Impending Layoffs surged
Notices of impending mass layoffs by US companies surged in October to among the highest levels on record, according to a tally by Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland researchers
- Some 39,006 Americans were given advance notice, the preliminary Cleveland Fed measure showed.
- The data add to evidence of a deteriorating labor market, not just through reduced hiring but also mounting job losses. Fed officials have been debating the extent of the slowdown as they deliberate over whether to continue cutting interest rates
Microsoft, Nvidia invest in Anthropic
Microsoft Corp. and Nvidia Corp. are committing to invest up to a combined $15 billion in Anthropic PBC, in a move that ties the AI developer closer to two of the biggest backers for its rival OpenAI
- Anthropic has also committed to purchase $30 billion of computing capacity from Microsoft’s Azure cloud service
- The deal is part of a growing number of tie-ups that have seen cloud computing and chips providers back leading AI developers, which in turn spend money on services from those same firms
- For Anthropic, the arrangement also brings it closer to Microsoft, which has invested more than $13 billion in OpenAI and played a pivotal role in the ChatGPT maker’s success
- Like rival OpenAI, Anthropic is now accelerating its push to build out more infrastructure to support AI development and broader adoption of the technology
It’s Greece’s turn!
Last Friday, Fitch upgraded Greece’s sovereign rating to BBB from BBB- with a stable outlook aligning it with that of S&P – only Moody’s places the rating at just one notch above high yield
- Fitch’s decision is due to the expectations that the country is forecast to continue a debt decline and is projected to reach another budget surplus despite plans for fiscal easing
- According to the Finance Minister Kyriakos Pierrakakis, Greece is considering to pursue the early redemption of some of its bailout-era loans with the goal of fully paying back all the loans 10 years ahead of schedule
- In 2026 the country plans to raise 8 billion Euro from markets whilst further cutting its debt pile in absolute numbers
- Although yields on 10-year GGBs rose to a five-week high of 3.34%, they remain lower than the yields on equivalent Italian and French government bonds.
No Change on Sukuks (for now)
The Accounting and Auditing Organization for Islamic Financial Institutions has put on hold a planned change to rules for sukuk bonds following investor concerns that the decision could rattle the market
- Sukuk bonds are a type of security that complies with Islamic’s law prohibition against interest – they represent a partial ownership of the asset with payments being directly linked to revenues or profits
- The proposed change would require issuers to transfer ownership of underlying assets to investors so that the structure would be fully compliant with Islamic law – this would potentially turn them into equity like instruments
- The organization will hold further talks with the most important stakeholders before taking a definite decision
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