Highlights for the morning: Amazon cuts 30,000 employees, HSBC rises, gold is cheaper than $4000

Amazon plans to cut up to 30,000 employees, offsetting over-hiring and implementing AI tools to improve efficiency. HSBC beat earnings forecasts despite a $1.1 billion Madoff case provision and expects over $43 billion in net interest income in 2025. The price of gold fell below the $4000 mark ahead of talks between the US and China, which are expected to resolve trade tensions. These and other topics - in our review of key events for the morning of October 28.

Amazon is set to begin layoffs of up to 30,000 corporate employees on Tuesday, October 28, according to Reuters. This will affect nearly 10% of the office staff and will be the largest layoffs since 2022, when the company eliminated 27,000 positions. AWS's human resources, operations, devices and cloud services divisions could be hit.

CEO Andy Jassy continues on a course of reducing bureaucracy and costs, introducing automation and AI tools that analysts say are already allowing Amazon to achieve significant productivity gains. The company has also tightened its office presence policy - employees who don't show up daily are in some cases considered to have left the company without compensation.

Meanwhile, Amazon is expecting an active holiday season and is hiring 250,000 temporary warehouse workers, the agency noted.

Gold fell sharply in trading on Monday, October 27, breaking through the $4000 mark. On Tuesday, spot prices for the metal fell by 1% to $3940 per troy ounce. Progress in trade talks between Washington and Beijing and hopes for a deal have dampened demand for safe havens, Bloomberg explains .

"The warming in U.S.-PRC trade relations has knocked some ground out from under gold prices, reducing demand for safe haven assets," Reuters quoted KCM Trade analyst Tim Waterer as saying. "If this week's meeting between Trump and Xi on trade issues proves productive, gold will have to swim against the tide to some extent," Waterer noted. He added that the Fed's dovish rhetoric, along with an expected rate cut, could offset this effect.

"As long as gold continues to update lows and futures trading volumes remain high on down days, it's hard to talk about hitting bottom," Bloomberg quoted Pepperstone Group head of research Chris Weston as saying. - At this stage, it's wise to let others do the hard work and tactically buy on a rebound after a drawdown."

Europe's largest bank HSBC reported a pre-tax profit of $7.3 billion in the third quarter, significantly beating analysts' expectations ($5.98 billion), although the figure fell 14% year-on-year due to higher operating expenses, CNBC reports. Revenue reached $17.8 billion, while net interest income rose 15% to $8.8 billion. The wealth management segment showed particularly strong performance - up 30% to $2.68 billion.

Legal expenses, including $1.1 billion of provisions in the Bernard Madoff fraud case, were the main blow to the quarterly result. A court in Luxembourg partially rejected HSBC's appeal and the bank is preparing further appeals. These charges will reduce the bank's Common Equity Tier 1 (CET1) capital ratio by about 15 basis points.

HSBC remains optimistic: the bank expects net interest income of more than $43 billion in 2025 and double-digit revenue growth in its Wealth Management segment.

Domino's Pizza Enterprises shares fell after the company denied reports of a possible buyout by Bain Capital, Bloomberg reports. Earlier, Australian Financial Review wrote that the investment fund was considering a deal worth up to A$4 billion ($2.6 billion), which sparked a 23% rally in Domino's shares. The shares lost almost all of their gains after the pizza chain reported no such offer.

This year, billionaire Jack Cowin, the company's largest shareholder, took over Domino's to lead a major turnaround: doing away with inflated prices and an abundance of coupons in favor of more transparent pricing and a simplified menu, the agency recalls.

Taiwan's Foxconn - the assembler of iPhones and Nvidia products - has approved an investment plan worth up to $1.37 billion to buy equipment and create an AI cluster and supercomputer center, Reuters reports. The project will be financed from the company's own funds between December 2025 and December 2026.

According to the agency's sources, the investment will focus on expanding its cloud computing platform and accelerating the development of the company's three smart businesses. Foxconn is actively diversifying its business beyond smartphones and traditional electronics, Reuters notes.

Earlier, the company announced a joint venture with Nvidia to build an artificial intelligence center in Taiwan and plans to manufacture data center hardware with Japan's SoftBank at a former electric car factory in Ohio - as part of Stargate's U.S. AI infrastructure project.

- Japan's broad Topix index fell 1.2%, with the Nikkei 225 losing 0.76% after Monday's rally.

- Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index was down 0.3 percent, while mainland China's CSI 300 Index was down 0.38 percent.

- South Korea's Kospi collapsed 1.5 percent.

- Australia's S&P/ASX 200 fell 0.5 percent.

- Futures on the Nasdaq 100, S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average were little changed.

This article was AI-translated and verified by a human editor