Bloomberg - Evening Briefing - Tesla slashes workforce

Tesla is slashing its workforce by more than 10%, part of a global retrenchment for Elon Musk’s embattled electric vehicle maker as it struggles with slowing demand. In an email to workers, the chief executive cited duplication of roles and the need to cut costs. If Musk’s mass firings apply companywide, they would amount to more than 14,000 people losing their jobs. Alongside the terminations, Senior Vice President Drew Baglino and Rohan Patel, vice president of public policy and business development, are said to have departed. Baglino, an 18-year company veteran, is said to have resigned. Analysts are bracing for the EV maker’s sales to possibly shrink, citing slow output of its Cybertruck and a coming lull in new products. —Natasha Solo-Lyons  

The combination of strong US growth and sticky inflation is raising the odds that the Federal Reserve may actually hike rates again, bringing borrowing costs as high as 6.5% next year, according to UBS strategists. While the Swiss bank’s base case is for two rate cuts this year, it now sees a growing possibility that inflation fails to decline to the Fed’s target, spurring more hikes after a period of wait-and-see. Markets have already scaled back bets on policy easing as recent US data has shown continuing strength in the world’s biggest economy. Here’s your markets wrap.

Goldman Sachs’s back-to-basics approach is paying off as it posted profits that beat expectations, sending its stock up by the most this year. The Wall Street giant recorded a 28% jump in net income in the first quarter, even as analysts braced for a drop from a year ago. That surprise surge was led by traders who ducked a slowdown that hit rivals over at JPMorgan, and bankers who cashed in on new dealmaking activity.

Oil futures barely moved after Iran’s weekend attack on Israel, with traders attributing the lackluster price action to a widespread understanding that the volley of drones and missiles, retaliation for the deadly bombing of Iran’s diplomatic compound in Damascus, was widely telegraphed beforehand. Expectations among traders are that the conflict will remain contained in the aftermath. Here’s what market watchers say.

Demonstrators in Tehran following Iran’s strike on Israel. Photographer: Atta Kenare/AFP

Apple’s iPhone shipments slid almost 10% in the quarter ended in March, worse than projected and reflecting flagging sales in China. The company shipped 50.1 million of the handsets in the first three months of the year, falling shy of the 51.7 million average analyst estimate compiled by Bloomberg. The drop is the steepest for Apple since Covid lockdowns snarled supply chains in 2022.

The union for American Airlines pilots warned members to be vigilant amid a “significant spike” in safety- and maintenance-related problems. The Allied Pilots Association cited “problematic trends” including instances of tools being left in airplane wheel wells and an increasing number of collisions between aircraft while being towed. The union, which represents about 15,000 pilots, implored members to avoid rushing while doing their jobs and to not be pressured into doing anything unsafe.

In our continuing series on getting the most bang for your education buck, Bloomberg has discovered that a number of STEM-focused schools with more generous admission policies offer the same—or better— return on investment than Ivy League schools. Here’s our full list.

Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, 72, will step down May 15, ending a two-decade run and ushering in a new era led by his deputy, Lawrence Wong. Also finance minister, Wong, 51, will become the city-state’s fourth premier and has the unanimous support of the ruling party’s lawmakers.

Lee Hsien Loong Photographer: Lionel Ng/Bloomberg

• Trump’s first criminal trial starts: Timeline of indictment events.
• Bloomberg Opinion: Trump seems well aware he’s in legal peril.
• Bloomberg Opinion: Trump’s Hitler fascination is an ominous echo.
• Arming Ukraine turns Soviet tank refitter into a billionaire.
• Hong Kong gives initial Bitcoin, Ether ETF nod, issuers say.
• “Expensive” India lures investors avoiding China risks.
• Americans are paying billions to take drugs that don’t work.

A digital crime wave targeting teenage boys is having deadly consequences. Sexual extortion, or what the Federal Bureau of Investigation calls “sextortion,” is when a scammer tricks someone into sending a nude selfie and then blackmails them by threatening to send the picture to their friends and family. Digitally savvy Nigerian scammers are using social media to target thousands of victims in the US, earning them millions of dollars and leading to at least 20 suicides over an 18-month period. Scammers have shared video playbooks on platforms such as TikTok and YouTube showing how to blackmail teens and rely on Instagram and Snapchat to connect with victims and find their friends and family.

Brandon Guffey, a South Carolina state representative, at a Senate hearing in January holding a portrait of his son Gavin.  Photographer: Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc./Getty Images

Get the Bloomberg Evening Briefing: If you were forwarded this newsletter, sign up here to receive Bloomberg’s flagship briefing in your mailbox daily—along with our Weekend Reading edition on Saturdays.

Bloomberg Wealth Summit: Can prosperity and instability comfortably coexist? Join us in Hong Kong on June 5 as we gather leading investors, economists and money managers for a day of solutions-driven discussions on wealth creation. Speakers include Hong Kong Monetary Authority Chief Executive Officer Eddie Yue and CPP Investments Senior Managing Director Suyi Kim. Learn More.