TLDR
- US stock index futures fell Friday morning, with Dow futures dropping over 300 points as concerns mount over AI-related job losses and tech sector vulnerability exemplified by Nvidia’s latest results
- Payment technology firm Block announced it would cut roughly 50% of its workforce, attributing the decision to AI automation capabilities — stock jumped approximately 20% in premarket trading
- Bitcoin traded flat near $68,007 as cryptocurrency markets reflected the broader cautious tone across tech stocks
- January’s Producer Price Index data is due Friday, with economists expecting 0.3% gains in both headline and core wholesale inflation figures
- Berkshire Hathaway’s new CEO Greg Abel will publish his first annual shareholder letter Saturday alongside the company’s complete 2025 fiscal year earnings
US stock index futures declined Friday morning as worries about artificial intelligence’s disruption of traditional employment models and corporate organization weighed on investor confidence. The weakness followed Thursday’s challenging session.
Dow Jones Industrial Average futures fell roughly 300 points, marking a 0.6% drop. Futures for the S&P 500 slipped 0.4%, with Nasdaq 100 futures down an equivalent 0.4%.
The selloff came even as Nvidia posted strong fourth-quarter earnings Thursday evening. Yet the results failed to match the lofty projections Wall Street had anticipated, while ongoing anxiety about excessive AI capital expenditures among tech behemoths kept sentiment subdued.
Deutsche Bank’s Jim Reid noted that recent earnings surprises “weren’t on the scale of what markets got used to in 2023-24.” He added that the Magnificent Seven tech giants were now trading over 7% below their October peaks.
Block, the payment processing and financial technology company founded by Jack Dorsey, unveiled plans to slash its workforce by roughly 50%. The firm cited artificial intelligence’s ability to dramatically reshape its operational needs as the primary justification.
Dorsey predicted that most companies will execute similar workforce cuts within the next twelve months. Despite the drastic measure, Block’s stock rallied approximately 20% in premarket trading.
The announcement amplified a week already filled with escalating anxiety about AI’s potential to displace workers across multiple service industries, including software engineering, financial planning, and real estate.
Crypto Follows Risk-Off Mood
Bitcoin traded largely flat at $68,007 over the 24-hour period through Friday morning. The premier digital currency has been tracking wider market trends, which shifted toward a more cautious stance this week.
Ethereum and XRP similarly declined alongside Bitcoin earlier in the week, with digital asset gains reversing in concert with the technology sector pullback.
The US dollar dipped 0.1% against a basket of major currencies. Ten-year US Treasury yields held steady at 4.01%, after previously touching a three-month low below the 4% mark.
Commodity prices edged slightly higher. Brent crude rose 0.5% to $71.22 per barrel, while West Texas Intermediate gained 0.7% to $65.65, as traders assessed the breakdown of US-Iran nuclear discussions that concluded without agreement.
PPI Data and Berkshire Letter Ahead
January’s Producer Price Index figures were scheduled for release Friday morning. Analysts projected monthly gains of 0.3% for both the headline and core PPI readings.
In other corporate news, Netflix shares advanced after the streaming service abandoned its bid for Warner Bros. Discovery. This development leaves Paramount Skydance, tied to Oracle, as the likely buyer of the media company.
Greg Abel, Berkshire Hathaway’s newly installed CEO, is expected to release his first annual shareholder letter on Saturday. The correspondence will accompany the holding company’s quarterly report and full 2025 fiscal year earnings, representing Abel’s inaugural communication since taking over from Warren Buffett.
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