⬇️ Sales slipped

Alphabet announced thousands of layoffs | Retail sales dropped in December | [Finimize]( Hi {NAME}, here's what you need to know for January 23rd in 3:11 minutes. 🎙 Your commute is never going to be the same again. In our [debut Finimize Podcast]( episode, the one and only [Daniel Ives]( opens up about OpenAI and ChatGPT, Elon Musk’s power plays, and the changing outlook for tumbling tech stocks. [Listen here for free]( Today's big stories - Google’s parent company Alphabet announced that it’s cutting 12,000 jobs - Here are Goldman Sachs’s top tech themes for 2023 – [Read Now]( - UK retail sales hit an unseasonable slump in December That Spells Trouble [That Spells Trouble] What’s Going On Here? Google’s parent company Alphabet [announced]( job cuts on Friday – the latest in a series of layoffs by tech titans. What Does This Mean? If the world of tech was a TV show, you’d say that the screenwriters are getting lazy: after all, they keep falling back on the same old “job cut” trope to prop up this season’s flagging plotline. This episode, it’s Google’s turn in the hot seat, which was probably all but inevitable. The Silicon Valley posterboy managed to hold out longer than plenty of its peers, but with shrinking ad budgets sapping the firm’s search revenues, downsizing was probably a sensible strategy. That’s left about 12,000 jobs (or 6% of the workforce) on the chopping block – a move that Alphabet hopes will let it focus on hot, up-and-coming areas like artificial intelligence. Why Should I Care? Zooming in: Don’t panic. Job cuts in the tech industry were up 649% in 2022, but that doesn’t mean that the sector’s facing some kind of Doomsday scenario – far from it. The number of positions being axed at the minute actually pales in comparison to the number of jobs that were added during the pandemic. That means these layoffs often just wind firms’ headcounts back to where they were about a year ago – like in Meta and Salesforce's cases. And it’s not just them: Amazon’s workforce nearly doubled since 2019, and Microsoft’s doubled in 2022 alone, which suggests their recent job cuts are less of a shakeup and more like a step toward normality. For markets: What a drag. That doesn’t mean everything’s hunky-dory, mind you: analysts' Big Tech revenue projections are [down]( 5% since October, and shares in Meta, Amazon, Alphabet, Apple, and Microsoft are expected to be among the biggest drags on the S&P 500 for a few months yet. But that’s not guaranteed, especially when the firms could fund some bumper share buybacks with the $110 billion in cash they collectively hold. You might also like: [Big Tech’s got issues, sure, but that doesn’t mean it’s all over.]( Copy to share story: [( 🙋 [Ask a question](mailto:questions@finimize.com?body=Ask us a question: Where are you writing from? Let us know and we'll mention it when we reply.&noapp=true&subject=That Spells Trouble&utm_campaign=daily-global-23-01-2023&utm_source=email) Analyst Take Five Big Tech Themes For 2023 [Five Big Tech Themes For 2023]( By Paul Allison, Analyst When markets are uncertain (as they are right now), [thematic investing]( tends to come into sharp focus. The investing style cuts through the volatility and the noise, honing in on [the biggest trends]( and the [companies that are best positioned]( to benefit from them.  And as luck would have it, investment bank Goldman Sachs recently called out [ten themes]( in online and interactive technologies. So that’s today’s Insight: [the top tech investing themes for 2023.]( [Read or listen to the Insight here]( Finimize x Revolut They say you can’t put a price on knowledge, so we didn’t. Now you can get six free months of [Finimize Premium](, meaning you can sink your teeth into our expert analysts’ Insights without paying a penny. And when you’re ready to put that knowledge to use, you can enjoy three months of [free Revolut Premium]( too. We’ll even send you [£10 or equivalent]( as a thank you for reading this far. Our community wants to know your name Building a good brand is hard work. So if you’re proud of the work you do, you best make sure everyone knows about it. You could start by [introducing yourself to our one-million-strong community](: they’re a global bunch of switched-on, savvy retail investors who want to take their investing skills up a notch. And if your tips, tools, or platform – plus whatever else you have up your sleeve – could help them do that, then this might be just the right spot for you to [show off what you have to offer](. Make sure everyone knows your name: [introduce yourself to over one million retail investors](. [Get In Touch]( Shopping Stumbled [Shopping Stumbled] What’s Going On Here? British retail sales took a surprise tumble last month, according to data out on Friday. What Does This Mean? December had all the makings of a shopathon: the government was doling out money to help with bills, the World Cup was in full swing, and the gift-giving season was nigh. But inflation must have been stronger than all those factors combined, because they ultimately did diddly-squat to boost sales. Clothing saw an uptick, sure – but that was probably because inflation’s taken the shirt off workers’ backs. And the upswing in furniture sales? Well, that was probably down to exhausted Brits needing sofas to collapse onto. Everything else fell off a cliff, even staples like food, and festive gifts like toys and jewelry. That left economists, who expected retail sales to jump 0.5% from November, scratching their heads when a 1% drop actually materialized. All in all, the volume of sales slipped 5.8% from the year before – the sharpest decline for December since records began. Why Should I Care? The bigger picture: Not-so-square deal. Paying over 13% more to get about 2% less sounds like the world’s worst bargain – but comparing last month’s data to pre-Covid figures, that’s precisely the deal that Brits got. And that’s getting them understandably glum: separate data out on Friday showed that a key measure of consumer confidence fell in January, marking the longest period of gloom in nearly 50 years. That doesn’t bode well for retail sales – and with household savings running low, even a dip in inflation might not make up for it. Zooming out: Skint Uncle Sam. Things weren’t much better across the pond: data out in the US last week [showed]( that December’s retail sales took the biggest dive all year, with ten of 13 product categories dropping off. That’s bad news for American growth – and it could help push the US into a recession earlier than economists predicted. You might also like: [Morgan Stanley says the UK could deliver a huge surprise in 2023.]( Copy to share story: [( 🙋 [Ask a question](mailto:questions@finimize.com?body=Ask us a question: Where are you writing from? Let us know and we'll mention it when we reply.&noapp=true&subject=Shopping Stumbled&utm_campaign=daily-global-23-01-2023&utm_source=email) 💬 Quote of the day “Every journalist has a novel in him, which is an excellent place for it.” – Russell Lynes (an American art historian, photographer, and author) [Tweet this]( 🌍 Finimize Live 🥳 Coming Up Soon… All events in UK time. ♻️ [Which ESG Stocks Will Win In 2023?](: 12pm, January 23rd 📑 [The Risks And Regulations When Investing In Crypto](: 10am, January 27th 📈 [How To Hedge Against Volatility With Crypto](: 5pm, February 2nd 👩‍💻 [Opportunities For Women In Blockchain 2023](: 12.30pm, February 16th 🎯 On Our Radar - The Crypto House. Snap up this [garish crypto-themed house]( for just under $1 million. - Freeing the nip. 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