2023-11-24 06:43:33 ET
Summary
- Barclays plans significant job cuts, potentially up to 2,000, as part of cost-cutting measures.
- Amazon workers in Europe are protesting over low pay and unfavorable working conditions during the Black Friday sale.
- AbbVie is suing several drugmakers to prevent them from marketing generic versions of its blockbuster drug Rinvoq.
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Barclays ( BCS ) plans to cut 2000 jobs amid cost-cutting measures. (00:22) Are Amazon ( AMZN ) workers in Europe posing threat to big Black Friday sale? (01:33) AbbVie ( ABBV ) suing Sandoz, four others to block generic Rinvoq : report. (02:33)
This is an abridged transcript of the podcast.
British bank Barclays (NYSE: BCS ) is anticipating significant job cuts, which could involve cutting as many as 2,000 jobs.
According to a Reuters report, this would be in an effort to reduce costs by £1 billion, or $1.25 billion.
The decision is a result of the bank's recent financial performance, with staff costs reaching £2 billion.
Barclays CEO CS Venkatakrishnan has said that the bank is planning to cut expenses by a total of a billion pounds in the coming days, which would account for approximately 7% of its underlying annual operating expenses of £15 billion in 2022. The impact of the cuts will be greatest on the employees working in Barclays Execution Services, known as BX.
According to the report , Barclays ( BCS ) is trying to cut down on long-term retail and investment expenses. For this, the option of layoff is also being adopted. Along with this, the bank has also cut the bonuses for employees. The bank wants to improve its cost-to-income ratio through this layoff, and this is one of the big priorities of CEO CS Venkatakrishnan.
The discussions regarding employee numbers at the BX division are still ongoing, and Barclays may choose to focus on job cuts in other departments, the source said.
Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN ) workers are protesting over low pay and unfavorable working conditions at warehouses and distribution centers throughout Europe.
The protest was planned to happen at the same time as Amazon’s Black Friday sale, the retailer's day of big discounts.
The protests aim to disturb Amazon's ( AMZN ) warehouse functions and prevent goods from reaching its parcel lockers on one of its busiest days. These protests will last through Cyber Monday, another significant sales day.
In a statement , German trade union Verdi called on its members to strike at five Amazon ( AMZN ) distribution centers in the country on Black Friday.
Trade unions in Italy, France, and Spain have also called for similar strikes. Union workers are planning a protest at Amazon's ( AMZN ) London headquarters.
The global movement called 'Make Amazon Pay,' organized by the UNI Global Union, said strikes and protests would occur in over 30 countries from Black Friday through Monday.
AbbVie (NYSE: ABBV ) is reportedly suing some drugmakers to prevent them from marketing copycat versions of its blockbuster drug Rinvoq.
According to Fierce Pharma , AbbVie filed the suit in a federal court in Delaware earlier this week alleging that Sandoz, Hetero Labs, Aurobindo Pharma, Intas Pharmaceuticals and Sun Pharmaceutical are infringing upon its patents for Rinvoq with their proposed generic formulations of the drug.
Rinvoq is approved for the treatment of several autoimmune disorders including eczema and Crohn’s disease.
The drug is one of AbbVie’s best selling products, with revenues of $2.5B in 2022.
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U.S. stocks on Wednesday ended in positive territory.
The Nasdaq ( COMP.IND ) led gains among Wall Street's major averages, rising 0.46%.The S&P 500 ( SP500 ) added 0.41% while the Dow ( DJI ) climbed 0.53%.
Ten of the 11 S&P sectors ended in the green. Energy was the only loser. It slipped as WTI crude oil futures ( CL1:COM ) tumbled as much as ~5% amid swelling inventories and a delayed OPEC+ meeting as discussions on output levels reached an impasse with Saudi Arabia.
Now let’s take a look at the markets as of 6 am. Ahead of the opening bell today, Dow, S&P and Nasdaq futures are mixed. The Dow is up 0.2%, the S & P 500 is up 0.03% and the Nasdaq is down 0.1%. Crude oil is down 0.6% at less than $77 per barrel. Bitcoin is up 1% and above $37,000.
In the world markets, the FTSE 100 is down 0.2% and the DAX is up 0.1%.
The biggest movers for the day premarket: iRobot (NASDAQ: IRBT ) is up 34% following a report that Amazon ( AMZN ) is on track to secure unconditional EU approval for its proposed $1.4B acquisition of iRobot.
On today’s economic calendar:
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1 pm stock market close
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2 pm bond market close
For further details see:
Wall Street Breakfast Podcast: Barclays To Cut 2,000 Jobs