The USA voted to increase the national debt limit, IBM will replace almost 8,000 jobs with AI: what you need to know in the morning

Main news of foreign markets this morning.

Photo: pixabay.com 0 US stock indexes fell on Wednesday

The S&P 500 and the high-tech Nasdaq lost 0.6%, and the Dow Jones index fell 0.4%.

Wall Street followed the release of April employment data in the US. The latest report on the labor market showed that the number of vacancies in the country unexpectedly increased to 10.1 million compared to the expected figure of 9.4 million. At the same time, the unemployment rate decreased.

Recent strong employment data in the US indicate that further interest rate hikes may be needed, experts say.

Meanwhile, one of the heads of the Fed, Philip Jefferson, said that the increase in interest rates should be suspended at the June meeting, since time is needed to assess the impact of further tightening of monetary policy on the country’s financial system.

The US House of Representatives passed a bill to raise the US national debt ceiling

The bill on raising the state debt limit and limiting government spending was passed by the US House of Representatives. 314 people voted for the adoption of the draft law, and 117 voted against it.

After the vote in the House of Representatives, the document was sent to the US Senate – just a few days before the date of the announcement of a possible default – June 5.

The US Senate is expected to vote on the bill at the end of this week.

Because Republicans control the lower house of the US Congress and Democrats the upper house, a deal seemed elusive for several weeks until President Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy signed a bipartisan compromise over the weekend, BBC News notes.

Asian markets are mainly growing

The broad index of Asian shares (excluding Japan) MSCI AC Asia ex Japan Index rose by 0.6% today, Japan’s Nikkei added 0.7%, Singapore’s STI increased by 0.2%, China’s Shanghai Composite and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng added 0, 4% and 0.8%, respectively, and the South Korean Kospi decreased by 0.3%.

Markets in the Asia-Pacific region mostly rose on Thursday, as the US House of Representatives passed a bill to raise the US national debt ceiling with the support of both Democrats and Republicans.

IBM plans to replace almost 8,000 jobs with artificial intelligence

This was announced by IBM CEO Arvind Krishna, who also announced the suspension of recruitment of new employees.

According to him, the replacement of some workers with AI will happen gradually over the next few years. At the same time, the machines will potentially replace up to 30% of the company’s employees who are not related to working with clients.

Krishna noted that back-office workers, especially human resources (HR) workers, will be the first to face a possible replacement by AI.

IBM is optimistic about the prospects of using AI in the workplace, pointing to the technology’s ability to free up thousands of hours of labor-intensive tasks in areas such as finance, accounting and personnel management.

According to expert forecasts, AI will add a staggering $16 trillion to the world economy by 2030.

Meanwhile, a new study by economists from Goldman Sachs has shown that up to 300 million full-time jobs worldwide could potentially be replaced by machines. At the same time, the most developed economies will suffer the most.

Source: Ministry of Finance

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