Happy Frdiay, N2K reader! | It’s time to vote in this week’s world-famous news haiku competition™ in today’s poll below. | And now for something completely different. | Matt Davis — Need2Know Chedditor | | News You Need2Know | | | What’s the stock market up to, eh? | $SPX ( ▼ 0.13% ) $DJI ( ▲ 0.11% ) $NDX ( ▼ 0.72% ) | | Companies mentioned in today’s newsletter | $AMZN ( ▼ 0.53% ) , $UPS ( ▲ 2.21% ) , $HPE ( ▲ 1.38% ) $TSN ( ▲ 0.96% ) , $INTC ( ▼ 0.25% ) , $BLK ( ▲ 0.55% ) , $SOFI ( ▼ 0.98% ) , $SCHW ( 0.0% ) , $LUV ( ▲ 18.7% ) , $DAL ( ▲ 1.08% ) , $ALGT ( ▲ 5.41% ) , $AAL ( ▲ 0.52% ) , $ALK ( ▲ 1.78% ) , $SAVEQ ( ▲ 0.43% ) | | A lot of people are getting laid off this January |  | Well, laid-off. I mean, it’s a bit different. You get severance and unemployment! |
| Layoffs are sweeping the corporate world faster than a viral cat video, with big names like Amazon $AMZN ( ▼ 0.53% ) , UPS $UPS ( ▲ 2.21% ) , and HP $HPE ( ▲ 1.38% ) at the forefront of the “who's next?" game. Amazon just gave 16,000 corporate workers a one-way ticket out as part of their plan to “remove bureaucracy” and give those people’s jobs to computers. CEO Andy Jassy hinted at the company's AI obsession, saying, “Generative AI will reduce the workforce.” Translation: robots don’t take sick days. UPS wasn't far behind, cutting up to 30,000 jobs. But don’t worry, these are voluntary redundancies! They even cited fewer Amazon shipments — so, blame Jeff Bezos... twice? Meanwhile, HP plans to trim 6,000 jobs as part of their own AI "streamlining." Economists describe it as a “no-hire, no-fire” labor market. Tell that to Tyson Foods $TSN ( ▲ 0.96% ) , who cut jobs for nearly a third of a small Nebraska town called Lexington, starting January 20. If you still have a job, hug it tight, my friends. Hug it tight. | | | Intel matches Trump accounts for employee children | | Intel $INTC ( ▼ 0.25% ) is playing superhero for America’s kids — and their wallets. On Tuesday, Intel announced it will match the U.S. government’s $1,000 payout per child for its eligible U.S. employees through the 530A program, often dubbed “Trump Accounts.” This comes after the government became Intel’s largest shareholder in 2025 with an $8.9 billion, 10% stake in the chipmaking giant. The company’s stock has risen 75% since then to around $45 per share. | The 530A program, part of the Trump administration’s "big, beautiful bill," aims to give children a financial boost and jumpstart wealth-building opportunities. Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan summed up the initiative's potential: “America’s future technologists will define the next era of innovation, and the Trump Accounts program helps give them an early financial foundation.” | Intel isn’t the only company hopping aboard the Trump Accounts train — big players like BlackRock $BLK ( ▲ 0.55% ) , SoFi $SOFI ( ▼ 0.98% ) , and Charles Schwab $SCHW ( 0.0% ) have also pledged to match federal contributions. Parents can open tax-advantaged accounts starting in July, and employer matches up to $2,500 won’t count as taxable income. | Even billionaire Dell founder Michael Dell joined the effort in December, committing $6.25 billion to seed pre-2025 kids’ accounts with an extra $250. | A $2,000 contribution is likely to equal around $11,000 in 18 years time, or about one fifth the cost of Harvard tuition for a year. | | | |
| Tuesday wasn’t a great day for the U.S. dollar — it fell faster than my New Year’s resolutions, in fact. The ICE U.S. Dollar Index recorded its worst one-day drop since April 2025, plunging as much as 1.5%. All of this came after President Donald Trump, speaking in Iowa, reassured reporters that he wasn’t concerned about the dollar’s already downward spiral following his aggressive stance towards Greenland, threatening NATO allies with tariffs if they failed to support his moves to annex the country in clear violation of international law and established norms. | “I think it’s great,” Trump said. “The dollar’s doing great.” | For context, the ICE U.S. Dollar Index measures the dollar’s strength against foreign heavyweights like the euro, British pound, and Japanese yen. A drop in this index indicates a weaker dollar, which creates real-world ripples. “It becomes more expensive for Americans to travel abroad,” Morgan Stanley analysts noted, and rising import prices could add inflationary pressure. But it’s not all terrible news. As Morgan Stanley added, “The weaker dollar could be a boost for American exporters.” | Trump, as always, was candid about his economic philosophy, saying he wanted the currency to “just seek its own level, which is the fair thing to do.” He even quipped, “I could have it go up or go down like a yo-yo.” Which it subsequently did. Mainly going down, though, and not so much “yo’ing” back up. You can the point where Mr. Trump made his comments right there on the 27th, before the steep fall: |  | Things have recovered slightly since Tuesday, but not entirely. |
| | | Song of the Day: Joyce Wrice, ‘Break Me In’ | |
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