Business and Tech News - 4.19.24

Google Fires 28 Employees Over Protests

Google terminated 28 employees following their involvement in protests against labor conditions and the company's $1.2 billion Israeli military contract, part of the "No Tech For Apartheid" campaign against Project Nimbus. The protests, which included sit-ins at Google's New York and Sunnyvale offices, resulted in the arrest of nine workers. Notably, some of those fired were not directly involved in the sit-ins.

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• CNN

• CNBC

• Forbes

March Home Sales Drop Despite Increase in Inventory

In March, the median price of an existing home reached $393,500, marking a 4.8% increase from the previous year and setting a record high for the month, while inventory rose to 1.11 million homes, up 4.7% month-to-month. Home sales fell by 4.3% from February, notably with a significant drop in the West, yet first-time buyers increased to 32% of sales. Concurrently, mortgage rates climbed, with the 30-year fixed rate approaching 7.5%.

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• CNBC

• The Wall Street Journal

• Yahoo! Finance

TSMC Anticipates Strong Profits from AI Boom

TSMC predicts second-quarter sales to reach up to $20.4 billion, surpassing estimates due to strong demand in the AI sector and plans to invest up to $32 billion this year on advanced chip technologies like 3nm and 5nm chips. The company's performance in the March quarter saw a revenue of $18.5 billion, a 16.5% increase from the previous year, driven by these high-demand technologies. Additionally, TSMC received $6.6 billion from the U.S. CHIPS Act to establish a new chipmaking facility in Phoenix, boosting its U.S. manufacturing capacity.

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• Quartz

• Barron's

• The Wall Street Journal

Stability AI Lays Off 10% of Its Workforce

Stability AI recently laid off 20 employees, approximately 10% of its workforce, as part of a cost reduction strategy, following the departure of CEO Emad Mostaque and amidst ongoing high-profile departures. The company has continued to innovate, releasing the next generation of its Stable Diffusion model and a new Stable Audio text-to-audio AI model. Additionally, Stability AI faces a pending lawsuit from Getty Images in the UK over alleged use of copyrighted material in training its models.

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• The Verge

• Business Insider

• Reuters

Cocoa Prices Keep Rise Amidst Shortage

The European Cocoa Association noted a 2.5% decline in cocoa grinding in the first quarter compared to last year, while cocoa futures prices soared nearly 6% to approximately $10,700 per metric ton due to factors including adverse weather in Côte D’Ivoire and Ghana, late industrial orders, and hedge fund activities. Chocolate companies are grappling with fluctuating prices and reduced crop yields driven by climate change. Persistent high cocoa prices are expected to lead to increased chocolate prices, potentially impacting consumer demand and market dynamics.

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• Bloomberg

• Financial Times

• Quartz

• Twitch is bringing its TikTok-style feed to everyone this month (The Verge)

• Quentin Tarantino No Longer Making ‘The Movie Critic’ as Final Film (The Hollywood Reporter)

• Disneyland is spending almost $2 billion on a huge expansion (Quartz)

• Apple Users in the EU Now Have a New Third-Party App Store to Play With (CNET)

• Climate change may cost $38 trillion a year by 2049, study says (Axios)

Here’s how the markets closed yesterday:

• Dow Jones: 37,775.38 +22.07 (+0.06%)

• S&P 500: 5,011.12 -11.09 (-0.22%)

• Nasdaq: 15,601.50 -81.87 (-0.52%)

• Bitcoin (BTC): $63,580.62 (at the time of writing)

• Ethereum (ETH): $3,069.74(at the time of writing)

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