The Rundown - ASML Signals More AI Spending, Amazon Cuts 16,000 Jobs

Episode Date: January 28, 2026

Market update for Wednesday January 28, 2026Follow us on Instagram (@TheRundownDaily) for bonus content and instant reactions.In today’s episode:US Dollar continues to slideASML delivers record orders, signaling that AI infrastructure spending is still acceleratingChina approves sales of Nvidia’s H200 chips to major tech firmsAmazon announces 16,000 corporate layoffsStarbucks shares jump after traffic grows for the first time in two yearsCorning slips on guidance despite landing a massive $6B AI fiber deal with MetaFun fact: Zoom’s early investment in Anthropic could now be worth up to $4 billion

Public.com presents the rundown. Your daily market update in under 10 minutes. My name is Zadadmani, and today is Wednesday, January 28. In today's episode, we'll tell you why the U.S. dollar is losing its value. We'll also recap earnings from ASML and Starbucks and tell you why Amazon plans to cut 16,000 jobs. Then stick around to the end of the show to learn about a secret investment by Zoom that is paying off big time. We got a great show for you today. Let's go. Stocks kept the rally going on Tuesday with the S&P 500 jumping 0.4% and closing at record highs.

The NASDAG did even better, jumping 0.9% thanks to a rally in tech stocks. I think it's a sign that investors are optimistic that big tech companies will deliver on earnings this week. Now, let's talk about the U.S. dollar because it is getting a lot of attention right now, the dollar has fallen about 2.6% over the last four trading days, which marks its largest four-day drop since last April when President Trump announced his Liberation Day tariffs. Now, President Trump was asked yesterday about the dollar's recent slide, and he didn't sound so concerned. And to be fair, there are pros and cons to a weaker dollar. On the positive side, a weaker dollar makes U.S. exports and services cheaper for foreign buyers. So that's good news

for big multinational companies that sell a lot of stuff overseas. Their stuff affects. goes on sale for international buyers. On the flip side, though, imports become more expensive for Americans, and traveling abroad also gets pricier. So I guess right now, don't rush to book that European vacation just yet. I think the bigger story, though, is why the dollar is dropping in the first place. There seems to be a lack of investor confidence in the stability of the U.S. right now. So we'll see what happens, but that sets up a very interesting day today. Remember, the Fed meeting wraps up today at 2 p.m. Eastern, and while the markets aren't expecting a rate cut, all eyes will be on Jerome Powell's press conference. So I'm definitely going to be tuning into that

to see what Jerome Powell has to say and I'll recap everything on tomorrow's show and maybe even do an instant reaction on Instagram. So go follow us there. We'll put a link in the description. And if that wasn't enough drama for today, we also have Tesla, Microsoft, and meta, all reporting earnings after the bell. So yeah, tomorrow's episode is going to be jam-packed. I don't know how we're going to fit everything into 10 minutes. But yeah, if you're new here, it's a great time to get subscribed to the podcast and tuning in every day to stay in the loop. Let's run through some headlines. Starting with ASML.

Shares of the Dutch company, ASML, are hitting record highs this morning after they reported a blowout quarter. See, ASML is a very important company when it comes to AI. They make these ultraviolet lithography machines, which are essential for manufacturing advanced chips, like for Nvidia, Apple, and others. In fact, they're the only company in the world that makes these EUV machines, and they are seeing a surge in order right now, thanks to AI. ASML reported 13.2 billion euros in bookings for the fourth quarter, which was nearly double the 6.8 billion euros that analysts were expecting. In fact, Q4 was the largest quarter of orders in the company's history, and more than half of their orders were for their most advanced machines. ASML CEOs said their customers now believe that AI demand is sustainable, so they're aggressively building out capacity, and they're going to need more of ASML's lithography machines to do that. So because of that, ASML is raising their 2026 guidance.

They are now expecting revenues to be between 34 and 39 billion euros. They also announced 12 billion euros in share buybacks, which Wall Street obviously loved. ASML stock is up around 5% this morning, and it's already up 25% for 2026. Now, one thing to note, despite the strong earnings, the company did announce that they planned to cut 1,700 jobs, which is roughly 4% of their workforce, mostly in the Netherlands, but some here in the U.S. as well. Management said the cuts are about streamlining the company and improving agility as they scale up production. One other thing to watch when it comes to ASML is China.

China is still their biggest market accounting for roughly 36% of their sales last quarter, but that's expected to drop to around 20% going forward because of export restrictions. ASML can't sell their most advanced machines to China due to US-led trade controls. So Chinese chipmakers have been stockpiling older equipment while they still can. So that could impact ASML's revenues moving forward. Now, speaking of China and AI, there are new reports saying that the Chinese government is allowing some of China's biggest tech companies like BiteDance, Alibaba, and Tencent, to buy NVIDIA's H-200 AI chips.

According to Reuters, these companies have been cleared to buy more than 400,000 of Nvidia's H-200 chips. And that's a big deal because the H-200 is one of NVIDIA's most powerful AI chip, and it was previously blocked by the U.S. government from being exported to China. But the U.S. government approved the export of these chips weeks ago, but then the Chinese government decided to block the import of these chips in order to prop up their own domestic chickmakers. Well, now these Nvidia chips are allowed to be legally imported into China,

and Nvidia's stock is up around 2% this morning as a result. By the way, probably not a coincidence. Invidia's CEO, Jensen Huang, wasn't China this week, so I'm sure he has something to do with this. Let's shift gears and talk about Amazon. They also just announced layoffs this morning. The company plans to cut about 16,000. corporate employees marking the second big round of job cuts in just a few months.

Amazon is now eliminated roughly 30,000 corporate roles in three months, which is about 10% of its white-collar workforce. Now, Amazon says this is part of an ongoing push to strip out bureaucracy and flatten the organization. These cuts are heavily focused on middle management as CEO Andy Jassy tries to undo some of the aggressive pandemic era hiring and getting the company to move faster. And you can ignore the AI factor here as well. Andy Jassy said a few months ago that artificial intelligence tools would lead to more job losses due to the automation of roles ranging from routine administrative tasks to coders.

Now, you know, Amazon is the second largest employer amongst private companies. They have more than 1.5 million people on their payroll. But more than one million of those are hourly workers in warehouses and logistics. Those jobs aren't being impacted by these cuts. But long term, though, even those jobs aren't safe. Amazon has previously said it plans to replace hundreds of thousands of warehouse jobs with, robots with a long-term goal of automating as much as 75% of its operations. And by the way, while all of this cost cutting is happening, Amazon is spending more and more on AI. The company

recently raised its 2026 capital expenditure forecast to $125 billion, which is the highest AI and infrastructure spending plan amongst all the mega cap tech companies. What's interesting, though, is that Amazon stock has been the worst performing out of all the Mac 7s in the past 12 months. We'll learn more about Amazon's finances and CapEx plans next week when they report earnings. Let's talk about some stocks making moves today. Shares of Starbucks are popping this morning after the coffee giant delivered better than expected earnings and showed real signs that its turnaround is finally working. Revenue was up 6% in Q4 to nearly $10 billion beating estimates.

Same store sales jumped 4% globally and 4% in the U.S., which was the strongest growth since late 2023. Starbucks says they're seeing more customers come through the door as well. Store traffic grew in Q4 for the first time in two years. Now, it wasn't a perfect quarter profits took a hit and missed estimates as Starbucks spent heavily on labor, store upgrades, and dealt with higher coffee costs and tariffs. But investors are clearly focused on the bigger picture and CEO Brian Nichols back to Starbucks strategy, which appears to be gaining traction and bringing back customers. Starbucks stock is up around 7% this month. at the time of this recording. Now, on the flip side, shares of Corning are dropping, and this one

might seem a bit confusing at first. See, Corning is mostly known for making the Gorilla Glass for iPhones and other Apple products, but their biggest business is now making fiber optic cables. Just yesterday, Corning announced a massive $6 billion deal with Meta to supply fiber optic cables for Meta's AI data centers through 2030. That news sent their stock up 16% yesterday. But the stock is giving back some of those gains today after the company provided Q1 guidance. Corning says they expect first quarter sales to be between $4.2 and $4.3 billion, which is technically above the Wall Street estimates, but not enough to keep yesterday's momentum going. And that's why the stock is down around 4% this morning. Let's wrap the show with a fun fact.

The video chat company Zoom quietly invested $51 million in the AI startup Anthropic, which is the maker of Kloss. back in 2023 through their venture capital arm. Fast forward to today, and analysts estimate that stake is now worth between $2 to $4 billion depending on dilution. And remember, Anthropic is rumored to be eyeing an IPO soon, which could push that valuation even higher. So yeah, shout out to whoever was running Zoom's investment team in 2023.

And honestly, that might be the best move that Zoom has done since the pandemic because, let's be honest, their product has not improved over the last few years. Like, I want to rage quit every time the app tries to update before a meeting. Why does that keep happening? At this point, I barely use Zoom anymore. Google Meet is the way to go for me. Well, all right, guys, that's the rundown for today. Hope you guys enjoyed today's episode.

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Shout out to Mike and Connor for all the work behind the scenes. And we'll see you guys back here tomorrow. Frozen lasagna, medium power, 15 minutes. Sounds like Ojo time. Let's play. Feel the fun with Play-Ojo. The online casino with all the latest slot and live casino games. What you win is yours to keep.

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