A.I. to Slash 14 Million Jobs by 2027, Says WEF

Market Movers

• 14 million jobs will be slashed globally by 2027 because of A.I. The World Economic Forum (WEF) has warned that the employment landscape will change drastically over the next five years amid the increasingly widespread use of artificial intelligence*, the transition to green energy, environmental, social, and governance (ESG) standards, and slower economic growth.

• AI disruption deepens with Chegg plunge, IBM hiring halt, Samsung chatbot ban. The speed of disruption brought on by a worldwide rush into artificial intelligence* was on full display this week, sending shares of education technology company Chegg Inc. plunging, prompting IBM to halt some hiring, and prompting a chatbot ban at Samsung Electronics Co.

• Uber’s rides, delivery lift first-quarter results. The San Francisco-based company said Tuesday that revenue for the three months through March rose 29% from a year earlier to $8.82 billion. It also increased the number of consumers and trips, and the value of transactions, on its platform. The sales expansion was in line with Wall Street’s expectations.*

• Pfizer earnings and revenue top expectations despite Covid vaccine sales decline. The pharmaceutical giant reported first-quarter sales of $18.28 billion, down 29% over the same period a year ago. Sales of Pfizer’s Covid antiviral pill Paxlovid increased $2.8 billion during the first quarter compared with the same period last year. The New York-based company also maintained its 2023 sales forecast of $67 billion to $71 billion.

• Tight supply fuels demand for newly built homes. Active listings in March stood at roughly half of where they were four years earlier, according to Realtor.com, in part because higher mortgage rates made many homeowners reluctant to sell and give up their current low rates. That low inventory has put home builders in a good spot. Home-builder stocks have surged since the start of the year. Source(4:34)

What to Watch

• The ‘Godfather of AI’ fears his own creation. Geoffrey Hinton helped create the deep-learning techniques that underpin modern AI, and he sees danger ahead. He announced he had left Google after ten years to be able to speak freely about the dangers of AI without worrying about impacting the company. Hinton predicts that AI could disrupt the job market and ultimately be used to deploy autonomous weapons. Source(10:31)

• Investors are piling into actively managed ETFs. Active funds have attracted about 30% of the total flows to ETFs so far this year. Analysts say the outsize flows reflect a greater interest in active management* amid turbulent markets as well as the ease with which they allow investors to more easily trade specific strategies.

• Citigroup’s CEO willing to adjust staffing levels in investment bank. The firm and its rivals continue to deal with an industrywide slump. The New York-based company no longer expects a rebound in investment-banking activity this year. Corporate clients continue to be whipsawed by the Federal Reserve’s aggressive push* to raise interest rates and the ongoing US debt-ceiling debate.

• Wall Street is cutting more jobs as Morgan Stanley plans 3,000 layoffs. That equates to roughly 5% of the New York-based bank’s workforce when excluding the financial advisors and support staff who will be spared in the cuts. In recent weeks, big bank peers including Citigroup and Bank of America, and smaller advisor Lazard have cut jobs or announced plans to do so.

• The U.S. could hit the debt ceiling by June 1, Yellen warns. Yellen said a drop in tax receipts meant the U.S. could hit its debt ceiling as soon as June 1, earlier than Wall Street and Washington had estimated. In light of the new, earlier estimate, President Joe Biden invited the “big four” congressional leaders to a May 9 meeting at the White House to discuss the debt limit.