Good morning and welcome to Markets Desk.
In China's technology sector, the human cost of the AI transition is becoming impossible to ignore. A Beijing-based programmer named Fei Zhaojun says his manager asked him point-blank whether artificial intelligence could replace coders. Two weeks later, he and roughly one hundred sixty colleagues were handed their notices. Economists warn this pattern is accelerating across China's labor market, with government policy actively encouraging automation.
Shifting to media, The Washington Post has been ordered by an independent arbitrator to rehire columnist Karen Attiah, who was dismissed following social media posts she made after the killing of conservative activist Charlie Kirk. The arbitrator called the firing absolutely disproportionate, a ruling that lands with particular weight given the Post's already turbulent editorial environment under Jeff Bezos.
And on the commodities side, cotton futures opened Monday on the weaker end, down four to forty-two points in early trade, giving back some of the ground gained last week when December contracts posted a gain of three hundred fifty-five points. Crude oil is also softer, down nineteen cents, adding modest pressure across the agricultural complex as traders assess demand signals heading into the week.
That's the tape. Markets Desk, signing off the floor.
