Market Beats | US Authorities Move to Resolve Fraud Charges Against Gautam Adani; Microsoft’s LinkedIn Cuts Jobs in Latest Tech Industry Workforce Reduction; US Retail Sales Rise for Third Month in April, Showing Consumer Resilience; US Audit Regulator Considers Staff Cuts to Align with Trump Priorities; Ford Stock Surges on Pivot Toward Energy Storage for Data Centers; New York’s LIRR Faces Potential Strike as Wage Negotiations Stall; Brookfield Reveals $2 Billion Stake in SpaceX and AI Investments

—— US Authorities Move to Resolve Fraud Charges Against Gautam Adani; Microsoft’s LinkedIn Cuts Jobs in Latest Tech Industry Workforce Reduction; US Retail Sales Rise for Third Month in April, Showing Consumer Resilience; US Audit Regulator Considers Staff Cuts to Align with Trump Priorities; Ford Stock Surges on Pivot Toward Energy Storage for Data Centers; New York’s LIRR Faces Potential Strike as Wage Negotiations Stall; Brookfield Reveals $2 Billion Stake in SpaceX and AI Investments

1. US Authorities Move to Resolve Fraud Charges Against Gautam Adani

US authorities are moving to resolve the fraud charges against Indian billionaire Gautam Adani, according to people familiar with the matter, and end a criminal case that’s hung over Asia’s richest person for more than a year. The Justice Department may announce that they’re dropping the charges as soon as this week, the people said. The Securities and Exchange Commission is also moving to settle a parallel civil fraud case it brought against Adani and others in November 2024.

Ending the cases would be a significant boon to the Adani Group, one of India’s most powerful companies, whose interests range from coal mining to renewable energy and airports. It also clears the decks for the conglomerate to return to international capital markets and resume its aggressive expansion strategy. While the Justice Department could move to drop the charges with the defendants out of the country, a resolution to the SEC would likely involve a monetary penalty. In November 2024, the US Attorney’s Office in Brooklyn alleged that Adani and other defendants helped drive a $250 million bribery scheme in India to lock in solar-power contracts.

The Adani Group has consistently denied the charges, and the case has been effectively stalled as none of the defendants have appeared in court.

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2. Microsoft’s LinkedIn Cuts Jobs in Latest Tech Industry Workforce Reduction

Microsoft Corp.’s LinkedIn is cutting workers in the tech industry’s latest move to reduce headcount in the AI age. The professional social network must deliver increased impact to users and operate more profitably, LinkedIn Chief Executive Officer Daniel Shapero told employees in a memo on Wednesday. The reductions will impact a range of job functions, including engineering, product and marketing, he wrote. “As part of our regular business planning, we’ve implemented organizational changes to best position ourselves for future success,” a company spokesperson said.

Microsoft has been steadily paring jobs in recent years amid a margin-straining build-out of data centers and other infrastructure for its artificial intelligence services. The full scope of reductions couldn’t be determined, though the division has 17,500 employees according to its site. Acquired in 2016, LinkedIn has largely operated independently from the rest of the company. It reported $17.8 billion in revenue in Microsoft’s most recent fiscal year, which ended in May 2025.

Shapero, who has been an executive at the company since before the acquisition, was named LinkedIn’s chief last month.

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3. US Retail Sales Rise for Third Month in April, Showing Consumer Resilience

US retail sales advanced for a third month in April, pointing to some signs of consumer resilience despite sharply higher gasoline prices. The value of retail purchases increased 0.5% last month after a revised 1.6% gain in March, Commerce Department data showed Thursday. Because the figures aren’t adjusted for inflation, an increase could reflect higher prices rather than more sales volumes. Nine out of 13 categories posted increases, with sales at sporting goods stores, online merchants, and electronics outlets rising in April. Motor-vehicle sales fell, while receipts at gas stations rose 2.8% as the Iran war pushed gas prices to the highest levels since 2022. Spending at grocery stores also rose firmly, likely reflecting a surge in food costs.

The report suggests higher-than-usual tax refunds and a stock-market rally helped provide a financial cushion against mounting inflationary pressures. However, it’s unclear how long that will sustain robust demand as inflation-adjusted wages decline and personal savings decrease. So-called control-group sales—which feed into the government’s calculation of GDP—increased a larger-than-expected 0.5%.

Outside of receipts at gas stations, sales rose 0.3%, the least in three months. Looking ahead, the risk for the economy is a broader pullback in household spending, particularly as Bank of America Institute data shows lower-income Americans have already started to tighten their belts.

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4. US Audit Regulator Considers Staff Cuts to Align with Trump Priorities

The US audit regulator is considering deep cuts to the number of staff inspecting accounting firms, in a downsizing of the Enron-era watchdog designed to align it with Trump administration priorities. The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) is also examining cuts to its enforcement division and other restructuring options as it takes a less confrontational approach to its dealings with audit firms, according to people familiar with the matter.

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), which oversees the PCAOB and is chaired by Paul Atkins, a longtime critic, is pushing for an overhaul of the organisation beginning next year with a shake-up of how it inspects audit firms. The SEC must approve the PCAOB’s budget for 2027 before the end of this year, and the audit regulator was preparing to present a proposal that includes staff cuts, partly to free up money for technology investments. Jim Logothetis, who was appointed by the SEC in December to lead the PCAOB, told the FT it was “premature” to conclude there would be cuts as the process is early.

As of December, the organisation employed over 500 people to examine audits of US public companies, a core mandate created following the Enron scandal 25 years ago.

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5. Ford Stock Surges on Pivot Toward Energy Storage for Data Centers

Ford Motor Co.’s stock surged again on enthusiasm for the automaker’s pivot toward energy storage, the latest sign that investors are eager to embrace companies that stand to benefit from power-hungry data centers. The shares climbed as much as 10% Thursday in New York, pushing the two-day gain to 25%, the most intraday since March 2020. Wednesday’s gain turned Ford’s stock positive for the year.

The 122-year-old automaker became the latest company to be swept up in hype around artificial intelligence, which is driving heavy investment in data centers and other technological infrastructure. Ford is investing $2 billion to get into the energy storage business, which includes converting a factory in Kentucky from making batteries for electric vehicles to producing large energy cells for the storage business. US demand for grid batteries is expected to double by 2030 to more than 100 gigawatt-hours, according to Bloomberg NEF.

Chief Executive Officer Jim Farley said Thursday that the automaker is already seeing strong demand for its energy storage batteries that will go into production late next year, and the company is already in the contracting phase with several customers.

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6. New York’s LIRR Faces Potential Strike as Wage Negotiations Stall

Talks between New York City’s transit system and Long Island Rail Road (LIRR) workers have hit a snag over disagreements on cash payments versus wage increases, as the nation’s biggest commuter rail faces a potential shutdown as soon as Saturday. The Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) and five LIRR unions have been negotiating for months with a federal mediation board but have yet to reach a deal. The union will be free to strike after Friday, when a “cooling off period” is slated to run out. Gary Dellaverson, counsel to the MTA, urged labor groups not to run negotiations down to the last minute, stating that the difference between the two positions is not unbridgeable.

While the parties agree on a retroactive 9.5% increase over three years, the impasse is on the wage hike for this year. The MTA offered a 3% boost starting in June, along with a cash payment equivalent to an additional 1.5% raise. Union leaders, however, want compensation through salary increases rather than one-time payments. A cash payment does not allow a portion of a worker’s salary to compound with future wage increases.

LIRR workers, who haven’t received a raise in nearly four years, are focused on obtaining raises that match rising costs.

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7. Brookfield Reveals $2 Billion Stake in SpaceX and AI Investments

Investment firm Brookfield said it owns $2 billion of pre-IPO shares of Elon Musk’s SpaceX, with half on its parent company’s balance sheet and the rest held by other affiliated entities. Musk’s rocket, AI and satellite company has filed confidentially for an IPO that could happen in June. SpaceX is targeting a valuation of more than $2 trillion with the listing, Bloomberg previously reported.

Brookfield also committed $500 million to developer of humanoid robotics Figure, and invested in Hark Labs, according to the firm. Brookfield Corp. discussed the investments in its first-quarter earnings materials released Thursday. Brookfield has invested in Musk’s various companies for several years. Its now-defunct Brookfield Growth division provided $250 million in 2022 to help fund Musk’s buyout of Twitter Inc., the social media platform now known as X.

The check was the largest ever written by Brookfield Growth at the time. The firm shuttered the venture unit last year and shifted some assets and staff to a division known as Pinegrove Capital.

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