy

CEO Tim Cook said in a Monday CBS interview that Apple is being "very deliberate" about hiring as it navigates current and future economic conditions.

Apple is getting more careful about hiring. CEO Tim Cook says the iPhone and MacBook maker s "being very deliberate” in hiring.

Apple reported employing roughly 164,000 full-time equivalent workers as of Sept. 24, according to its annual report.

LIFESTYLE

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos pledges to give away majority of $124B fortune

Billionaire Amazon founder Jeff Bezos pledged to give the majority of his wealth away during his lifetime. He declined to specify the exact amount that he would give or where it would be donated.

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos plans to follow the part of ex-wife MacKenzie Scott and give most of his fortune to charity.

He has not said how much he will donate or what causes will benefit from his philanthropy.

Scott created a legacy of donating to various charities. She pledged to give aware half her fortune to charity after she finalized her divorce with Bezos in 2019.

LIFESTYLE

Airbnb’s strategy for weathering high inflation, economic headwinds

Airbnb co-founder Nate Blecharczyk expressed confidence in the home-share platform despite economic headwinds like high inflation squeezing household budgets.

The co-founder of Airbnb is confident the online rental marketplace will weather the growing financial pressures gripping the nation.

Nate Blecharczyk says there are parallels between the current economic climate and when the company started in the 2008 Great Recession.

Blecharczyk says Airbnb has been able to gain a competitive advantage even in the midst of the uncertain economic times in part because it can cater to consumers with budgets at every price point.

MARKETS

Elon Musk in court over fat Tesla pay package

The multi-day trial over billionaire Elon Musk's 2018 Tesla compensation package kicked off at Delaware's Court of Chancery on Monday morning.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk is in court over his compensation package at the electric vehicle maker in the Delaware Court of Chancery.

Shareholder Richard Tornetta originally filed the suit several years ago seeking the invalidation and rescindment of the 10-year-pay package approved for Musk that year.

In the plaintiff’s pretrial brief uploaded online by CNBC, Tornetta’s lawyers alleged Musk "conceived of and dictated [the] fundamental terms" of his pay package, which they described as the "largest compensation grant in human history" and excessive.

Sean Jones of Warrior Run, Pennsylvania fills up his car at a Sheetz in Plymouth, Pennsylvania. Jones car takes 91 octane gasoline but uses less fuel in the long run. Wilkes-Barre, Penna., Oct. 19, 2022. (Reuters/Aimee Dilger)

ECONOMY

Americans see higher inflation ahead: NY Fed

Consumers are growing more pessimistic as inflation expectations tracked by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York increased across all horizons, while unemployment expectations deteriorated.

Inflation expectations have increased in the short, medium, and longer terms, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

Home price growth expectations were unchanged, while the expected change in the price of gas increased sharply.

Unemployment expectations reached the highest level since April 2020.Household income growth expectations increased to a new series high, while households’ expectations about credit access one year from now worsened.

Oatly Group is lower in Monday trading. The plant-based milk maker cut its fiscal 2022 sales outlook to $700 million-$720 million from previous forecast of $800 million-$830 million.

“For fiscal 2022, we are lowering our outlook primarily to reflect COVID-19 pressures negatively impacting sales in Asia, operational challenges in Americas which limits our ability to accelerate sales momentum, and continued foreign exchange headwinds,” said CEO Toni Petersson.

The company initiated several strategic actions to adapt its supply chain network strategy and simplify the organizational structure to increase agility and drive profitability with a more asset-light strategy.

To start, Oatly is executing an overhead and headcount reduction impacting up to 25% of the costs related to the group corporate functions and regional EMEA layers.

Third quarter revenue rose 7% to $183 million; analysts expected $211.13 million.

he adjusted loss was 18 cents​​ per share for the quarter ended in September. The mean expectation of thirteen analysts for the quarter was for a loss of 12 cents per share.

Reuters contributed to this report.

Sign marking the headquarters of vaccine maker Moderna in Cambridge, Mass., April 28, 2022. (Reuters/Brian Snyder)

Moderna Inc said on Monday its Omicron-tailored vaccines produced a better immune response against the BA.4/5 subvariants in a mid-to-late stage study, when given as a booster dose, compared with its original shot.

Data shows that both of Moderna's Omicron-tailored shots, mRNA-1273.214 and mRNA-1273.222, produced a higher antibody response against BA.4/5 subvariants than its original shot in vaccinated and boosted adults, the company said.

Moderna, however, said levels of neutralizing antibody response dropped nearly 5-fold against the emerging subvariant BQ.1.1 when compared with BA.4/5, in an analysis of about 40 participants, although the virus neutralizing activity still remained "robust".

Rival Pfizer Inc and its German partner, BioNTech SE, said earlier this month their Omicron-tailored shot targeting the BA.4/5 subvariants produced a strong antibody response in older adults than the original shot after one month.

Amazon logo outside its JFK8 distribution center in Staten Island, N.Y. Nov. 25, 2020. (Reuters/Brendan McDermid)

Amazon.com Inc 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 job 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 more than 1.6 million full-time and part-time employees and had recently said it would freeze hiring to corporate workforce for the next few months.

The news comes just weeks after Amazon warned of a slowdown in growth for the busy holiday season when it generates the highest sales, saying consumers and businesses had less money to spend due to rising prices.

Amazon is the latest U.S. company to make 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% of its workforce, to rein in costs. Others include Elon Musk-owned Twitter Inc, Microsoft Corp and Snap Inc.

John R. Tyson (Photo: Washinton County Sheriff's Office)

Tyson Foods chief financial officer John R. Tyson apologized to investors Monday for his recent behavior. The executive was arrested earlier this month for allegedly being found asleep in a stranger's home while intoxicated over the weekend.

The great-grandson of the company's founder, apologized for his arrest on a quarterly earnings call.

The company’s board said it is overseeing a "thorough review" of the incident.

TYSON CFO ISSUES APOLOGY FOLLOWING ARREST, SAYING HE IS 'EMBARRASSED'

Separately, Tyson Foods forecast 2023 sales above Wall Street estimates, signaling steady demand for its higher-priced chicken and beef despite soaring inflation.

Adjusted earnings in the quarter ended Oct. 1 missed analysts' expectations though, as the Springdale, Arkansas-based company reported negative operating margins in its pork business.

The maker of Ball Park hotdogs and Jimmy Dean sausages projected full-year 2023 sales between $55 billion and $57 billion, compared with analysts' expectation for $53.60 billion, according to IBES data from Refinitiv.

Its revenue outlook was "surprisingly strong," JP Morgan analysts said in a note.

Reuters contributed to this report.

Roche headquarters in Basel, Switzerland Jan. 30, 2020. (Reuters/Arnd Wiegmann)

Roche's Alzheimer's drug candidate could not be shown to slow dementia progression in two drug trials, leaving rivals Biogen and Eisai as leaders in a high-stakes race to launch a treatment for the memory-robbing disease.

Roche said in a statement on Monday that twin studies known as Graduate 1 and 2 had not reached their main goal of showing that the drug gantenerumab could preserve abilities such as remembering, solving problems, orientation and personal care in patients suffering from early stages of Alzheimer's disease.

The Swiss drugmaker conducted two identically designed studies, each with about 1,000 participants, who were examined and queried by physicians over more than two years. Within each study, volunteers were randomly assigned to receive either the injectable antibody drug gantenerumab or a placebo.

The drug was associated with a relative reduction in clinical decline of 8% in Graduate 1 and 6% in Graduate 2 compared with the placebo, but those results were not statistically significant, the company said in a statement.

Credit Suisse analysts, who had seen a 20% chance of the drug reaching peak annual sales of $10 billion, described the trial failure as "unequivocal".Berenberg analysts had put a 50% probability on gantenerumab achieving the $10 billion peak.

Cryptocurrency prices were higher around 4:30 a.m. Monday. All three cryptos were lower for the week, but Dogecoin was the only cryptocurrency higher for the month.(Getty Images)

Cryptocurrency prices edged higher early Monday with Bitcoin, Ethereum and Dogecoin all showing gains.

At approximately 4:30 a.m. ET, Bitcoin was trading at nearly $16,666 (+2.27%), or higher by $366.

However, for the week, Bitcoin was trading lower by more than 22%. For the month, the cryptocurrency was lower by nearly 16%.

Ethereum was trading at approximately $1,251.40 (+2.6%), or higher by more than $31.

For the week, Ethereum was trading lower by nearly 22.5%. For the month, it was trading lower by approximately 5.25%.

Dogecoin was trading at $0.086335 (+1.86%), or higher by approximately $0.001578. 

For the week, Dogecoin was lower by nearly 26%. For the month, the crypto was higher by more than 42%.

Both gasoline and diesel prices dropped slightly overnight for the second-straight day. (gasprices.aaa.com)

The nationwide price for a gallon of gasoline dropped slightly early Monday to $3.773. On Sunday, it slipped to $3.776, according to AAA. The average price of a gallon of gasoline on Saturday was $3.783.

One week ago, a gallon of gasoline cost $3.804. A month ago, that same gallon of gasoline cost $3.903. A year ago, a gallon of gasoline cost $3.413.

Gas hit an all-time high of $5.016 on June 14, approximately 23 weeks ago. 

Diesel prices also fell on Monday, landing at $5.359. On Sunday, it slipped to $5.362. One week ago, a gallon of diesel cost $5.338. A month ago, that same gallon of diesel cost $5.215. A year ago, a gallon of diesel cost $3.645.

Investors are keeping a close watch on midterm election results to decide if a divided government will be able to break the gridlock and see action occur to lower inflation. (Associated Press)

U.S. stocks were trading lower early Monday morning as investors weigh the results of the November 8 U.S. midterm elections.

On Wall Street, S&P futures were off 0.2%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 0.1%. 

On Friday, the S&P 500 rose 5.5% in its biggest one-day gain in two years. It ended 5.9% higher for the week, its biggest in five months. The Dow rose 0.1% and the Nasdaq composite climbed 1.9%. 

The outcome of last week's U.S. congressional elections might undercut investor sentiment as final results trickle in, said Clifford Bennett of ACY Securities.

Republicans look likely to control the lower House of Representatives while the Democrats, President Joe Biden's party, hold the Senate. 

“Policy paralysis at a time of economic crisis is not a good look,” said Bennett in a report. “The current stock rally may have only days to run.” 

Investors expect the Fed to raise its benchmark lending rate in December but by half a percentage point after four hikes of 0.75 percentage points, three times its usual margin. The Fed's key rate stands at a range of 3.75% to 4%, up from close to zero in March.

Traders expect more increases next year but hope those might be smaller following signs inflation is easing. 

Meanwhile, Asian stocks declined while Europe opened higher Monday as optimism about lower U.S. inflation competed with unease over a rise in Chinese virus cases. 

London and Frankfurt gained. Shanghai and Tokyo retreated while Hong Kong rose. The Nikkei 225 in Tokyo tumbled 1.1% to 27,963.47 while the Hang Seng in Hong Kong advanced 1.7% to 17,619.71. 

The Shanghai Composite Index lost 0.1% to 3,083.40 as relief at the government's decision to try to reduce the economic cost of its severe “Zero COVID” strategy competed with unease over a rise in coronavirus cases in Beijing and the southern metropolis of Giuangzhou. 

The government on Friday said the quarantine for travelers arriving in China will be reduced and other restrictions made more focused. That came even as authorities in areas across the country are suspending access to neighborhoods in response to outbreaks. 

The Kospi in Seoul sank 0.3% to 2,474.65 and Sydney's S&P-ASX 200 shed 0.2% to 7,146.30. India's Sensex edged down less than 0.1% to 61,760.42. New Zealand, Bangkok and Jakarta declined while Singapore gained.

Oil prices pared earlier gains and turned lower early Monday morning following a firmer dollar and news of record-high COVID levels in Chinese cities. (Getty Images)

Oil prices pared earlier gains and fell on Monday, dragged down by a firmer U.S. dollar and record high coronavirus cases in major Chinese cities that dashed hopes of the reopening of the economy of the world's biggest crude importer. 

Contracts for Brent crude and U.S. West Texas Intermediate had edged up nearly 1% earlier in the session but later reversed their trajectory and headed lower. 

Brent crude futures were down 32 cents, or 0.3%, to $95.67 a barrel by 0725 GMT after settling up 1.1% on Friday while WTI crude futures fell 39 cents, or 0.4%, to $88.57 a barrel after closing Friday's session 2.9% higher. 

"USD strength appears to be weighing on oil and the broader commodities complex this afternoon," said Warren Patterson, head of commodities strategy at ING. "There probably is also an element where the market got a bit ahead of itself on Friday following an easing in China's COVID related quarantine measures." 

Commodities prices rallied on Friday after China's National Health Commission adjusted its COVID prevention and control measures to shorten quarantine times for close contacts of cases and inbound travellers and eliminate a penalty on airlines for bringing in infected passengers. 

But COVID cases climbed in China over the weekend, with Beijing and other big cities reporting record infections on Monday. 

China's demand for oil from world's top exporter, Saudi Arabia, also remained weak as several refiners have asked to lift less crude in December. 

Separately, U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said on Friday that India can continue buying as much Russian oil as it wants, including at prices above a G7-imposed price cap mechanism, if it steers clear of Western insurance, finance and maritime services bound by the cap. 

A firm dollar after comments from U.S. Federal Reserve Governor Christopher Waller also weighed on oil. Waller said on Sunday that the Federal Reserve may consider slowing the pace of rate increases at its next meeting, but that should not be seen as a "softening" in its commitment to lower inflation.