Escalate To Immolate?

SAP Slows Hiring, Freezes Travel As AI Push Accelerates Not even a day after reports swirled that Microsoft was preparing to cut thousands of employees, and as the broader tech sector continues to hemorrhage white-collar workers replaced by chatbots, the latest AI-related job-displacement news is coming from Europe's largest software company. Bloomberg reports that German enterprise software giant SAP, best known for software that supports large corporations running core business operations, is preparing to slow hiring and cut travel costs as it diverts more capital toward developing AI tools. More color...

Iran's Economy Is In Shambles As War Takes Its Toll Despite the bluster from Iranian officials on social media, it should come as no surprise that the country is not doing well economically. From the beginning of the conflict to current day, Iran has been dealt an estimated $270 billion to $300 billion in total damage due to a steady barrage of strikes, including numerous infrastructure targets from bridges, highways, railways, airports, etc.  The three-month-long US blockade on Iran's oil exports have also taken a toll, with national oil output dropping...

Savings Rate Slides As Fed's Favorite Inflation Gauge Slowed In February (Ahead Of War) The Fed's favorite inflation indicator - Core PCE (a measure of price changes in consumer goods and services that excludes volatile food and energy costs) - rose 0.4% MoM in February (pre-war), in line with expectations, with YoY rising 3.0% (as expected - lowest since Dec), down from January's +3.1%... Source: Bloomberg The YoY Core decline is coming off January's highest level since March 2024, with Services cost inflation slowing notably... The headline PCE also rose 0.4% MoM (as...