Shares in Meta fell more than 2% on Tuesday, following reports that the social media company is planning to cut around 5% of its workforce through performance-based terminations.
According to a Bloomberg report, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in an internal memo that he had "decided to raise the bar on performance management and move out low-performers faster".
“We typically manage out people who aren’t meeting expectations over the course of a year, but now we’re going to do more extensive performance-based cuts during this cycle," he said.
A spokesperson for Meta confirmed that the company is planning to backfill these roles.
This latest news from Meta comes after the company last week announced it was ending its US fact-checking programme. The company also said it had appointed appointed Ultimate Fighting Championship CEO Dana White, an ally of US president-elect Donald Trump, as one of three new board members.
Zuckerberg appears to have been trying to forge closer ties with Trump, ahead of his return to the White House next week, with Meta having also committed $1m to the president-elect's inaugural fund.
The US financial regulator is reportedly suing Tesla CEO Elon Musk, claiming that the billionaire did not properly disclose his growing stake in the social media platform formerly known as Twitter.
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) alleged that Musk waited too long to disclose his stake, enabling him to underpay for shares by at least $150m (£123m), according to a Bloomberg report.
"Because Musk failed to timely disclose his beneficial ownership, he was able to make these purchases from the unsuspecting public at artificially low prices,” the SEC reportedly said in its civil suit.
"Investors who sold Twitter common stock during this period did so at artificially low prices and thus suffered substantial economic harm," the regulator added.
Musk's lawyer Alex Spiro reportedly said that this action was an "admission" that the SEC could not bring an "actual case".
A spokesperson for the SEC had not responded to Yahoo Finance UK's request for comment at the time of writing.
Tesla shares appeared unaffected by the news, trading flat pre-market open on Wednesday morning.
The lawsuit comes as Musk, a close ally of Trump, is set to take on his role as co-lead of the extra-governmental Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) once the president-elect returns to power.
US pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly cut its revenue guidance for the final quarter of its fiscal year, which prompted shares to fall nearly 7% on Tuesday.
The company said it expected fourth-quarter revenue to come in at approximately $13.5bn, which is around $400m below the low end of its recently issued financial guidance.
Eli Lilly CEO David Ricks said the market for US incretin — hormones that help regulate blood sugar levels after eating — grew 45% compared to the same quarter last year. However, he added that the company's "previous guidance had anticipated even faster acceleration of growth for the quarter".
"That, in addition to lower-than-expected channel inventory at year-end, contributed to our Q4 results," he added.
However, Eli Lilly expected revenue for the full year to come in at $45bn, which would be $4bn above the midpoint of its first-time 2024 financial guidance.
The pharmaceuticals firm anticipated revenue for 2025 to be in the range of $58bn to $61bn.
Shares in Currys surged 11%, after the UK electricals retailer raised its profit outlook.
Currys said in trading update on Wednesday morning that it expected group adjusted profit before tax to come in at £145m ($177m) to £155m for the year. The retailer said this would represent growth of between 23% and 31% year-on-year and would be ahead of consensus expectations.
This comes after the company reporting strong trading over the festive period, with like-for-like revenue up 2% over the 10 weeks to 4 January. Currys said reported strong sales in mobile, gaming and premium computing.
Currys said that its board intends to declare a final dividend of around 1.3p per share alongside its full-year results in July.
Russ Mould, investment director at AJ Bell (AJB.L), said: "The true sign of a turnaround story reaching its maturity is the resumption of dividends and Currys has finally reached this status.
"The electronics retailer last declared a dividend at its half-year results in December 2022 but then paused the payout amid Nordic struggles, inflationary pressures knocking the business for six, and a decision to exit the Greek market."
Shares in Vistry also surged on Wednesday morning, rising 9%, after the housebuilder reiterated its previous profit guidance following a challenging period for the company.
Vistry said it expected to generate group ajdusted profit before tax of arounf £250m for the full year, which would be in line with its revised company guidance announced in December.
This latest update appeared to provide some relief for investors, following a December update, in which the housebuilder issued its third profit warning in as many months.
Aarin Chiekrie, equity analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown (HL.L), said: "Looking forward, Vistry expects profits to grow in 2025, albeit from a very low base.
"But after a series of disappointing profit downgrades late in 2024, Vistry’s going to need to string together several periods of hitting targets before investors can take what it says at face value again."
Other companies in the news on Wednesday 15 January:
