The Daily Upside

Finance

PwC Slashes 1,800 Jobs in First Mass Cuts Since 2009

Photo by Wirestock via iStock

PricewaterhouseCoopers said it will lay off 1,800 staff members at its US unit next month. It will impact 2.5% of the unit’s employees.

1 min read

Today’s Upside

Recent News

Indicators

The Inverted Yield Curve Usually Predicts a Recession — Until Now

Photo by Sam Lion via Pexels

The yield curve has now been inverted for around 400 trading sessions, and there’s no recession in sight. So what gives?

1 min read
Technology

PayPal Grows a New Ads Business

Photo via PayPal

PayPal is harnessing purchase data to join the ever-growing list of companies with a new offshoot advertising business.

2 min read
Markets

Midday Market Brief: The Nasdaq Touches a New High

Photo by Pixabay via Pexels

Investors are getting activated after a long weekend, but they were still able to push the tech-heavy index to a new peak.

2 min read
Patent Drop

Microsoft May Want its AI Models to Speak to the Heart

Photo via U.S. Patent and Trademark Office

Microsoft’s patent for a language model that talks back signals Big Tech’s interest in multimodal AI.

2 min read
Semiconductors

China Raises $47 Billion to Stoke the Global Semiconductor Arms Race

Photo by Vishnu Mohanan via Unsplash

China’s DIY solution dovetails with what the West has been doing itself with huge government subsidies for manufacturing.

1 min read
Artificial Intelligence

Big Tech’s Fascination with Large Language Models May Be Overkill

Photo by Nubelson Fernandes via Unsplash

A high-powered chatbot may not deliver the illusive dream of developing artificial intelligence that can teach itself.

2 min read
Markets

For Better or Worse, The Stock Market is All About These 10 Stocks

Photo by Burak The Weekender via Pexels

The top 10 stocks have reached a weight not seen since the 1970s, with their market cap accounting for about one-third of the entire index.

2 min read
Patent Drop

IBM Wants Autonomous Vehicles to Do More than Just Drive

Photo via U.S. Patent and Trademark Office

IBM’s patent aims to use self-driving cars’ idle resources, giving access to them to the riders within them.

2 min read
Patent Drop

eBay Patent Utilizes Blockchain for Security, Seller Reputation

Photo via U.S. Patent and Trademark Office

This patent follows another from eBay aiming to play into blockchain’s strength as a security tool.

2 min read
Personal Finance

Best Buy and Amazon Are Among Most Impersonated Companies by Scammers

Photo by Jenny Ueberberg via Unsplash

Impersonation frauds were the most common scams reported to the FTC in 2023, accounting for $2.7 billion in losses.

1 min read
Artificial Intelligence

The Scarlett Johansson-OpenAI Clash is a Vision of the Future

Photo by Gage Skidmore via CC BY-SA 2.0

As one legal expert put the issue: “The technology is moving faster than the law ever will.”

2 min read
Markets

Most Pandemic-Darling Stocks Aren’t Too Healthy

Photo by LinkedIn Sales Solutions via Unsplash

The 50 companies with the biggest pandemic-era gains have collectively lost $1.5 trillion in market value since the close of 2020.

2 min read
Media & Entertainment

Can a Paramount Sale Break the Mold of Media Mergers?

Photo illustration by Connor Lin / The Daily Upside, Photos by Rawpixel and Zlatko Plamenov via Freepik

Just what, exactly, would Sony and Apollo Global Management be getting out of a Paramount Global acquisition?

6 min read
Banking

Jamie Dimon Seems Unfazed About JPMorgan’s Tepid China Business

Photo by Edward He via Unsplash

Despite some business “falling off a cliff” the CEO said other operations “should hopefully grow over time.”

2 min read
Regulation

Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour Might Have Broken Up Live Nation

Photo by Paolo V via CC BY 2.0

The Justice Department alleges violations of antitrust laws by maintaining a monopoly in the event-ticketing industry.

1 min read
Consumer

Good Luck: Travel Should Be a Mess This Weekend

Photo by Beyond My Ken via CC BY-SA 4.0

If 3 million people pass through security checkpoints Friday, it’d mark the busiest travel day ever recorded.

2 min read
Patent Drop

Nvidia Patent Could Defend Self-Driving Cars in Collisions

Photo via U.S. Patent and Trademark Office

The patent highlights the shaky dynamic between the public and self-driving vehicles that stands in the way of broader adoption.

3 min read
Big Tech

Amazon Reignites its Warehouse and Logistics Expansion

Photo via Amazon Press Center

The e-commerce king has either leased, bought, or announced the addition of 16 million square feet of warehouse space this year.

2 min read
Regulation

Regulation is Here at Last for Buy Now, Pay Later

Photo by Nikhilesh De/CoinDesk via CC BY 2.0

But the new don’t require platforms to report how they interact with credit bureaus, keeping many transactions in a black box.

2 min read
Autos

Inflation Has Helped Make the Average US Car Older Than Ever

Photo by Robert So via Pexels

The average age of cars and light trucks reached a record high of 12.6 years in 2024, up by roughly two months from last year.

2 min read