#market

It’d be a pipe dream to think the Board of Directors would boot SK with another dismal year on tap for 2026 and replace him with a non-Japanese executive, but…

If you could nominate someone outside of CUSA to replace SK, who would you choose?

This company needs fresh perspectives and true leaders who can thrive in challenging markets.

How do you find out what the average base pay for the role in current area is.
The range is so wide and confusing.

Looks like the party is over.

"For nearly a year, the company dismissed short-seller allegations as mere 'falsehoods,' but today those chickens came home to roost with a $2.8 billion loss in market cap."

https://www.chartmill.com/news/KD/Chartmill-41541-kyndryl-accounting-implosion-sec-gotham-city-vindicates

The earth's resources are limited.

So. nothing is going to grow forever.

So, revenues/profits of no company is going to grow forever.

So, it is better to do profit booking in the stock market.

Apparently some new AI tools spooked the market, because it threatens to automate legal and financial workflows that certain software products specialize in, so they all dropped as a result.

The plus side is the market seems to have forgotten about it already and rallied 2% today, so there's that.

AI is coming for your job!

Due to principles in Semiconductor manufacturing and moores law, GFs products will enter the low cost semiconductor market within 36 months.
SiPho isn’t capturing as much market demand as previous anticipated, and GaN is somewhat niche. Larger scale (7+nM) technologies will become cheap, consumer scale electronics that mostly any foundry in the world will be able to successfully manufacture. GF will scrape along for some time, missing Quarterly targets here, laying off staff there, cutting cost all the way as they try to keep investors and BoD happy. When NYS incentives run out, GF will consider being acquired by other manufacturers. My bet would be TSMC as they continue US expansion, with some potential for Intel as well. Only hurdle is US administration woes, however, GF is not an American company. This is furthermore complicated by massive deficits in skilled labor, prevalence of AI, and opportunities for robotic automation that will present themselves over the next 36 months.
Any employees considering this as FUD, ask yourself, where do you see GF in 5 years? Are things feeling concrete? Or do you feel some ripples in the water.
Costs of production are going up, which always results in profits going down, especially when producing antiquated tech.

Its stock is down and it has completely taken over the restaurant vertical. Toast destroyed any remaining market share we had in restaurants. Clover completely sidelined by then as we focused on Crystals over priced pipe dream Bento Box. The Clover team will tell you they got pulled off restaurant for years to work on her website no one cares about.

Our company is back in the 100B market cap club with the other seven sisters.

Seems we have righted the course?

Continental is looking to develop international assets as domestic operations are economically challenging due to commodity prices and increasing OPEX.

Anybody hear the Continental will open an office in Houston to support international operations?

Vz app is a strong market success, driving high customer adoption through simple, reliable digital experiences.

As I expected. After the recent "pumped and jacked" earnings the stock "popped" but I knew like a balloon in a hole in it it would fritter away. Value trap. Stay away.

Chanel, Zegna, Kiton, Brioni, Cucinelli, Stefano Ricci, Burberry, Ferragamo
The top names in luxury fashion, have all had staggering price increases on merchandise since 2020. Some items have doubled and tripled in price. A Chanel handbag that was $5,500 in 2022 is now over $11,000. kiton men’s blazer was $3,900 in 2022 is now $9,000. Wealthy Customers are not stupid.

What do Microslop and IBM have in common ?

It absolutely IS bad, no doubt about it. Every year things have gotten worse and worse. But from a numbers standpoint, have we lost any major clients or even mid sized clients? Or are we just doing well since the market is up and most of our fees are asset-based? I moved out of a finance role years ago so I’m really not close to the numbers as I used to be but would anyone closer have more insight?

Start looking for your next role today, but do not quit. The market is absolutely awful, worse than it looks from the inside. I was laid off and with twenty years in the field, it still took me forever to land something new. Being unemployed puts you at a huge disadvantage from the start. Keep your current seat warm until you've secured another one.

I think we should organize and use this site to plan a multi market strike. If we all reply to this thread and assign ourselves an id we can get a better idea of how many reps are on here. Anyone think we could realistically do this?

Employment strength is a key factor for the 2026 housing market. Zonda identified top employment markets to watch for 2026. These markets show strong employment growth and capital investment. Charleston, Columbus, and Raleigh are among the top markets. These areas are expected to have strong future housing demand.

https://www.bellinghamherald.com/news/business/article314486190.html

Last August, T-Mobile made the mistake of retaining a good portion of the US Cellular workforce, especially the field technicians who have zero technical skills, are overpaid, constantly complain, and make comparisons to “the way they did it at US Cellular,” even though it is inconsequential. There are markets that are over indexed due to this additional “workforce” and it is likely that good T-Mobile employees will be terminated with the slugs remaining here in the near future. If the leadership had any bit of intelligence, they would dump those US Cellular slugs now and try to get back to the way the company was operating prior to both the Sprint and US Cellular disasters that are destroying the company

Is anyone hearing that more layoffs are on the horizon because of cheap oil hitting the markets?

Just curious for those that work here, are you planning to stay and try to ride out the current turmoil? Or actively looking whats out there. Obviously the market is brutal right now that makes switching harder, but I still see a lot of new job posts on LinkedIn, so theres gotta be some companies hiring.

I work in inside sales, the amount of calls I get from people being suspended due to non pay is at an unprecedented amount. It’s totally unreal.

Couple with the current market being one of the worst sales markets in the last 25 years. They still expect us to exceed quota when literally nobody has any money and everyone’s phones are being shut uff lol.

Any explanations on why the Stocks are going down ?

There was a CEO named Whelan
Who set up his company for failing
They missed all their targets
We're punished by markets
Was surprised when Woods started wailing

New thread to include but not limited to...
Financial (Market cap, earnings, debt load, %of short interest float, and of course, stock, stock, stock and more stonk!)
Various xerox initiatives that have led to past, present and future(?) demise (Product: 3D metal printers, Drupa 2008, Java UI?) Smooth movery of Fuji M00NING, Lean 6ix Sigma, HP, Lexmark debt deal sans ADF Roller assembly part numbers...)
Really too much more to list but will make another thread for, “Bottomless Word Salad via Leader Beanery.”

Stock down to 28. U-k!
We have no mega paid people that actually provide leadership.
No motivation, no nothing.
What a terrible start to 26/

There will be a huge TCS NA layoff next month. The $100K fee per H1-B visa to replace American workers is having a direct impact on hiring onshore for major projects. Therefore TCS will be moving huge numbers of job roles to lower cost countries like Mexico and permanently laying off thousands on USA employees to save cost.
Everyone on the bench will be automatically be gone, along with large numbers of support and administrative staff.
This is the only way for TCS to survive in this competitive market.

We’re spending tens of millions of dollars sponsoring and advertising around the College Football National Championship while the company is under pressure, the stock is lagging, and leadership keeps talking about “discipline” and “focus.”

A single 30-second spot costs roughly $1M, and full sponsorship packages run $25–35M+ per year. That’s real money being burned on branding theater at a time when we supposedly “can’t afford” bonuses, flexibility, or meaningful investment where it actually matters.

If cost control is truly a priority, this is exactly the kind of spend that should be questioned first.

Toyota never fully bought into the EV narrative. While they publicly supported emissions reductions, they:

Maintained skepticism about pure EVs: They kept investing in hybrids and hydrogen.
Made smaller, more flexible commitments: When they revised EV targets downward, they hadn't already signed massive supplier contracts
Didn't bet on regulatory permanence: They assumed political winds could change
Prioritized profitability over political favor: They were willing to be criticized for not moving fast enough on EVs.

The Fundamental Mistake
GM and Ford made massive, irreversible capital commitments based on political promises rather than market fundamentals. They:

Assumed federal policy would remain stable for a decade
Believed subsidies would be permanent
Thought consumer demand would follow regulatory mandates
Locked in supplier contracts before testing market acceptance

It's a classic case of companies mistaking political theater for business strategy. When executives stood on the White House lawn in 2021, they were making commitments that assumed the administration's policies would survive through 2030. That was a $50+ billion mistake across the industry.
The lesson: Never make billion-dollar bets assuming political conditions won't change, especially in a democracy where administrations change every four years.

I’m a former manager in the market and this is usually how ICs are selected. It’s mainly based on bonus and performance review on Workday. Top performers with a 120% bonus or above are generally safe, while those below 80% are usually in trouble.

Most ICs fall around the 100% bonus range, and that’s where the ranking list plays a big role. For managers, it’s a different story, they tend to look at who has lower OPEX, and age becomes a bigger factor for both ICs and managers.

At CES this year, analysts delivered one of the bluntest assessments the PC industry has heard in decades. While Apple and Lenovo are projected to become mega giants by 2030, far larger and more dominant than they are today, HP and Dell face a very different trajectory. Experts described both companies as “too large to pivot quickly, but too dependent on legacy PC economics to compete at the cutting edge.”
The consensus across panels and private briefings was clear. HP and Dell will not disappear, but they will be significantly smaller by the end of the decade. Multiple analysts forecast that each company will be less than half the size they are today by 2030, a direct result of structural disadvantages that intensify between 2026 and 2030.
The forces driving this contraction are the same ones powering Apple and Lenovo’s rise: AI acceleration, unified memory architectures, and a global shortage of advanced DRAM and HBM that favors vertically integrated giants.

HP: The Enterprise Giant Without a Silicon Strategy
By 2030, HP remains a recognizable brand, but primarily because of its enterprise contracts an government relationships, but the printing ecosystem completely collapses. Its consumer PC business, once a global leader, shrinks sharply during the second half of the decade.
Analysts at CES highlighted three core weaknesses:
• No proprietary silicon
HP depends entirely on Intel, AMD, and NVIDIA for AI acceleration. As AI PCs shift toward unified memory and custom neural engines, HP cannot differentiate.
• Thin margins in a tightening consumer market
Memory shortages hit HP’s mid‑range systems hardest. With HBM and advanced DRAM diverted to AI servers, HP’s consumer lineup becomes less competitive.
• Slow transition to AI‑native design
HP’s attempts to retrofit AI features into traditional laptops fall short of the performance delivered by vertically integrated competitors.
By 2029 and 2030, HP begins exploring carve‑outs and strategic restructuring to protect its enterprise business but the consumer footprint is gone.

Dell: A Server Powerhouse Dragged Down by Its PC Division
Dell enters the late 2020s with a booming server and data‑center business driven by global AI infrastructure demand. Yet this strength exposes the weakness of its PC division.
CES analysts pointed to several structural challenges:
• PCs lose strategic relevance inside Dell
As AI servers dominate revenue, the PC division becomes a low‑margin legacy business.
• Dependence on third‑party memory and GPUs
When HBM shortages intensify between 2027 and 2029, Dell prioritizes servers, leaving its PC lineup underpowered and overpriced.
• Enterprise buyers shift to AI‑native devices
Corporate customers increasingly choose AI‑accelerated systems from Apple and Lenovo, which offer better on‑device inference and unified memory designs.
By 2030, Dell’s PC business survives only through mergers, joint ventures, or partial divestitures, allowing the company to focus on its profitable AI‑server empire.

The New Hierarchy by 2030
CES analysts agreed on the broad outline of the decade ahead:
• Apple and Lenovo become mega giants, far larger and more dominant than they are today
• HP and Dell shrink to less than half their current size
• Acer and MSI exit the market entirely
• AI PCs replace traditional laptops
• Control of silicon and memory determines survival

When separating from WBA, market cap for the combined WBA was worth 8 billion. After they separated into individual companies like Walgreens, Boots, Alliance, Village MD etc, how much do you think just Walgreens by itself is worth? I don’t think it would be simply divide by three. Walgreens might be biggest out of all and do you think might be worth at least 4 billion out of 8 billion? If the WBA stock was still trading, would it be like $5.5 (half of what it was during buyout)? If that is true, would Walgreen’s current market cap be around 2.5 billion?

Today I notice a big drop in share price...

Any hint on the cause ?

Since the notorious August 1st email, the “market” has delivered a clear verdict on T. While the S&P 500 has climbed roughly 10 %, AT&T stock has fallen almost 20 % since that day, wiping out billions in value. Whatever leadership thought this “market-based” posture would signal to investors, it failed. The market rejected it. Facts not feelings.

Culture cannot be spoken into existence. It is not created through emails, town halls, slogans, and archaic RTO mandates. Culture is the feeling employees have when they walk in every day. Right now that feeling is animosity, distrust, and exhaustion. Five-day RTO did not strengthen culture. It exposed how disconnected leadership is from the workforce.

When employee reality is ignored, culture erodes. When culture erodes, execution suffers. When execution suffers, investors respond. That chain reaction is visible, measurable, and ongoing.

I wanted to understand whether the market is actually buying our integration narrative—or whether repeating it is meaningfully changing how investors who trade PSX perceive the company.

To test this, I analyzed daily share price correlations between PSX and a set of peers—MPC, VLO, DINO, and PBF, with XOM and CVX included as examples of truly integrated energy companies—across 5-, 3-, 2-, and 1-year periods.

The results are clear and consistent: PSX trades most like Valero, and that relationship is stable across every time horizon. Only in the most recent one-year period does PSX trade marginally more like MPC, but even then, its correlation with refining peers increased, not decreased. In contrast, correlations with XOM and CVX remain materially lower and largely unchanged over time.

The market is telling us something straightforward: PSX is viewed as a refiner, and that perception is not evolving.

Rather than fighting that reality, we should consider embracing it—making the hard choices required to present PSX as a pure-play refining and marketing company, one that investors can clearly benchmark against peers and value accordingly.

Over the last 30 days our stock has lost just under $5B in value. Clearly the market can see through the smoke screen that is being throwing up! Sadly, the layoffs aren’t starting where they should…with Stinkey!