Block (XYZ), the company behind Square and Cash App, cut 40% of its workforce. About 4,000 people, gone. Headcount dropping from over 10,000 to under 6,000.
β On the earnings call, Dorsey told investors βintelligence toolsβ changed what it means to build and run a company.
β Then he posted on X and said it loud.
β "Our business is strong. But something has changed."
β Translation: AI is doing the work now.
β The stock jumped 25% in after-hours trading Thursday, settling at a 17% gain by Fridayβs close. Morgan Stanley upgraded Block to overweight. Goldman Sachs raised their price target. Wells Fargo kept its buy rating, calling the quarter βchock full of positive surprise.β
β Goldman noted the cuts are concentrated in engineering roles. Blockβs been leaning on its in-house AI platform, Goose, to replace the work. Block is now targeting north of $2 million in gross profit per head. Roughly four times where it sat before Covid.
β Not everybodyβs buying it. Blockβs transaction losses climbed to 18% of gross profit, up from 11% a year ago. Piper Sandler called the reduction βan extreme stepβ and stayed skeptical of long-term growth.
β Block flagged $450 million to $500 million in restructuring costs, front-loaded into Q1. Dorsey says most companies will reach the same conclusion within a year.
β π₯‘ The Takeaway: XYZβs 17% gain on a 40% workforce cut shows investors are rewarding AI-driven efficiency. Watch Q1 earnings to see if restructuring costs and rising transaction losses start to weigh on the stock.
PayPal (PYPL) stock jumped nearly 7% after Bloomberg reported that Stripe, one of the most valuable private companies in the world, is considering buying all or part of the payments platform.
β The discussions are in early stages.
β Both companies declined to comment.
β Hereβs the contextβ¦
β PayPal has been in a bad stretch. The stock dropped more than a third of its value in 2025, and itβs down over 19% this year before this news hit.
β The companyβs board also named HPβs Enrique Lores (an executive best known for running the printer and PC company) as its new CEO, set to start in March.
β Meanwhile, Stripe is out here winning.
β The company hit a $159 billion valuation on the same day this story broke, up from $91.5 billion a year ago. Nearly double in 12 months.
β Stripe also told investors its revenue is on track to hit a $1 billion annual run rate this year.
β So why would a company on a run like that want to buy PayPal?
β PayPal still has deep roots in e-commerce checkout, the kind of infrastructure that would extend Stripeβs reach into an already massive market.
β The question now is whether this deal happens, or whether itβs the kind of rumor that pops the stock for a day and disappears.
β M&A rumors at the βearly stagesβ phase have a long history of going nowhere, which means PYPL gives back these gains fast if nothing materializes.
β π₯‘ The Takeaway: PYPL moved 7% on a rumor, which tells you how starved the stock is for a catalyst. Watch for any follow-up from Bloomberg or either company confirming or denying the deal. That next headline is what decides whether these gains hold or fade.
PYPL stock year-to-date
β
π Honey, that glow is fading...
And the numbers to prove it are wild.
β Tesla (TSLA) recorded just 8,075 new car registrations across Europe in January.
That's a 17% drop from a year ago and the 13th consecutive month of declining sales. β
Tesla's market share across the EU, UK, Switzerland, Norway, and Iceland fell to 0.8%. It was 1% a year ago. β
BYD, Tesla's biggest Chinese rival, registered 18,242 new cars in Europe that same month. That's a 165% jump year-over-year. β
BYD now holds 1.9% market share in the region, up from 0.7% in January 2025. β
What's going on? β
A few things, and none of them are new. β
First, Tesla's image took a hit in Europe after CEO Elon Musk spent nearly $300 million helping elect Toupee Fiasco (Trump) and then led a push to gut federal agencies. Protests erupted at Tesla dealerships across Europe at the height of all that. β
Second, competition got real. Affordable EVs from BYD, MG, and ZEEKR are flooding the market, and Tesla has no new models to counter with. They've been focused on autonomous driving and robotics instead. β
Third. And this one does not get talked about enough. β
A ton of first-generation Teslas are hitting the used market after four-to-six year leases ended. That flood of secondhand inventory is dragging down used prices, which makes buying new feel even harder to justify. β
Morningstar's chief equity strategist put it this way: BYD and Chinese automakers have a cost advantage that won't go away anytime soon, because of lower labor costs in China. β
The gap in battery and auto production costs is closing for Tesla and European automakers. β
The word "closing" is doing a lot of work in that sentence. β
TSLA shares were down about 0.5% in premarket trading and are down roughly 11% year-to-date.
β π₯‘ The Takeaway: This 13-month streak in Europe confirms the trend bears have been watching. Watch how TSLA reacts to any upcoming delivery data or news about Musk's relationship with European leaders. That's what flips the sentiment.
TSLA stock year-to-date
π« TMYK βA quick pop quiz to help you learn about the market. The more you know!β β
A price level where a stock often stops falling and bounces is called ______.
a.) support
b.) spread
c.) premium
β Scroll down for the answer!
Gimme some mo' βMore news from 'round the market. β
π€ OpenAIβs $110B bagβ Amazon (AMZN) and Nvidia (NVDA) backed OpenAIβs $110B raise as Amazon also expanded its AWS deal by $100B over eight years. [Link]
β βπ§ Nvidia gets the side-eyeβ Nvidia (NVDA) fell as OpenAI said it will use Amazon (AMZN) Trainium chip capacity and customers look harder at AMD (AMD) and Google (GOOGL) chips. [Link]
β β𧲠MP picks Texas magnetsβ MP Materials (MP) picked Texas for a $1.25B rare earth magnet site as the U.S. pushes to rely less on Chinaβs supply chain. [Link]
β βπ¬ Netflix walks from the WBD dealβ Netflix (NFLX) said it wonβt match Paramount Skydanceβs (PSKY) bid for Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) because the price βis no longer financially attractive.β [Link]
β βπ§βπ» IBM gets hit by Claudeβ IBM (IBM) fell after Anthropic said Claude Code can help modernize COBOL, a business IBM leans on. [Link]
β βTuesday 4/14: CarMax (KMX), Citigroup (C), Johnson & Johnson (JNJ), JPMorgan Chase (JPM), Wells Fargo (WFC)
β Wednesday 4/15: ASML (ASML), Bank of America (BAC), Kinder Morgan (KMI), Morgan Stanley (MS), PNC Financial (PNC), Progressive (PGR)
β Thursday 4/16: Abbott (ABT), Alcoa (AA), Bank of New York Mellon (BK), Charles Schwab (SCHW), Netflix (NFLX), PepsiCo (PEP), Prologis (PLD), Taiwan Semiconductor (TSM), Travelers (TRV), U.S. Bancorp (USB)
β Friday 4/17: Ally Financial (ALLY), Fifth Third Bancorp (FITB), Regions Financial (RF), State Street (STT), Truist Financial (TFC) β
β Copyright Simply Put 6935 Aliante Pkwy Ste 104-236, North Las Vegas, NV 89084 β
This newsletter is by no means a solicitation to buy or sell any of the above-mentioned securities. It is for educational and entertainment purposes only. Any views expressed here do not necessarily reflect the views of any affiliate. Expressions of opinion are as of this date, are solely that of the writer and are subject to change without notice. All investments involve risk including the loss of principal and past performance does not guarantee future results. Always do your own research and due diligence. This newsletter may contain affiliate links and we may receive commissions, at no cost to you, for purchases made through links in this email. The MRKTcap team often invests in the same stocks that we cover.
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