Business
Financial CEOs are weighing in on the state of the economy
Some of America’s top financial services executives are starting to issue warnings about the economy.
Saying they’re seeing signs of “softening” or “weakening,” a slew of CEOs have been weighing in ahead of next week’s Federal Reserve decision and with the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics revising job numbers lower this week.
In a Wednesday CNBC interview, Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon said while the economy is “still chugging along,” the signals may be pointing in a different direction.
“There are number of CEOs that are talking about a softening in the economy – there’s no question,” he said. “We’ve seen some job data that indicates that there has been some softening.”
The BLS, in a preliminary report released Tuesday, revised its nonfarm payrolls data for the year prior to March 2025, showing a significant drop of 911,000 from the initial estimates. The revisions were more than 50% higher than last year’s and the biggest shift in more than 20 years, adding to growing concern over the economy.
The BLS has also come under fire from President Donald Trump, who fired the head of the bureau in early August and has criticized its data collection methods.
Solomon said he believes there’s “still more work to do” with today’s inflation and that tariffs are having an impact on growth, but that it’s difficult to quantify at this stage. As the economy heads into fall, Solomon said he expects a slight change in the policy rate, including a 25-basis point cut by the Fed next week.
Trump has also been critical of the central bank, calling for lower interest rates and bashing Fed Chair Jerome Powell. The Federal Open Market Committee last cut its benchmark interest rate in December 2024 and has held it steady since then in a target range of 4.25% to 4.5%.
JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon told CNBC on Tuesday that he believes the Fed will “probably” lower interest rates at its meeting next week, but that it may “not be consequential to the economy.
Dimon said he also believes the BLS report confirms that the U.S. economy is slowing down.
“I think the economy is weakening,” Dimon told CNBC’s Leslie Picker in an interview. “Whether it’s on the way to recession or just weakening, I don’t know.”
But ultimately, Dimon said the country will simply have to “wait and see” how the economy will progress given the weakening consumer.
Similarly, Wells Fargo CEO Charles Scharf told CNBC Wednesday that his bank is seeing lower-income Americans struggling to stay afloat, despite larger companies seemingly doing well.
“There is this big dichotomy between higher-income and lower-income consumers which continues and is a real issue,” Scharf said.
Commenting on the BLS numbers, Scharf said it’s “undeniable” that the discrepancy between American taxpayers exists and that he sees “more downside” to the U.S. economy.
Job creation in August also showed signs of weakness, as the BLS reported last week that nonfarm payrolls increased by just 22,000 for the month.
Morgan Stanley CEO Ted Pick told CNBC that he believes the American CEO or CFO has had to become resilient throughout the country’s recent ups and downs, including Covid and two Trump administrations.
“We’re in a place where I think some of the policy uncertainty is actually starting to get quantified,” he said.
Still, Pick said he’s seen the headwinds coming through and believes the policy uncertainty may be narrowing slightly.
“So, yes, there may be a little bit of a slowdown,” Pick said, adding that he’ll wait to see how it all plays out.
Barclays CEO C. S. Venkatakrishnan said on CNBC on Tuesday that he believes the Fed will cut on the margin, partly due to the softness in the labor market.
Traders are also expecting to see the Fed lower rates. They currently see a near certainty that the Fed will cut by at least a quarter point, according to the CME Fedwatch tool based on Fed futures trading, and some are betting that there will be an even deeper cut of 50 basis points, or a half percentage point.
Even if inflation problems haven’t tangibly presented themselves yet, Venkatakrishnan said the current economy is signaling that CEOs should have their eyes on the longer term.
“We haven’t seen them yet, but we’ve got to be worried about them,” he said.
PNC Financial Services CEO Bill Demchak also joined the wave, telling CNBC on Tuesday there’s “underlying pressures in our economy” between hiring workers, labor shortages, wage pressure and more.
Demchak said he’s seeing evidence to support the BLS’ revised report, and he believes that evidence is likely the reason that the Fed will cut rates going forward, even as consumer spending is “driving the economy.”
“There’s pressures inside of our economy that I don’t know disappear just because tariffs might get behind us at some point,” Demchak said.
Business
Urban Company Sees Rs 59.3 Crore Loss In Q2 Due To Investments In Insta Help
New Delhi: Home services provider Urban Company on Saturday announced a net loss of Rs 59.3 crore in Q2FY26, a significant drop from a profit of Rs 6.9 crore in the previous quarter. The loss was attributed to heavy upfront investments in its new daily-housekeeping vertical, Insta Help, which overshadowed strong revenue growth in its core services and products businesses, according to regulatory filings by the Gurugram-based firm.
The company posted a loss of Rs 1.82 crore in the July-September quarter last year, the company said. While revenue from operations increased 37 per cent year-on-year to Rs 380 crore, the total expenses rose to Rs 462 crore from Rs 384 crore in Q1. This resulted in adjusted EBITDA turning negative at Rs 35 crore, compared with a profit of Rs 21 crore in Q1.
Insta Help reported an EBITDA loss of Rs 44 crore, and excluding this segment, Urban Company achieved an adjusted EBITDA profit of Rs 10 crore, accounting for 0.9 per cent of net transaction value (NTV), the company noted.
“Early indicators for Insta Help are encouraging, with strong consumer adoption and repeat usage,” the company said in its shareholder letter. It added that it believed the segment holds “significant long-term opportunity and believes these investments are important to sustaining market leadership.”
The company expects its adjusted EBITDA losses to continue in the near term due to further investments in the Insta Help vertical, despite its core India and international businesses remaining profitable and cash-generating.
The company’s smart home products vertical, Native, which sells water purifiers and electronic door locks, recorded revenue of Rs 75 crore, up 179 per cent YoY, while losses narrowed to 9 per cent of NTV from 30 per cent in the previous year.
The home services provider closed the quarter with Rs 2,136 crore in cash and equivalents, up from Rs 1,664 crore in the previous quarter, mainly due to proceeds from its recent IPO.
Business
Andy Jassy Reveals Real Reason Behind Amazon 14,000 Job Cuts — And It’s Not AI
New Delhi: Amazon CEO Andy Jassy has opened up about the company’s recent layoffs, which affected around 14,000 employees. Contrary to popular belief, he said the decision wasn’t about cutting costs or the rise of artificial intelligence. Instead, Jassy pointed to a deeper reason behind the move — company culture. “The announcement that we made a few days ago was not really financially driven, and it’s not even really AI-driven, not right now at least,” he said, as quoted by Business Insider. “It really — it’s culture.”
A Cultural Reset at Amazon
Andy Jassy’s comments reflect Amazon’s ongoing push to reshape its internal culture. As reported by Business Insider, he has been focused on raising performance standards, tightening discipline, and cutting down on unnecessary bureaucracy to make the company more efficient and agile.
During the earnings call, Jassy acknowledged that Amazon’s rapid expansion over the years had added “a lot more layers,” which ended up slowing down how decisions are made. He emphasised that the company now needs to “operate leaner and move faster,” particularly as artificial intelligence continues to reshape industries worldwide.
“Sometimes, without realizing it, you can weaken the ownership of the people that you have who are doing the actual work,” Jassy said. “And it can lead to slowing you down.” In a blog post on October 28, Amazon’s senior vice president of people experience and technology, Beth Galetti, also confirmed that the company is “making organizational changes across Amazon that will impact some of our teammates.”
“While this will include reducing in some areas and hiring in others, it will mean an overall reduction in our corporate workforce of approximately 14,000 roles,” she said. This marks Amazon’s largest round of layoffs since 2022, when about 27,000 employees were let go. Interestingly, Jassy’s recent comments contrast with what other Amazon executives have previously said about the reasons behind the job cuts.
The decision also reflects a broader trend across Big Tech. Giants like Google and Microsoft are undergoing what many call the “Great Flattening” — cutting down layers of management to speed up decision-making and eliminate unnecessary bureaucracy.
Business
Berkshire Hathaway Q3 results: Profit jumps 17% to $30.8 bn as Buffett readies exit; Greg Abel set to take charge amid $381 bn cash pile – The Times of India
Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway reported a 17% rise in quarterly profit, boosted by a rebound in its insurance operations and gains from investments, even as the legendary investor prepares to hand over the reins to Vice Chair Greg Abel in January, AP reported.The company said on Saturday that it earned $30.8 billion, or $21,413 per Class A share, for the quarter ended September, up from $26.25 billion, or $18,272 per share, in the year-ago period. Operating profit — Buffett’s preferred measure to assess the firm’s performance — surged to $13.49 billion, or $9,376.15 per Class A share, compared with $10.09 billion a year earlier.Analysts surveyed by FactSet had projected operating earnings of $8,573.50 per share. Berkshire said the strong performance was driven by its insurance business, which benefited from fewer catastrophic losses than last year, when Hurricane Helene battered the US southeast. Insurance underwriting profit rose $1.6 billion to $2.37 billion.The conglomerate also booked $17.3 billion in investment gains during the quarter, while foreign currency debt holdings added $331 million in profit, reversing a $1.1 billion loss a year earlier.However, earnings at Berkshire’s utilities division slipped nearly 9% to $1.49 billion.Despite a $9.7 billion investment in OxyChem last month — Berkshire’s biggest deal in years — the group’s cash reserves remained substantial at $381.7 billion as of end-September.Buffett, 95, will step down as CEO in January but continue as chairman. The company’s Class A shares closed Friday at $715,740, well below their record of $812,855 reached in May before Buffett’s retirement announcement.
-
Tech1 week agoDefect passivation strategy sets new performance benchmark for Sb₂S₃ solar cells
-
Politics1 week agoTrump slams ‘dirty’ Canada despite withdrawal of Reagan ad
-
Business1 week agoJLR shutdown after cyber hack drives slump in UK car production
-
Tech1 week agoThe ‘Surge’ of Troops May Not Come to San Francisco, but the City Is Ready Anyway
-
Sports1 week agoAlleged mob ties in NBA scandal recall La Cosa Nostra’s long shadow over sports
-
Business1 week ago47.7% of Mutual Fund Assets Now Invested Directly, ICRA Analytics Says
-
Tech1 week agoA flexible lens controlled by light-activated artificial muscles promises to let soft machines see
-
Tech1 week agoWhy electricity costs so much in the UK (it’s not all about the weather)
