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Pandora on Wednesday announced it will begin offering platinum-plated jewelry this year.

Andrej Ivanov / Bloomberg via Getty Images

Key Takeaways

• Pandora on Wednesday said it will introduce platinum-plated jewelry this year in response to a blistering run-up in silver prices in recent months.
• The prices of silver and gold skyrocketed late last year and throughout January as investors chasing momentum piled into the precious metals.

Not all that glitters is gold, they say. Soon, even less of it will be silver. 

Jewelry maker Pandora on Wednesday announced it’s introducing platinum-plated jewelry this year to diversify its precious metals exposure and reduce its reliance on silver, the price of which has soared over the past year. 

“With this innovation, we can navigate the new realities of raw material costs while offering consumers precious metal jewelery that is exceptionally well-suited for everyday wear,” said CEO Berta de Pablos-Barbier in a press release.

Why This Is Important

Silver straddles the line between precious and industrial metal due to its efficiency as an electricity conductor. Volatility in precious metals markets, thus, threatens to drive up costs for jewelry makers like Pandora and companies making products that rely on silver, like electric vehicles and solar panels.

Precious metals prices rose throughout last year as tariff and geopolitical uncertainty, as well as a weaker U.S. dollar, boosted demand for safe haven assets like gold. But prices skyrocketed in the final months of the year when tech stocks wobbled and investors, hungry for gains, chased momentum in metals markets. 

The run-up turned into a full-blown meltdown on Monday when gold and silver suffered their worst sell-off in decades. After a few days of relative calm, volatility flared up again on Thursday. Spot silver prices were down about 13% at $77.50 an ounce in recent trading, while gold slid 2% to trade around $4,880 an ounce.

Even with this week's rout, precious metals are far more expensive now than they were last year. The price of silver is up about 140% in the past 12 months, while gold has risen 70%.

The exceptional volatility in silver markets is particularly concerning to Pandora. Silver accounts for nearly one-third of the company's cost of goods sold, making the metal its single largest production expense. Gold, by comparison, accounts for just 8% of those costs.

As a matter of course, Pandora and other commodities buyers hedge their purchases to keep prices as stable as possible. Pandora said in its earnings report Thursday that hedging should shield at least 90% of its silver and gold purchases this year from price fluctuations. Still, the company warned commodity prices could skim as much as 2.5 percentage points off its profit margin this year, making it an even larger headwind than tariffs.

The transition announced Wednesday will reduce Pandora’s exposure to silver, but platinum is neither cheap nor impervious to market mayhem. Platinum prices have also soared recently, just to a lesser extent than silver. As of Thursday afternoon, an ounce of platinum cost $2,070 an ounce, slightly more than double its price a year ago. 

Pandora isn’t the only jewelry maker responding to pricey metals by tweaking its offerings. Some designers have begun fashioning hollow gold pieces or mixing gold and silver to keep at least some of their products within an average consumer’s price range. Some have even replaced gold with brass, banking on consumers not being able to tell the difference. 

Peloton hopes to reverse a sliding stock with an updated product lineup and a focus on cost control.

Gabby Jones / Bloomberg via Getty Images

Advisor Insight

• Losses and sliding revenue dragged on shares of Peloton today, with the stock dropping some 20% in recent trading.
• Wall Street analysts think the stock can more than double. That would mean a return to prices it hasn't seen in about a year.

Peloton's downhill ride continues.

Shares of the connected fitness company dropped—they were recently off more than 20% to just a bit above $4.50 apiece—after it reported weaker-than-estimated results for its holiday quarter. Its current-quarter and full-year projections weren't so hot, either.

Peloton Interactive (PTON) posted less revenue and a wider loss than analysts were expecting to close out 2025. The New York-based firm reported a fiscal 2026 second-quarter loss of 9 cents per shares on revenue that slipped 3% year-over-year to $656.5 million. Analysts surveyed by Visible Alpha had expected a loss of 6 cents per share on revenue of $677.2 million.

Why This Matters to Investors

At their pandemic-driven highs, shares of Peloton traded above $150 apiece. Now they change hands for less than $5. The company now seeks to control spending and rebuild its business—but despite some Wall Street enthusiasm, the shares haven't touched double-digits in about a year.

The outlook didn't impress investors either. For the current quarter and full year, Peloton sees revenue of $624 million and a range of $2.40 billion to $2.44 billion, respectively. Visible Alpha consensus is for $637 million and $2.48 billion, respectively.

Today's move is the latest stumble for Peloton's stock, which finished Wednesday at near $6; at its pandemic-era highs, it changed hands at prices well clear of $150. Now, according to Visible Alpha, its market capitalization is under $2.5 billon.

The company has been trying to revive its fortunes. In October, Peloton announced a relaunched product line and higher subscription and hardware prices; it's also sought to restrain spending.

"Our focus remains on executing our strategy to increase our share of the growing global wellness economy while continuing to enhance our magic formula of premium hardware, intuitive software, and unmatched human coaching," CEO Peter Stern said in a statement.

Wall Street analysts, as tracked by Visible Alpha, believe the stock can turn around; their mean price target is in the double-digits, where the shares haven't been in about a year.

It's not just the weather that was frozen in January. The job market's hiring freeze deepened too

Spencer Platt / Getty Images

Key Takeaways

• Job openings fell to their lowest since the pandemic in December and job cut announcements were the highest in any January since 2009.
  
• Tariffs, deportations, and AI are all slowing down the job market.
  
• A better indicator of the health of the labor market is due next week when the Bureau of Labor Statistics releases its delayed jobs report for January.
  

Layoff announcements were up and job openings down this winter as the job market's hiring freeze deepened, according to two barometers of the job market Thursday.

The number of job openings fell to 6.5 million in December from 6.9 million in November, the Bureau of Labor Statistics said Thursday. That was the fewest since 2020. Another red flag popped up in consulting firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas's layoff report for January, which showed companies announced 108,000 job cuts, the most for any January since 2009, and the fewest hires for that month since the firm began tracking hires that year.

The indicators were unmistakable signs that the job market is being dragged down by President Donald Trump's tariffs, the immigration crackdown, and to a lesser extent, the rise of AI software.

What This Means For the Economy

The deepening job market slowdown poses a growing risk for the economy, which stayed resilient through economic policy shocks in 2025.

"The labor market spent much of 2025 bending, but not breaking—and ended the year perilously close to a definitive breaking point," Cory Stahle, senior economist at job site Indeed, wrote in a commentary.

The layoff rate remained low, suggesting that employers have not turned to large-scale cuts yet, but the risks of that are growing, several economists said.

"While announcements have not risen to a degree that signal a mass loss in employment, the pickup is a reminder that firms are not opposed to cutting headcount when other options have been exhausted," economists at Wells Fargo led by Sarah House wrote in a commentary.

The bureau will provide a more comprehensive look at the job market next week when it releases its January report on job creation and the unemployment rate. The report was initially expected to be published on Friday, but was delayed by this week's brief government shutdown.

Forecasters expect the economy to have added 60,000 jobs, up from 50,000 in December, and the unemployment rate to stay stable at 4.4% according to a survey of economists by Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal.

With Thursday's drop, Alphabet shares have erased most of their gains year-to-date, but are still up more than 60% in the last 12 months.

Justin Sullivan / Getty Images

Key Takeaways

• Alphabet shares sank Thursday after the Google parent outlined a massive increase in its spending this year.
• The company's fourth-quarter results topped estimates as cloud revenue surged.

Alphabet (GOOGL) shares slumped Thursday after the Google and YouTube parent laid out massive spending plans to support its AI ambitions.

The shares were down over 5% in recent trading, after the company forecast $175 billion to $185 billion in capital expenditures this year as it builds out its AI infrastructure, roughly double the $91.45 billion Alphabet spent in 2025.

With Thursday's move, Alphabet shed some $170 billion of its market value, pulling its market capitalization back below $4 trillion.

Why This Matters to Investors

Big Tech companies have faced increasing pressure in recent quarters to show their AI spending is paying off and convince investors to support further investment. Thursday's move could signal that investors are wary of Alphabet's massive spending plans.

Some Wall Street analysts said they've only become more bullish about the stock after the company's latest results, however. Analysts from JPMorgan, Citi, and Wedbush lifted their price targets following Wednesday's earnings report, given what they viewed as strong signals of AI demand.

"We acknowledge the concern around investments," Citi analysts wrote. "But given clear AI demand signals, we believe Google should be investing in product and in alleviating capacity challenges."

The tech giant topped fourth-quarter estimates with $113.83 billion in revenue and $2.82 earnings per share, as cloud revenue soared 48% year-over-year to $17.7 billion.

With Thursday's drop, Alphabet shares have erased most of their gains year-to-date, but are still up more than 60% in the last 12 months.

Chair Jerome Powell told Congress in the wake of the pandemic that the central bank would prevent inflation from becoming entrenched.

Samuel Corum / Bloomberg via Getty Images

Key Takeaways

• Fed officials refrained from cutting interest rates at their most recent meeting out of concern that inflation is still running over the Fed's 2% target.
  
• The stubbornness of inflation, which hasn't run under 2% since 2021, is a persistent worry for the Fed and has kept them from cutting interest rates more to help out the job market.
  
• The post-pandemic surge of inflation is still influencing the economy and is very much on the minds of leaders at the central bank, who did not foresee the surge of inflation when the pandemic hit in 2020.
  

The surge of inflation that took hold after the pandemic is still hurting household budgets and still very much on the minds of officials at the Federal Reserve.

In recent public speeches, Fed officials talked about the long shadow of the burst of price increases in 2021 and 2022, and how that high inflation is still lingering in a diminished form. The Consumer Price Index rose 2.7% over the year in December—far lower than the four-decade high of 9% in 2022, but remaining above the elusive 2% goal for nearly five years.

Fed officials held the central bank's key interest rate steady at their most recent meeting last month, after cutting it by a quarter-point at the previous three meetings to boost the job market. Concerns about inflation kept them from cutting the rate again, several Fed members said this week.

The fed funds rate influences borrowing costs on all kinds of loans. The Federal Open Market Committee typically lowers it to encourage spending and boost the job market, and raises it to do the opposite and push down inflation.

This week, Fed officials continued to mull whether inflation or the threat of joblessness posed the biggest risk to the central bank's dual mandate to keep prices stable and employment high, and how much they should cut interest rates in the months ahead, if at all.

"While we’ve made a lot of progress on inflation, it still remains above our target," Thomas Barkin, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond, said in a speech in South Carolina on Tuesday, according to prepared remarks. "That’s been the case since 2021."

What This Means For The Economy

The Fed's focus on inflation could prevent it from cutting interest rates in the coming months, as Fed officials are still grappling with the fallout from 2021 and 2022 when the central bank was caught off guard by a sudden spike in prices.

Among the complex forces affecting the inflation outlook: whether housing costs will continue their recent trend of cooling down, and whether the tariff-related price increases will just be a one-time blip, or whether they'll gain momentum and turn into sustained inflation.

"It would be easy to blame the one-time effect of tariffs or measurement lags in shelter costs, but I take this sustained miss seriously," Barkin said.

Those concerns were shared by Raphael Bostic, president of the Atlanta Fed, in an interview with CNBC last week.

"My concern for the past three or four years has been that inflation is too high, and we've got to get it down to the 2% target," Bostic said. "We've made good progress, but for the last two years or so we've been kind of stuck in place in this high 2s, low 3s range. I would say that we should be waiting and be more patient."

Fed officials are also balancing concerns about the health of the job market, as employers have cut back on hiring over the past year.

Fed Governor Michelle Bowman, unlike Bostic and Barkin, said she was confident inflation would fall to 2% in the coming months and that the Fed should cut its key interest rate three times over the next year.

"I recognize and appreciate that other FOMC members may be concerned that inflation remains somewhat elevated and that we have not achieved our inflation goal for some time," Bowman said in a speech according to prepared remarks. "However, absent a clear and sustained improvement in labor market conditions, we should be ready to adjust policy to bring it closer to neutral."

Bowman said she would not want to "immediately" react if upcoming government reports show inflation ran unexpectedly high in January, since the data could be distorted by seasonal adjustment factors.

The FOMC is widely expected to hold its key rate steady for its next two meetings, at least until June, after the term in office of Fed Chair Jerome Powell expires. Traders are pricing in a 66% chance of a June rate cut, according to the CME Group's FedWatch tool, which forecasts rate movements based on fed funds futures trading data.

A Look Back

If Fed officials needed a reminder of how unpredictable the economy can be, they could have found it in recently released transcripts of old FOMC meetings, which are made public only after a five-year delay. That means the Fed's deliberations from early 2020 are now being posted publicly for the first time.

In the most recent meeting transcripts available, FOMC members grappled with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in an emergency meeting on March 15, 2020. FOMC members viewed a wave of unemployment as the main threat at the time. In response, they slashed interest rates to near zero and held them there for more than a year.

What they didn't anticipate at the time was that the pandemic would disrupt supply chains, eventually leading to a surge of inflation.

"The net effect of the virus is likely to be disinflationary, not inflationary," then-Governor Richard Clarida said. "COVID-19 may well disrupt some supply chains, but it represents a huge shock to aggregate demand."

Indeed, Fed officials were more worried about inflation being below the 2% target than it being too high.

"Even when the pandemic abates, inflation is going to be an ongoing concern," San Francisco Fed President Mary Daly said at the time.

That experience is on the minds of current Fed officials, seven of whom were on the FOMC in 2020, including Barkin.

"Inflation spiked, helping us remember a painful lesson from the '70s—just how much we all hate inflation," he said this week. "It feels unfair, it creates uncertainty, and frankly it’s just exhausting to have to negotiate with suppliers or customers or to shop around for better prices."

With Thursday's drop, Qualcomm shares have lost about a fifth of their value since the start of the year.

Ina Fassbender / AFP / Getty Images

Key Takeaways

• Qualcomm shares tumbled Thursday after its outlook for the current quarter missed Wall Street's projections.
• The chipmaker said an ongoing memory chip shortage is expected to impact sales of smartphones, which it makes processors for.

Qualcomm's stock is getting hammered amid worries about a worsening memory shortage.

Shares of Qualcomm (QCOM) plunged over 9% in recent trading after the chipmaker gave a disappointing outlook for the current quarter, and pointed to a tightening supply of memory components that's impacting the smartphone market.

Qualcomm, which makes processors that are used in smartphones, laptops, and cars, said it expects a weaker smartphone market in the short term as companies navigate a global memory shortage that's expected to drive phone and laptop prices higher.

Why This Matters to Investors

Booming demand for AI hardware, and moves by the largest memory makers to focus more of their sales on AI customers, is squeezing supply for consumer-focused devices like phones and computers. That's helped boost shares of memory makers such as Micron and Sandisk in recent months, and added pressure on companies that buy memory parts.

For the second quarter, Qualcomm said it expects $10.2 billion to $11 billion in sales along with adjusted EPS of $2.45 to $2.65. Analysts surveyed by Visible Alpha had been looking for adjusted EPS of $2.88 on sales of $11.15 billion.

Still, CEO Cristiano Amon said the company is encouraged by consumer demand for high-end smartphones, and that Qualcomm is on track to reach its long-term revenue goals.

HSBC analysts said after the results that it is "difficult to forecast a potential bottom or recovery" for the smartphone market, as the memory shortage could remain a headwind through this year. The analysts kept their "hold" rating for Qualcomm shares and trimmed their price target to $150 from $170. JPMorgan analysts also cut their target, to $185 from $195.

Qualcomm's fiscal first-quarter sales grew 5% year-over-year to $12.25 billion while adjusted earnings per share rose 9 cents to $3.50. Both figures topped estimates compiled by Visible Alpha.

With Thursday's drop, Qualcomm shares have lost about a fifth of their value since the start of the year.

The price of bitcoin continues to slide lately.

Cheng Xin / Getty Images

Key Takeaways

• The price of a single bitcoin recently traded below $64,000 and at its lowest price since late 2024.
• "The 'Bitcoin Boomer Adoption' Trade is Dead," one market expert said.

Bitcoin has slipped below another five-digit milestone, raising the specter of "crypto winter."

The leading cryptocurrency by market capitalization—at about $1.26 trillion, according to CoinMarketCap—recently changed hands at prices not seen since late 2024, dropping to below $64,000 apiece. (Read Investopedia's full coverage of today's trading here.)

The price has been nearly cut in half from last fall's record highs around $126,000. The coin market at large has taken a major hit, with more than $500 billion in market value wiped out in a week.

The latest move lower has come as investors have moved away from risk assets and, in some cases, shifted portfolio allocations toward more defensive plays. Market strategists and crypto-industry leaders attribute the sell-off to two shifts in investor behavior: early coin buyers locking in profits, and fewer new buyers of crypto ETFs. At least one crypto exchange is starting to tighten its belt amid the rout.

Why This Matters to Crypto Investors

The dramatic pullback in bitcoin's price since late last year has alarmed some investors, though others are positioning it as a buying opportunity. Those who watch bitcoin closely will likely tune into a conference call, scheduled for this evening, held by executives at Strategy, a big buyer of the cryptocurrency.

"A seller's virus got into the market," Galaxy Digital chief Michael Novogratz said during a conference call earlier this week, according to a transcript provided by AlphaSense. One customer, he said, unloaded $9 billion of crypto. "The OG profit-taking—more than we thought—is a real thing." Novogratz said. That sum, he observed, is equivalent to a sizable chunk of last year's inflows to BlackRock's market-standard iShares Bitcoin Trust ETF (IBIT).

For now, some market watchers say, it's unlikely that well-heeled investors are likely to step in, buy falling crypto, and save the day. "The 'Bitcoin Boomer Adoption' Trade is Dead," Jim Bianco of Bianco Research said this week. Meanwhile, he said, positive news is failing to spur prices upward and price-drivers like the dollar debasement-trade aren't working.

"Winter continues until a new narrative emerges," he said.

Crypto companies are feeling the effects. Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss-founded crypto exchange Gemini (GEMI) said it plans to reduce its headcount by 25% and shutter operations in the United Kingdom, Europe and Australia to support a "path to profitability."

Some crypto exchanges in recent months have rolled out services that expand beyond their coin-related offerings, including Coinbase (COIN) and Gemini. Both companies' shares fell Thursday, with Coinbase logging double-digit losses.

Ask a market maven what's next and you're likely to get a range of answers. Bulls still talk about bitcoin's potential—not just to recover, but to post the kind of parabolic returns it long saw. Bears see more losses ahead. In the meantime, the trading action is hitting not only crypto assets itself but related stocks.

One of those may fuel one or both of those narratives: Big bitcoin buyer Strategy (MSTR), previously known as MicroStrategy, reported quarterly results after today's close. The company earlier this week reported its latest purchase, which brought the average prices it's paid for the bitcoin it owns to around $76,000.

News or commentary out of the company or its executives, including Executive Chairman Michael Saylor, may prompt further moves in bitcoin. (The company is also promoting the appearance of "leading bitcoin analysts" on its conference call.) Saylor has remained bullish this week in social-media posts, calling volatility a "gift to the faithful."

Strategy shares finished the day down 17%. The once-high flying stock has lost more than 75% of its value since hitting an all-time high last July.

Investors will be eager to hear what Saylor says Thursday's given Strategy's status as a bitcoin whale. Gregory Davis, president and CIO at Vanguard said in an interview with CNBC that he had "no idea" how to value the asset.

"I don't know if the right price for bitcoin is $1,000 or $100,000," he said.

This article has been updated to add new information and context and to reflect new market prices.

News of the day for Feb. 5, 2026

Sharp declines for tech stocks have weighed on major indexes in recent sessions.

Spencer Platt / Getty Images

Futures are pointing to a lower open for major indexes as technology stocks remain under pressure; Alphabet shares are losing ground after the Google parent revealed a massive increase to its AI spending plans; Amazon is scheduled to report its fourth-quarter results after the closing bell today; Qualcomm shares are tumbling after the company issued a weak outlook owing to a memory chip shortage; and bitcoin has dropped below $70,000. Here's what you need to know today.

Stock Futures Down After Two Days of Tech-Fueled Losses

Stock futures are losing ground this morning as investors assess more earnings reports from the tech sector. Futures tied to the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the the S&P 500 were recently down 0.3% and 0.5%, respectively, while those linked to the tech-heavy Nasdaq dropped 0.8%. The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq fell sharply on Wednesday for the second straight day as tech stocks came under pressure. The Dow, for its part, closed near a record high yesterday. Bitcoin's recent rough stretch is continuing, with the cryptocurrency trading below $70,000 for the first time since November 2024. (more on this below) Gold futures were down 2% at $4,850 an ounce, while crude oil futures slipped 2.4% to $63.65 per barrel. The yield on the 10-year Treasury, which affects borrowing costs on a wide range of consumer loans, was at 4.26%, down from 4.28% at yesterday's close.

Alphabet Stock Drops As Google Parent Plans AI Spending Surge

Shares of Alphabet (GOOGL) are sliding a day after the Google and YouTube parent reported fourth-quarter results. Alphabet's revenue and profits topped estimates in the quarter, as CEO Sundar Pichai said the company's Google Gemini app has crossed the 750 million monthly active user mark. The company is forecasting $175 billion to $185 billion in capital expenditures this year as it ramps up spending on AI. That would be roughly double the $91.45 billion Alphabet said it spent in 2025, and could be what's spooking investors despite solid results otherwise. Big tech companies have faced increasing pressure in recent months to provide detailed plans for both how they spend their money on AI, and how they plan to see an adequate return on that investment. Alphabet stock was down more than 4% in premarket trading, as it continues to pull back from the record close it set on Monday. The stock has gained more than 70% over the past 12 months, making Alphabet the top performer among Magnificent Seven members over the period.

Amazon's Results Due After the Closing Bell

Another Mag 7 member is scheduled to report fourth-quarter results today, with Amazon's (AMZN) coming after the closing bell. Amazon is expected to report revenue of $211.55 billion, marking the first quarter Amazon's revenue would surpass the $200 billion mark, with earnings per share projected to rise 11 cents year-over-year to $1.97. Analysts expect strong growth from Amazon Web Services, the tech giant's cloud computing service, amid growing AI demand, along with a solid performance from Amazon's retail business thanks to a healthy season of holiday spending. Recently, Amazon has made some moves to manage costs as it also boosts its AI spending, including cutting a total of 30,000 jobs in two rounds of layoffs since October, and shuttering its Amazon Fresh and Amazon Go stores to focus on expanding the Whole Foods brand and its other grocery delivery services. Amazon shares were down nearly 2% ahead of the opening bell.

Qualcomm Stock Tumbles As Outlook Shows Impact of Memory Chip Shortage

Shares of Qualcomm (QCOM) are falling sharply this morning after the chipmaker's latest results showed a disappointing outlook for the current quarter. Qualcomm, which makes processing chips that are used in smartphones, laptops and cars, said it expects a weaker smartphone market in the short term as the industry is affected by the ongoing shortage of memory components, which is expected to drive phone and laptop prices higher. Still, CEO Cristiano Amon said the company is encouraged by consumer demand for high-end smartphones, and said Qualcomm is still on track to reach its long-term revenue goals. Fiscal first quarter sales grew 5% year-over-year to $12.25 billion while adjusted earnings per share grew 9 cents to $3.50, each better than analysts had expected, per Visible Alpha estimates. For the second quarter, Qualcomm said it expects $10.2 billion to $11 billion in sales along with adjusted EPS of $2.45 to $2.65, each range fully below what analysts were projecting. Qualcomm shares were down 10% recently.

Bitcoin Sinks Again, Pulling Crypto Stocks Down With It

Bitcoin is extending its recent skid, with investors experiencing volatility in the rest of the market less likely to take a gamble on an inherently volatile asset like bitcoin. The cryptocurrency was at $69,200 recently, down from an overnight high of around $73,500 and trading at its lowest level since November 2024. Bitcoin has lost about 45% of its value since hitting a record high of around $126,000 last October. Crypto-related stocks are also sliding this morning. Shares of Strategy (MSTR), the largest single corporate holder of bitcoin, were down 7%, while trading platforms Robinhood (HOOD) and Coinbase (COIN), and bitcoin miner MARA Holdings (MARA), each fell about 5%.

AMD CEO Lisa Su said she sees this as a "big inflection year" for the company

Bridget Bennett / Bloomberg / Getty Images

Key Takeaways

• AMD CEO Lisa Su told CNBC Wednesday that demand for the company's chips is “on fire” and that she sees this as an "inflection year" for the company as it rolls out its next-generation products.
• Shares of AMD slumped Wednesday despite results that topped Wall Street's estimates.

Investors dropped shares of Advanced Micro Devices after its latest earnings. Its CEO says they should be excited about what's ahead this year.

Shares of AMD (AMD), regarded by some as a top alternative to AI chip leader Nvidia (NVDA), plunged over 17% Wednesday, leaving them in the red year-to-date despite quarterly earnings that topped Wall Street estimates. Analysts said lofty expectations, along with concerns that a surprise boost from China sales may have helped smooth over softer growth elsewhere, and uncertainty about the competitiveness of its next generation of products, weighed on sentiment. 

Lisa Su, however, is upbeat.

Why This Is Significant

AMD, long seen as a second fiddle to chip industry leader Nvidia, could face a big test this year with its latest AI products set to launch in the second half.

She told CNBC in a televised interview Wednesday that demand for its chips is “on fire” with the results showing “strength across the entire business.” The CEO also said she sees 2026 as a “big inflection year” for the company, as it prepares to roll out its next generation of AI chips in the second half. 

Revenue from AMD's MI450, designed to compete with Nvidia’s Rubin chips, is expected to start contributing to AMD’s revenue in the third quarter, Su told investors during a conference call Tuesday, according to a transcript provided by AlphaSense.

Su, who told CNBC that AI is “accelerating at a pace I would not have imagined,” projected that AMD's data center segment—responsible for the bulk of its revenue—could rise more than 60% annually over the next three to five years as the industry grows.

AMD's shares finished the day around $200 apiece, dropping further below Wall Street's consensus price target, near $276, after Wednesday's drop. Tech shares took a hit Wednesday; read Investopedia's full coverage of today's trading here.

Amazon last week announced plans to eliminate 16,000 roles.

Bess Adler / Bloomberg / Getty Images

Key Takeaways

• Corporate giants such as Amazon, UPS and Dow have made major layoff announcements in recent weeks.
• Researchers examining labor market data have so far found AI's impact on jobs to be limited.
• Some analysts say companies may be "AI-washing" layoffs—blaming AI to distract from deeper problems.

The labor market limped into 2026, and big layoff announcements in recent weeks have added fresh anxiety to the fragile jobs picture.

Amazon.com (AMZN) said it plans to eliminate about 16,000 corporate roles, while United Parcel Service (UPS) announced 30,000 new job cuts, following an even larger reduction last year. Chemical manufacturing company Dow (DOW) slashed 4,500 jobs, or roughly 12% of its workforce, while Home Depot (HD) and Nike (NKE) each cut hundreds more.

For many workers, the fear isn’t just about layoffs—it’s about why they’re happening. A recent Reuters/Ipsos poll found that 71% of Americans worry artificial intelligence could permanently replace their job.

With AI frequently cited in corporate earnings calls and layoff announcements, it’s easy to connect the dots. But when economists and labor researchers dig into the data, a more complicated—and far less AI-driven picture—emerges.

Why This Matters To You

AI has often grabbed the headlines, but federal workforce cuts, economic conditions, and company closings drove the vast majority of last year's 1.2 million layoffs. Researchers say some companies may be "AI-washing"—using automation as cover for deeper problems. The real story is a labor market that added just 12,000 jobs a month in the back half of 2025—compared with 186,000 per month the year before—and looks weak in early 2026.

Workers are echoing what they're hearing from the top. Prominent CEOs, from Salesforce's Marc Benioff to Ford's Jim Farley to Anthropic's Dario Amodei, have said that AI is coming for their jobs.

A string of major reports has only sparked wider worries. A November Stanford study using ADP payroll data found that early-career workers in AI-exposed occupations had a 16% employment decline after ChatGPT's release. The World Economic Forum reported last year that 41% of employers planned to shrink their workforce where AI can automate tasks. The International Monetary Fund estimated last month that 60% of jobs in advanced economies are "exposed" to AI. Workers who haven't adapted well to the technology have seen their employment drop by 3.6%.

Faint Evidence for AI's Role

Despite all that, when researchers look for AI's fingerprints in the employment data, they're not finding much.

The Yale Budget Lab analyzed U.S. labor market data from ChatGPT's November 2022 release through late 2025 and didn't find any major shifts yet in the labor market. The share of workers in jobs with high, medium, and low AI exposure has remained "remarkably steady," the researchers concluded. Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas economists argued much the same in a report out last month, saying the overall impact from AI has been "small and subtle."

Challenger, Gray & Christmas's report on 2025 job losses gives us a broader picture. Of the 1.2 million job cuts announced in 2025, AI was blamed for fewer than 55,000, about 4.5%. Federal workforce cuts by DOGE alone drove six times that number. Economic conditions were behind another 253,000. Company closings eliminated 191,000 more. AI didn't crack the top five.

Blame the Bot

Researchers have found that when AI is deployed at a job, it's far more often been as a tool, not a replacement. Anthropic's Economic Index for January, which analyzed millions of real conversations with its Claude chatbot, shows that most work-related AI use involves humans using AI for specific tasks, not automation. In addition, the index shows that the success rate for AI-assisted tasks drops sharply on complex work, suggesting the technology still needs human oversight for the work that matters most.

So why are there so many mentions of AI around recent job losses? One answer may be what some analysts have been calling "AI-washing." Firms may now be looking to distract from strategic missteps by rebranding layoffs as an AI pivot.

"We suspect some firms are trying to dress up layoffs as a good news story rather than bad news," an Oxford Economics report argued last month.

AI could still be reshaping the job market. The question is the timeline. The Yale Budget Lab argues that technologies like computers and the internet took decades, not months, to fully change labor markets. So far, artificial intelligence is fitting much the same pattern—no matter how often AI shows up in the layoff announcements.