You're listening to Markets Desk, your midday read on what's moving and why.
Uber is cutting ten percent of its community operations workforce, citing artificial intelligence as the driver behind the decision. Remote employees on that team are also being called back to the office. The move puts Uber squarely in the growing column of companies restructuring headcount around AI-driven efficiency gains.
Turning to Alphabet, where the headline earnings picture deserves a second look. One analyst is calling the company's apparent profit growth quote illusory, arguing that quadrupled earnings on paper are largely propped up by unrealized gains from equity stakes in companies like SpaceX and Anthropic. Strip those out, and the underlying business faces what the analyst describes as a historic cash drain. It's a reminder that mark-to-market investment gains can flatter an income statement without reflecting operational strength.
And on the credit side, income-focused investors should note that the Western Asset High Income Opportunity Fund and the Blackstone Long Short Credit Income Fund both go ex-dividend on July twenty-fourth, with payouts landing July thirty-first. At current prices, both funds are yielding in the range of eleven to twelve percent annualized, making them worth a look for yield-hungry portfolios in this rate environment.
That's the tape. Markets Desk, signing off the floor.
