AI workers say there’s a dark side to the push for new technology.
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Stocks rallied Thursday as investors look ahead to a key labor report and weigh corporate earnings. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 322.37 points, or 0.85%, for the day. The S&P 500 added 0.91%, while the Nasdaq Composite jumped 1.51%. There were some bright spots: Chipmaker Qualcomm climbed 9.7% after reporting an earnings beat and strong revenue guidance, while used car retailer Carvana surged 33.8% after reporting its best-ever earnings after the bell Wednesday. Moderna, meanwhile, soared 12.7% on a smaller-than-expected loss. Futures were also up sharply to start Friday ahead of the jobs report. Follow live market updates.
April’s jobs report due at 8:30 a.m. ET Friday is likely to show that hiring continued at a brisk pace. Nonfarm payrolls are expected to show a gain of 240,000 for the month, according to the Dow Jones consensus estimate, which also anticipates the unemployment rate will hold steady at 3.8%. Markets also will closely watch the wage numbers, which are estimated to show an average hourly earnings growth of 0.3% on the month — near the March move — and a yearly increase of 4%. “I don’t expect to see major surprises this month based on what I’m seeing on the ground,” said Amy Glaser, senior vice president of business operations at job staffing site Adecco. “But we’ve been surprised before.”
Apple announced its largest-ever share buyback on Thursday, the most ever for a public company. The tech giant said its board authorized $110 billion in share repurchases, a 22% increase over last year’s $90 billion authorization. The announcement came as Apple reported second-quarter earnings that beat expectations, but showed overall revenue down 4%. Apple CEO Tim Cook told CNBC’s Steve Kovach that year-over-year sales suffered from a difficult comparison to the year-ago period. Apple also said iPhone sales dropped 10%, suggesting weaker demand for the latest generation of its phones.
The saga for Paramount’s future continues. Sony Pictures and private equity firm Apollo Global Management sent a letter to the Paramount board expressing formal interest in executing a $26 billion takeover of the company. That offer comes as Skydance Media is waiting to hear back from Paramount’s special committee on if it will recommend its acquisition bid to controlling shareholder Shari Redstone. Skydance and Paramount have an exclusivity window for talks that ends Friday, but it could be extended. Some investors have been eager for the board to engage with Apollo and Sony rather than take the Skydance deal because all common shareholders would get a premium for their shares.
There’s a dark underbelly of the generative AI gold rush. Workers at big tech companies, including Amazon, Google, Apple and Microsoft, say they’re facing pressure to work under accelerated timelines as they chase rivals. Several artificial intelligence engineers, who spoke to CNBC’s Hayden Field anonymously out of fear of retribution, said they’re experiencing burnout as that pressure to keep up has come to define their jobs. Workers also said they worry that companies have little regard for the technology’s effect on climate change, surveillance and other potential real-world harms.
