What's up, Market Movers! Welcome to the podcast where we serve up a curated, snackable summary of the latest news, trends and financial models, giving you all the intel you need to make better decisions when it comes to thinking about your money, protecting your money, and building wealth. For more, visit us at MarketMoversDaily.com And now for your Market Mover's daily update for today, February 8th, 2023, Google announces Bard AI in response to ChatGPT.
As a response to the booming language model ChatGPT, Google announced Bard AI, a chatbot technology powered by LaMDA. The company's large language model for dialogue applications. In the coming weeks, Google will roll out the technology to trusted testers with a view to making it more widely accessible to the public Fed Chair Jerome Powell addresses the "Disinflationary Process."
In a recent statement, Powell reiterated the Central Bank's commitment to appropriate interest rate increases, but acknowledged that the disinflationary process has begun in the goods sector, which constitutes about 25% of the economy. This is starting to feel all too common, but another day, another series of layoffs as Zoom sets to streamline its workforce. To realign its operations video conferencing platform. Zoom announced plans to layoff 1,300 employees, approximately 15% of its workforce.
CEO Eric Yuan stated that the cuts will affect every organization within Zoom and affected employees will receive up to 16 weeks of salary and healthcare coverage. Yuan also pledged to reduce his own salary by 98% and forgo corporate bonuses in the coming fiscal year. SoftBank posts a near $6 billion loss for the quarter. The Japanese conglomerate.
SoftBank continues to feel the effects of its peak-of-the-market spending spree reporting a $5.8 billion loss in its startup investment fund division, The Vision Fund, in the last quarter. This accounted for the bulk of SoftBank's overall, $5.9 billion $quarterly loss with the vision fund unit. Reporting $300 million in new investments, down 98% from the previous quarter. US trade deficit rises to $67.4 billion in December.
US Census Bureau and the US Bureau of Economic Analysis reported that the goods and services deficit increased to $67.4 billion in December, up $6.4 billion from the previous month. Exports decreased while imports increased with petroleum products being the only positive export. What to watch this week... Meta targets teen users in Horizon Metaverse app redesign. In a move to broaden its user base, Meta announced plans to open up its Horizon Metaverse app to teens age 13 to 17 as early as March.
The app currently available to people 18 and over aligns with the company's Quest Virtual reality headset designed for people age 13 and up. Bed Bath Beyond avoids bankruptcy with Share Sale. To avoid a bankruptcy filing, Bed Bath Beyond has secured investors for a cash infusion through the issuance of convertible preferred securities and warrants. The deal is expected to raise more than $1 billion for the retailer. Pandemic savings dwindle for American households.
A recent estimate from Goldman Sachs shows that Americans have spent down 35% of the extra savings they accumulated during the pandemic with projections that they will have exhausted roughly 65% of that money by the end of the year. High prices and the end of relief programs are cited as factors affecting previously flush accounts. MasterCard Stock soars with rising interest rates. As interest rates rise, so does credit card usage as evidenced by MasterCard's Q4 2022 results.
The company reported a 17% increase in net revenues and a 19% increase in adjusted operating income compared to the previous year. With the Fed considering further interest rate hikes, MasterCard and other credit cards are expected to benefit. Entrepreneur, author and angel investor Jason Calacanis recently commenting on AI's big data problem and potential roadblocks ahead. Fundamentally, AI doesn't work without data. Data usage may need permission and can consist of a copyright or IP violation.
Plus the quality of the data is directly correlated with the skill and the ability to learn of the AI. Calacanis believes that IP lawsuits will become a huge roadblock for AI. And that caps off your snackable new summary for the day. But now what? What can you do with this new found intel? How can you wield this information to protect and grow your money? The first thing you can do is head over to MarketMoversDaily.com and subscribe.
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