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The company, which makes gaming titles such as “Star Wars Jedi: Survivor”, expects to incur about $125 million to $165 million in charges related to the move. Sony (NYSE:SONY), Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) and Tencent-owned Riot Games have also laid off thousands of employees in recent months due to a slow recovery in the gaming market amid high borrowing rates.”While not every team will be impacted, this is the hardest part of these changes, and we have deeply considered every option to try and limit impacts to our teams,” CEO Andrew Wilson said in a letter to employees.Out of the charges, about $50 million to $65 million would be related to office space reductions and $40 million to $55 million to severance and other employee-related costs, the company said.The actions associated with the plan is expected to complete substantially by Dec. 31.As of March 31 last year, the company had about 13,400 people, with 65% located internationally, according to a regulatory filing. EA had forecast fourth-quarter bookings below estimates in January. More

Mexican citizens who do not hold a U.S. visa or have not had a Canadian visa in the past 10 years will need to apply for a visitor visa before coming to Canada, the immigration ministry said in a statement.Those with a valid U.S. visa or who had a Canadian visa in the past decade will need to apply for an electronic travel authorization to travel to Canada by air. The requirements will relieve pressure on Canada’s borders, immigration system, housing and social services, the immigration ministry said.The Mexican government has said that there were alternative measures that could have been put in place and that it “reserves the right to act in reciprocity.”Immigration Minister Marc Miller, speaking to reporters in Ottawa, said he had not received any indication from Mexico.”Mexico, as a sovereign country, is allowed to take the measures that it wants to take … however, I have not had any indication that they will be reacting on their end,” Miller saidPrime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Liberal government is coming under pressure for its immigration policies because they have exacerbated a housing crunch, and because some services provided by the provinces, like education and healthcare, are struggling to keep up with population growth.Thursday’s announcement comes less than two months after the premier of Quebec, the second most populous of Canada’s 10 provinces, urged Ottawa to stem the flow of refugees and to compensate the province for costs.Asylum claims made by Mexican citizens reached a record high in 2023 and accounted for 17% of all claims made in the year from around the world, according to the immigration ministry. More

Shares of the Spring, Texas based company fell about 3% in extended trading. An uncertain economy and high interest rates have led clients to cut back on expenses in a push for stronger profitability.Enterprises are hesitant to sign new contracts, commit to long-term initiatives or take on new technology partners, although IT spend is expected to increase in 2024, according to research firm Gartner (NYSE:IT). HPE expects revenue in the second quarter in the range of $6.6 billion to $7 billion, below analysts’ average estimate of $7.11 billion, according to LSEG data.It also reported a 13.5% fall in first-quarter revenue to $6.76 billion, missing estimates of $7.11 billion.CFO Marie Myers said that the “softening of the networking market and GPU deal timing” impacted the company in the first quarter. On an adjusted basis, the company reported 48 cents per share in the November-to-January quarter, above estimates of 45 cents per share. Annualized revenue run-rate, a measure of future revenue, was up 42% to $1.4 billion in the reported quarter.HPE is expected to roughly double its networking market share with its planned $14 billion deal for Juniper Networks (NYSE:JNPR), according to analysts. More

In an interview with Reuters, Reserve Bank of New Zealand Deputy Governor Christian Hawkesby said inflation was on the path toward the centre of its 1% to 3% target band, but the central bank had to stay the course to be sure.”We need to have confidence that inflation expectations and core inflation are all anchored back to that 2%,” said Hawkesby. “We actually need to have a period of time where the economy’s running below potential.”The RBNZ held its official cash rate at a 15-year high of 5.5% at its first policy meeting of the year this week and noted the risks around inflation were now more balanced.It also projected rates would stay at current levels until the middle of 2025, though markets are wagering an easing could come later this year as inflation slows and real rates rise.Recent data on retail sales showed a steep drop in real spending in the December quarter, which raised the risk the economy had already slipped back into recession.Hawkesby said the output gap – the difference between the economy’s actual output and potential output – was currently around zero if not a little negative, but it needed to remain that way to bring demand and supply into better balance.”Policy is restrictive at the moment and that’s working, so that’s giving us confidence that inflation is coming down,” said Hawkesby. “So we will be cutting at some time in the future, but there’s just a lot of uncertainty about when that will be.” More

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ABU DHABI (Reuters) -Negotiations at the World Trade Organisation ministerial meeting in Abu Dhabi on Thursday were extended for another day, with the WTO saying the closing session had been delayed, and no immediate sign of breakthroughs in talks to set new global commerce rules.The biennial conference is seeking deals on ending fishing subsidies and extending a moratorium on digital trade tariffs – a move that India and South Africa oppose.Some negotiations carried on past midnight as officials sought to hammer out agreements on a cross section of changes to trade rules. WTO spokesperson Ismaila Dieng said ministers were working hard and making real progress. “However the negotiations are difficult because of interlinkages between the areas under negotiation,” he said, adding ministers will regroup on Friday morning to review the latest revisions.The scheduled announcement of a final agreement after four days of intergovernmental talks between the WTO’s 164 members was pushed back for a fifth day until 2 p.m. (1000 GMT) on Friday in the Gulf state. This followed an earlier four-hour delay.Some participants were doubtful a deal would be reached by then, telling Reuters that serious differences remained on a range of issues meant to address global trade, although others said the mood had improved slightly during the day.U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai told Reuters that breakthroughs were still possible, but “complex trade-offs” would be needed even for less-difficult topics such as curbing fishing subsidies.If some or all of the talks aimed at fixing global commerce rules do collapse, fragmentation among the BRICS bloc of emerging economies “will have contributed,” she told Reuters. New Zealand’s trade minister Todd McClay said it was a good sign that delegates were still trying to thrash out issues.”There is a desire for an outcome but there are delegations on both sides of issues saying: the only way we can have an outcome is if our concerns are addressed,” he told Reuters. However, McClay, who is the facilitator on talks to extend a 25-year moratorium on digital tariffs, said there had been no movement yet on overcoming a deadlock.DIGITAL TRADE IMPASSEIndia’s trade minister said it was a shame some nations were blocking agreements, but he gave little sign that New Delhi would drop its own opposition to extending a waiver on digital tariffs.”Of course we feel sad that some countries are still obstructing significant outcomes that could have helped less developed countries and developing countries gain confidence in the working of WTO,” Piyush Goyal told reporters.Still, he voiced optimism that such outcomes could be achieved in the talks. Tai said the impasse on the extending the digital trade moratorium could be “unlocked … if agriculture is unlocked,” but noted that the negotiations were “hard.”FISHERIES DRAFT DEAL FACES OPPOSITIONA grouping of Pacific islands, including Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands, were also opposing a draft deal on changes to fisheries subsidies, with Fiji’s deputy prime minister telling Reuters it did not go far enough.”We would like the large subsidising countries to put a cap on the current level of subsidies,” Manoa Seru Kamikamica said.A trade delegate from a developed country dismissed this prospect. A key meeting between Pacific Island countries and major subsidising countries like the EU, China and Japan is planning in the very early hours of Friday morning, trade sources said.India’s Goyal did not name the countries that he said were blocking results at the talks. But he said his top priority was fixing the WTO’s dispute system, adding he had raised the lack of progress with USTR’s Tai in a Wednesday meeting.”The first and highest priority is to get the Appellate Body of the dispute resolution mechanism in place because without that all the decisions we are taking cannot be adjudicated upon,” he said. The WTO’s top appeals court has been hamstrung for four years due to U.S. opposition to judge appointments and remains out of service. Tai already ruled out an agreement on WTO dispute settlement appeals reform this week, but said negotiations were showing progress. More

(Reuters) – A look at the day ahead in Asian markets.China’s latest purchasing managers index figures dominate the market agenda in Asia on Friday, offering investors the first glimpse into how the troubled economy fared in February as they await next week’s National People’s Congress. The new month kicks off with markets across the region and beyond in fairly buoyant mood after in-line U.S. inflation figures on Thursday extended the global equity rally and pushed U.S. Treasury yields lower.Some recent inflation readings had come in above forecast, but not this one. The S&P 500, Nasdaq and MSCI World indexes climbed back up toward their recent all-time highs, with the MSCI World sealing a fourth monthly rise, its best run since mid-2021.Asian markets take the baton on Friday, the first trading day of the month, after the MSCI Asia ex-Japan rose 4% and Japan’s Nikkei hit all-time highs in February. Some froth has understandably come off these moves in recent days, especially in Japan, after a central bank official said inflation was heading toward the bank’s 2% target, paving the way to leave behind negative rates and yield caps. The yen, for example, on Thursday registered one of its strongest rallies this year, pushing the dollar below 150.00 yen and further from its recent historic lows and territory Japanese officials might intervene to prevent further weakness. Figures on Friday are expected to show that unemployment in Japan held steady at 2.4% in January, while PMI data are likely to show yet another month of shrinking manufacturing activity. It is a similar story in China, where the official NBS manufacturing PMI is also expected to show another month of contracting activity also. The unofficial Caixin PMI, however, has been more upbeat and is expected to show a fourth month of expansion in manufacturing.Chinese stocks ended the month with a bang on Thursday – the CSI 300 and the Shanghai Composite both jumped nearly 2% to register monthly gains of 9.4% and 8%, respectively, their best months since November 2022.Of course, they were rebounding from five-year lows and lifted by a series of measures and new rules from Beijing to revive investor confidence and put a floor under the market. Among the latest moves, China’s securities regulator said it will tighten scrutiny of derivative businesses in the stock market and announced punishment of a hedge fund company for excessive, high-frequency trading in share index futures. Many investors, however, will want to see more aggressive and fundamental policies put in place to support longer-term economic growth and returns before deciding that China is an ‘investible’ destination again. All eyes will turn to next week’s NPC, where Beijing will set the annual growth target and – crucially – a plan for achieving it. Here are key developments that could provide more direction to markets on Friday:- China PMIs (February)- Australia, India, Taiwan manufacturing PMIs (February) – Japan unemployment (January) (By Jamie McGeever; editing by Josie Kao) More

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