Fairness markets continued their uneven climb upward this yr with the tech-heavy Nasdaq and the S&P 500, which has a hefty know-how part, leaping 1.8% and 1.1%, respectively, at the same time as fourth quarter earnings continued to tilt unfavorable and a rising variety of corporations introduced layoffs in anticipation of an financial contraction. Because the begin of the yr, Amazon, Microsoft, Salesforce and extra not too long ago IBM have introduced job cuts.