Worries about the war with Iran sent oil prices back to $100 per barrel and stocks sinking worldwide. The S&P 500 fell 1.5% Thursday and returned to big swings following a couple days of relative calm. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 1.6%, and the Nasdaq composite sank 1.8%. The center of action was again the oil market, where the price of a barrel of Brent crude got as high as $101.59. Treasury yields climbed in the bond market on worries about higher inflation and fewer cuts to interest rates by the Federal Reserve.
Microsoft is cutting 10,000 workers, almost 5% of its workforce, as it joins other tech companies in a scaling back of their pandemic-era expansions. The company said in a regulatory filing Wednesday that the layoffs were a response to "macroeconomic conditions and changing customer priorities." The company said it will also be making changes to its hardware portfolio and consolidating its leased office locations. The loss of employees is far less than how many Microsoft hired during the COVID-19 pandemic as it responded to a boom in demand for its workplace software and cloud computing services as people worked and studied from home.
The World Economic Forum says billionaire Elon Musk wasn't on the guest list for the annual meeting of business executives, global leaders and cultural trend-setters in Davos, Switzerland — despite what the Twitter owner claims. Musk isn't among the notables gathering in the ritzy Alpine town this week to talk about global issues, though he says he was invited. Forum spokesman Yann Zopf knocked that down Tuesday, saying the last time the Tesla CEO got an invitation was "not this year and not recently — last time in 2015." Musk said in a tweet Dec. 22: "My reason for declining the Davos invitation" was because it sounded boring.
A Silicon Valley judge is questioning potential jurors to hear allegations that Elon Musk cheated Tesla investors by claiming in a 2018 tweet that he had lined up financing to take the electric automaker private. The tweets fueled a rally in Tesla's stock price that abruptly ended a week later after it became apparent that Musk did not have the funding for a buyout after all. Investors then sued him. They said Tesla shares would not have swung so widely in value if he had not dangled the prospect of buying the company for $420 per share.
Donald Trump's company has been fined $1.6 million as punishment for a scheme in which some of his executives dodged personal income taxes on lavish job perks. The fine imposed Friday was the only penalty a judge could impose on the Trump Organization. The company was convicted of 17 tax crimes, including conspiracy and falsifying business records. The amount imposed by Judge Juan Manuel Merchan was equal to double the amount of taxes a small group of executives avoided on benefits including rent-free apartments, luxury cars and private school tuition. Trump himself was not on trial. He denied any knowledge of executives evading taxes illegally.
Apple CEO Tim Cook will take a more than 40% pay cut this year from a year earlier as the company adjusts how it calculates his compensation. Apple Inc. said in a regulatory filing that Cook's target total compensation is $49 million for 2023. Last year the company conducted a shareholder vote on executive pay. Apple said its compensation committee took into account shareholder feedback, the company's performance and a recommendation from Cook, who was promoted to CEO in 2011, to adjust his compensation in light of the feedback received.
