Wall Street Lunch: Washington Post Lays Off A Third Of Staff

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The paper shutters Sports desk, curbs local and international coverage. (0:15) AMD plunges despite earnings. (1:02) Bitcoin extends selloff as Michael Burry warns of a crypto death spiral. (2:15)

The following is an abridged transcript:

The Washington Post announced sweeping layoffs, cutting about one-third of its staff and gutting major parts of the newsroom as owner Jeff Bezos and his leadership team struggle for a path to profitability.

Staffers described the day as a “bloodbath,” and the moves signal a sharp narrowing of the Post’s ambitions as it looks to right the ship, with reports of steep losses — including an estimated $100M in 2024.

The paper is dismantling its Sports desk, closing the Books section, and suspending the daily Post Reports podcast. International coverage is also being scaled back, while the Metro desk — once the heartbeat of the paper in the Watergate era — is being heavily reduced.

The cuts come after weeks of internal concern, including public pleas from journalists urging Bezos to change course. And during the layoffs Zoom meeting, one reporter described the mood as “funereal.”

Among active stocks, AMD (AMD) is plunging despite beating on both the top and bottom lines.

J.P. Morgan analyst Harlan Sur said the big question is whether AMD can show real operating leverage — and until it does, the stock may stay under pressure, especially with potential margin risk as it ramps MI450/Helios later this year.

Eli Lilly (LLY) is bouncing back after topping Street forecasts with its Q4 results and 2026 outlook. Its GLP-1 drugs Mounjaro and Zepbound beat revenue expectations, with both up more than 100% from a year ago.

Uber (UBER) is lower after missing Wall Street’s lofty Q4 profit expectations, as a shift toward cheaper rides and higher insurance costs weighed on results. But the company also updated its autonomous vehicle plans, aiming to operate AVs in 15 cities by year-end.

AppLovin (APP) is sliding after AdExchanger reported on CloudX, a new AI-infused startup that could shake up the mobile advertising stack. The report said CloudX will use large language models to automate work typically done by engineers and ad ops teams.

And MGM Resorts (MGM) is rallying after BetMGM said 2025 was a record year, with net revenue reaching about $2.8B and adjusted EBITDA of $220M, driven by strong growth in both online sports betting and iGaming.

In today’s trading, bitcoin (BTC-USD) resumed its slide after a crypto selloff in the previous session that wiped out nearly $470B in market cap.

And “Big Short” investor Michael Burry warned the selloff could turn into a self-reinforcing “death spiral,” potentially causing lasting damage to companies that have spent the past year stockpiling bitcoin.

In a Substack post seen by Bloomberg, Burry argued that bitcoin has been revealed as largely speculative — failing to establish itself as a debasement hedge like precious metals.

“Sickening scenarios have now come within reach,” he wrote. If bitcoin falls another 10%, Strategy (MSTR) — the world’s largest corporate crypto treasury — could be billions in the red and “find capital markets essentially closed.” Further declines, he said, could push crypto miners toward bankruptcy.

And in other news of note, Claude is getting a little salty with ChatGPT.

Nearly three weeks after OpenAI (OPENAI) confirmed it would begin testing ads inside its near-ubiquitous chatbot, competitor Anthropic (ANTHRO) declares itself above the ad dollar.

Anthropic said: “We want Claude to act unambiguously in our users’ interests. So we’ve made a choice: Claude will remain ad-free.” The company added that users won’t see “sponsored” links next to their conversations, and Claude’s responses won’t be influenced by advertisers or include third-party product placements they didn’t ask for.

Anthropic didn’t mention ChatGPT or OpenAI by name, but the message is a pretty clear shot across the bow — and the debate over ad-supported AI is now echoing across the entire sector.