Cisco Systems and Oracle America have decided to embark on fresh rounds of layoffs that will eliminate a combined 300-plus jobs in the Bay Area, the tech titans disclosed in WARN notices they sent to the state’s labor agency.

Here are the details of the staffing reductions reported to the state Employment Development Department by Cisco and Oracle:

— Cisco Systems is cutting 221 jobs, which consist of 157 layoffs in Milpitas and another 64 in San Francisco, according to the WARN notices.

— Oracle America is cutting 101 positions in Santa Clara, the company revealed in a WARN notice filed with the EDD on Aug. 14. These staffing reductions come on the heels of a disclosure by Oracle on Aug. 13 that it had decided to cut 188 jobs, consisting of a loss of 143 positions in Redwood City and 45 in Pleasanton.

San Jose-based Cisco stated its latest layoffs were scheduled to take effect on Oct. 13, according to the WARN letters. They were all described as permanent.

“None of the affected employees are represented by a union, nor do any have bumping rights applicable to the positions in question,” a Cisco executive stated in the WARN letter.

Cisco previously had layoffs in November 2024.

With the latest round of cuts, Cisco has disclosed plans to eliminate about 2,870 jobs in the Bay Area over a period that covers 2022 through August, according to this news organization’s compilation of numerous WARN letters the company sent to the EDD.

Oracle stated that its most recent layoffs at the three Bay Area locations would take effect on Oct. 13. Including job cuts that Oracle disclosed in 2022, the cloud services giant has disclosed staffing reductions that affected 490 positions.

Originally Published: August 19, 2025 at 4:20 PM PDT

Traders Drew Cohen, left, and Ryan Falvey work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, Monday, Aug. 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)

NEW YORK (AP) — Wall Street held near its record heights on Monday, ahead of a week likely to be dominated by updates from the head of the Federal Reserve and from some of the biggest U.S. retailers.

The S&P 500 barely budged and fell by less than 0.1%, coming off its first loss after setting an all-time high in three consecutive days. The Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 33 points, or 0.1%, and the Nasdaq composite edged up by less than 0.1%.

Novo Nordisk’s stock that trades in the United States rose 3.7% after the Danish company said U.S. regulators approved its Wegovy drug as part of a treatment for a liver disease found in many overweight and obese people.

Soho House, a membership club with locations around the world, jumped 14.9% after announcing a deal where an investor group led by hotel-operator MCR would pay $9 in cash for its shares.

Several of the country’s largest retailers, meanwhile, were mixed ahead of their profit reports that are scheduled for later in the week. Home Depot, which will report on Tuesday, slipped 1.2%.

Target rose 1.9% ahead of its report on Wednesday, and Walmart added 0.7% before its report on Thursday.

They, along with companies like Estee Lauder and Ross Stores, could offer a look at how different types of U.S. households are holding up when the job market seems to have morphed into one where relatively few workers are getting fired but also hired.

Just like a small group of wealthy households are separating from the rest of the country, a handful of Big Tech companies are dominating the U.S. stock market, in part because of a boom in spending around artificial-intelligence technology.

This separation of “haves” and “have nots” in the stock market could be increasing the risk, with many companies potentially facing trouble if the economy stagnates and inflation is high, according to Lisa Shalett, chief investment officer at Morgan Stanley Wealth Management. The danger is that investors could look at how much the broad S&P 500 index has surged since its low point in April and “extrapolate the success of the few to the gains of the many.”

On Friday, the focus will swing to Jackson Hole, Wyoming, which has been the home in past years of many big policy announcements from the Federal Reserve. There, Fed Chair Jerome Powell will give a speech, and investors are hoping to hear how his mind has changed about interest rates since he said last month that he wanted to wait longer before cutting interest rates.

The fear at that time was that President Donald Trump’s tariffs could push inflation higher. Now, though, the bigger fear could be the slowing U.S. job market following a disappointingly weak report on employment that arrived just after the Fed’s last meeting.

The Fed’s twin jobs are to keep the job market healthy while also maintaining a lid on inflation, and helping one can often hurt the other in the short term.

Lower rates can boost the economy by making it cheaper for U.S. households and businesses to borrow to buy houses, cars or equipment, for example, but they also risk worsening inflation.

Inflation updates since the Fed’s last meeting have come in mixed, further muddying the picture, but traders are nevertheless strongly expecting the Fed to cut its main interest rate for the first time this year at its next meeting in September. The hope is that Powell could give a nod to that.

Expectations for cuts to interest rates have pulled Treasury yields lower lately, and they largely remained there on Monday.

The yield on the 10-year Treasury held at 4.33%, where it was late Friday.

On Wall Street, the S&P 500 edged down 0.65 to 6,449.15. The Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 34.30 to 44,911.82, and the Nasdaq composite added 6.80 to 21,629.77.

In stock markets abroad, indexes mostly fell in Europe in their first trading after Trump’s inconclusive summit meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday about the war in Ukraine. Trump met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Monday.

In Asia, indexes were mixed, with Japan’s Nikkei 225 rising 0.8% and South Korea’s Kospi falling 1.5%.

Privacy Manager

Amer Sports is still in its early innings of a long growth spurt.

“Amer Sports strong momentum continued in the second quarter as our unique portfolio of premium technical brands continues to create white space and the picture in sports and outdoor markets around the world,” said company CEO James Zheng during a conference call on Tuesday. “We remain confident in our ability to manage through higher tariffs and other near-term macro uncertainties. We are also ensuring that we develop each of our unique brands for higher-quality, long duration growth.”

Zheng, who spoke during the call following Amer Sports’ posting of second quarter results, cited acceleration of Salomon footwear, continued momentum at Arc’teryx and steady results at its equipment franchise led by the Wilson brand as examples pointing to strong performance in 2025 and beyond. In addition, pricing power, secular growth trends and a relatively low U.S. exposure provides multiple levers for growth over the near-, medium- and long-term outlook for the premium innovation-focused sports and outdoor company.

He also said that the company plans to open 25 net new Arc’teryx stores globally, although most of the new locations will be in North America, while footwear continues to be the fastest growing category for the brand. At Salomon, the brand recently opened its second flagship in Shanghai, and it opened five in Korea and five in Japan during the second quarter. The first U.S. store in the SoHo neighborhood of Manhattan in N.Y.C. continues to show traction with consumers, and there are three to four new doors planned in the same New York area later in 2025 or in early 2026. New locations for the fall include Woodbury Common and Williamsburg in Brooklyn, as well as in Chicago and West Hollywood this year, and San Francisco, Los Angeles and Miami in 2026.

For the second quarter ended June 30, net income was $18.2 million, or 3 cents a diluted share, on revenue of $1.24 billion. For the third quarter ending Sept. 30, the Finnish firm guided revenue expectations to an increase of 20 percent, with diluted earnings per share (EPS) at between 20 cents to 22 cents. And for the full year ending Dec. 31, revenue growth was projected at between 20 percent to 21 percent, with diluted EPS at between 77 cents and 82 cents.

“We’re super excited about what we see in front of us,” Andrew Page, chief financial officer of Amer Sports, told FN in a telephone interview. He spoke about strong performance in Greater China, the rest of the APAC (Asia Pacific) region, EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa) and also in North America, with the Arc’teryx and Salomon brands growing double digits.

The Arc’teryx brand last year launched its in-house design division for footwear after leaning on the insights of sibling Salomon. Page said growth under the new dedicated footwear unit has rise from 6 percent to 10 percent “almost overnight.” The brand is growing over 20 percent, while its footwear business is “growing faster than Arc’teryx,” Page said, adding that “we’re still in the early stages.” The new unit is led by industry veteran Renée Augustine, who was elevated to general manager in April after serving as the brand’s vice president of strategy and enterprise PMO.

In comparison, Salomon’s trajectory has growth in its heritage hiking and trail shoe category, a “sportstyle” shoe that resonates with the streetwear crowd, and a running platform that represents its newest addition to the outdoor performance category. The running platform includes gravel running shoes with treads designed for switching from asphalt to gravel and back, as well as road running shoes engineered for comfort.

“Both the gravel and the running platforms have been well received in North America and in Europe, and the sportstyle is the predominant franchise in Greater China and in APAC,” Page said, while describing the streetwear trend in Greater China as “white hot.” The one connection between the three Salomon platforms is that all three have a technical performance focus, as does the Arc’teryx line of footwear, the CFO added, noting that factor as a key defining differentiator from the brands’ competitors.

Because the businesses are still in the early growth stages in the U.S., there’s less tariff exposure compared with competitors. “Only about 26 percent of our revenue is in the U.S.,” Page said, noting that the bulk of that is from its equipment business — the ball and racquet division — led by the Wilson brand. The Wilson Tennis 360 strategy drives the brand’s franchise in footwear, apparel and performance racquets.

Noting “extremely strong relationships with our vendor partners” who can share in some of the costs, along with a low concentration of U.S.-based revenue and meaningful, untapped pricing power, Page is confident about the company’s ability to navigate the higher tariff backdrop. “We believe that we have a number of levers that we can pull to deal with a multitude of different tariff scenarios,” he said, adding that the company did not have price increases “in any meaningful manner” as it relates to its Salomon and Arc’teryx brands.

With Salomon and Arc’teryx on pace for long-term growth, Page didn’t exactly rule out the possibility of an acquisition to build out Amer’s brand portfolio.

“We definitely look at opportunities as inbounds come to us,” the CFO acknowledged. The criteria includes an analysis of whether Amer Sports would be better owners of the brand and whether the company’s core competencies would help accelerate its grow as it has been able to do with those already under its brand umbrella.

“But it’s a high bar because we believe that the runway in front of us for Arc’teryx and Salomon and Wilson Tennis 360 is still pretty immense,” Page said.

If you were hoping for yet another New York Times game to satisfy your word-puzzling itch, I’m sorry to disappoint you. Pips, the latest addition to The New York Times’ growing games corral, is a word-free, domino-filled exercise in entertainment and occasional frustration.

Pips, which was launched on Monday (August 18) online and iOS and Android, is a departure from the global phenomenon Wordle and its cousin games, Connections and Strands (as well as competitors like Quordle). It has no letters, no word jumbles, or even topic-driven associations.