🍞 Google’s bread threat

…and tech layoffs get chillier, but the labor market’s hot [Disclosures](   Getting toasty in here (Stefani Reynolds/Getty Images)   Yesterday’s Market Moves   Dow Jones 33,744 (+0.029%) S&P 500 4,016 (-0.018%) Nasdaq 11,313 (-0.18%) Bitcoin $22,936 (+1.33%) Dow Jones 33,744 (+0.029%) S&P 500 4,016 (-0.018%) Nasdaq 11,313 (-0.18%) Bitcoin $22,936 (+1.33%) Hey Snackers, Pet food company Pedigree wants you to foster a pup… in the metaverse. Its [Fosterverse]( lets Decentraland property owners foster avatars of real rescue dogs, and (hopefully) help them in real life too. The S&P 500 ticked down yesterday after a raft of earnings, but was still on track for its best January since 2019. [Tesla]( unveiled strong numbers after hours. Today all eyes are on fourth-quarter GDP. The US economy’s expected to have grown last quarter, despite big rate hikes. Toast Google’s profit-puppy ad biz is under threat as regulators crank up the heat on tech giants Google’s bread-and-butter ad biz… could be toast. This week the Department of Justice filed an antitrust suit targeting Google’s golden goose: advertising. The goal is to break up its digital ad biz, which makes up 80% of the search leader’s sales. The suit alleges that Google abuses its role as one of the largest buyers, sellers, and brokers of digital ads and hurts competition. - Big yikes… for Google. The suit calls for the divestiture of Google’s ad exchange and the unwinding of “anticompetitive” ad-quisitions like DoubleClick. - Google says the suit “attempts to pick winners and losers in the highly competitive advertising technology sector,” arguing it would raise ad fees and hamper growth. - Searching for a friend… Eight states, including California and New York, joined the DOJ’s suit. The court battle could have serious consequences for the ad industry. Google can buy itself flowers… but it’ll need to buy lots of lawyers, too, to deal with regulatory break-up tensions. This suit isn’t the only legal drama Google’s dealing with: in 2020 the DOJ filed a suit targeting its search dominance (think: how it’s the default in Safari). That case is expected to go to trial in September. Google’s facing three additional antitrust suits from state AGs. Oh, and in September the EU fined Google $4B after ruling it had broken competition rules — the EU’s second win in a trio of cases. THE TAKEAWAY Tech’s biggest threat isn’t deceleration… it’s regulation. Growth slowdowns have been dominating headlines. But while macro trends can be temporary, regulatory crackdowns change a biz forever. Scrutiny has intensified in recent years: the FTC’s suing to block [Microsoft’s]( $75B [Activision]( acquisition, and it slapped Meta with two antitrust suits. The DOJ’s investigating [Apple]( while the EU has opened cases against [Meta]( [Google]( and others. Meanwhile, President Biden has urged lawmakers to rein in tech titans with legislation. Hired Tech layoffs are stealing the show, but economists say the job market's still a star Glancing at the news... the job market looks rough — especially for tech workers. More than 57K layoffs were announced in the tech sector this month alone: [IBM]( said yesterday it would cut nearly 4K jobs, Microsoft axed 10K, [Salesforce]( said goodbye to 8K, and [Amazon]( laid off 18K. Before that, Meta and [Snap]( had let go of a combined 12K+ employees. Dominating your LinkedIn feed… While tech layoffs turn heads, they pale in comparison to the jobs added during the industry-wide pandemic hiring spree. Google, which just laid off 12K employees, had added 37K jobs over the past year alone. California, where many tech cos are headquartered, gained 16.2K nonfarm payroll jobs in December, and the unemployment rate in the greater San Francisco area sat at just 2% last month. Meanwhile, Chicago is working hard to [recruit]( laid-off foreign tech workers. - Let go to level up: Last year, 80% of laid-off tech workers found a new gig within three months. And over half of those rehired got pay increases. - Musical chairs: Three-fourths of let-go tech workers found new jobs in the same industry. THE TAKEAWAY The tech market ≠the job market… The "information" sector employs only 2% of US workers. Despite doom-and-gloom headlines, the overall unemployment rate is at historic lows and economists [aren’t worried]( — so far. Just this week: [Walmart]( America’s largest private employer, said it's upping its minimum wage for store staff to retain and attract workers in a competitive labor market. We'll see whether that strength held up into the new year when January's employment numbers drop next week. What else we're Snackin' - [Muskular]( Tesla unloaded record quarterly sales and said it drove home $3.7B in profit (another record). Still, Elon’s baby said it’s ramping cost cuts as it faces growing competition and economic uncertainty. - [Pod]( Juul, the struggling e-cig company (in)famous for popularizing fruit-flavored vapes that look like USBs, is reported to be in talks with three tobacco behemoths. It could be exploring a sale or other deal. - [Arms]( [Lockheed Martin]( and [Raytheon]( the US’s largest defense contractors, secured record weapons orders as Russia’s war on Ukraine drags on. But supply challenges are making it a struggle to deliver. - [Swifties]( [Live Nation]( was in the Senate hot seat yesterday as lawmakers grilled execs over Ticketmaster's botched sale of T. Swift concert tickets last year. At issue: Ticketmaster's perceived industry dominance. - [NYSlip]( A New York Stock Exchange "manual error” on Tuesday saw some stocks begin trading at inaccurate prices, which the NYSE said would be declared void. Trading losses are expected to be in the eight-figure range. 🍪 Thanks for Snacking with us! Want to share the Snacks? Invite your friends to sign up [here](. Snack Fact Of the Day Two in three Americans couldn’t cover a $400 emergency, a new survey suggests [Read more]( Thursday - US GDP numbers released for Q4 - Earnings expected from: Visa, Valero, Mastercard, Comcast, Intel, SAP, Northrop Grumman, Southwest Airlines, and American Airlines Authors of this Snacks own shares: of Apple, Amazon, Google, Microsoft, Snap, Tesla, and Walmart ID: 2702198 Robinhood Snacks newsletters reflect the opinions of only the authors who are associated persons of Robinhood Financial LLC (Member [SIPC]( and do not reflect the views of Robinhood Markets, Inc. or any of its subsidiaries or affiliates. They are for informational purposes only, and are not a recommendation of an investment strategy or to buy or sell any security, digital asset (cryptocurrency, etc) in any account. They are also not research reports and are not intended to serve as the basis for any investment decision. Any third-party information provided therein does not reflect the views of Robinhood Markets, Inc., Robinhood Financial LLC, or any of their subsidiaries or affiliates. All investments involve risk including the loss of principal and past performance does not guarantee future results. [Robinhood Terms and Conditions]( • [Disclosure Library]( • [Our Editorial Principles]( • [Contact Us]( • [FAQ]( [Manage Your Subscription Preferences](