DOGE chief Elon Musk claimed Wednesday that his federal workforce slashing initiative so far has saved $160 billion — far less than his original projections — as the mega-billionaire Tesla CEO gave a sort of farewell to President Donald Trump's Cabinet. It's "been an honor to work with your incredible Cabinet," Musk told Trump at the White House on Wednesday. "I would just like to say thank you to everyone, It was an honor to work with you, so thank you for everything." "A tremendous amount has been accomplished in the first 100 days," Musk said. Musk said last week on a Tesla earnings call that his time spent running the so-called Department of Government Efficiency will drop significantly beginning in May, and that he plans to spend just a "day or two per week" on the government effort. The New York Post reported Tuesday that Musk was no longer working out of the West Wing. But his DOGE lieutenants were still working in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, which is on the White House campus. Trump told Musk on Wednesday, "We all want to thank you for your help. You really have sacrificed a lot. Musk then quipped, "Well, they like to burn my cars, which is not great," referring to a spate of vandalism targeting Tesla vehicles and locations since he began his DOGE program. "But the vast majority of people in this country really respect and appreciate you, and this whole room can say that very strongly, you have really been a tremendous help," Trump said. Trump's Cabinet secretaries and other people in the room clapped at that comment. When Trump said that DOGE had "saved" $150 billion with his initiatives to cut spending and reduce federal employee headcount, Musk chimed in, "$160 billion, but who's counting?" Musk last fall said that DOGE would slash "at least $2 trillion" from the federal budget. But during an interview in January, Musk downplayed that estimate. I think that's the best-case outcome," Musk said. I think if we try for $2 trillion, we've got a good shot at getting 1," he said, meaning $1 trillion. But experts say the number could be far smaller than even the $160 billion figure Musk quoted. The nonprofit Partnership for Public Service has estimated that DOGE-related "firings, re-hirings, lost productivity and paid leave of thousands of workers will cost upward of $135 billion this fiscal year," The New York Times reported. Musk said in his Tesla earnings call last week that he would continue work on DOGE "for as long as the president would like me to do so, and as long as it's useful." "But starting next month, I'll be allocating far more of my time to Tesla now that the major work of establishing the Department of Government Efficiency is done," said Musk. Sign up for free newsletters and get more CNBC delivered to your inbox

White House trade advisor Peter Navarro brushed off concerns Wednesday about the unexpected drop in U.S. gross domestic product last quarter, saying, 'We really like where we're at now," and pointing to a surge in new domestic investment. "I got to say just one thing about today's news, that's the best negative print I have ever seen in my life," Navarro said on CNBC's "Squawk on the Street" after the Commerce Department reported that GDP fell at a 0.3% annualized pace in the first quarter of 2025. "The markets need to, like, look beneath the surface of that" figure, said Navarro, an ardent supporter of President Donald Trump's tariff policy. "We had a 22% increase in domestic investment," he said. Major stock market indices were down in morning trading on the heels of the GDP report, which captured economic data from the first two full months of Trump's second term in the White House. Earlier this month, Navarro described a massive April 10 market drop that was fueled by fears Trump's broad new tariffs as "no big deal." That day, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell more than 1,000 points and the benchmark S&P 500 index of U.S. stocks lost 3.46%. So far this year, the S&P 500 is down more than 7%. We want to hear from you. Sign up for free newsletters and get more CNBC delivered to your inbox Get this delivered to your inbox, and more info about our products and services.

Connecting decision makers to a dynamic network of information, people and ideas, Bloomberg quickly and accurately delivers business and financial information, news and insight around the world Americas+1 212 318 2000 EMEA+44 20 7330 7500 Asia Pacific+65 6212 1000 Connecting decision makers to a dynamic network of information, people and ideas, Bloomberg quickly and accurately delivers business and financial information, news and insight around the world Americas+1 212 318 2000 EMEA+44 20 7330 7500 Asia Pacific+65 6212 1000 App makers Meta Platforms Inc., Spotify Technology SA and Match Group Inc. are girding for a high-stakes political battle with the world's two dominant smartphone platforms over who should take responsibility for verifying users' ages. The app makers this week are launching a lobbying coalition to take on Apple Inc. and Alphabet Inc. as legislation to require age verification gains momentum amid rising public concern over minors' online access to inappropriate material.

Schurr, a former financial journalist at the Financial Times and short-seller who worked with legendary investor Jim Chanos, was a key part of the equities rebuild that $23 billion Balyasny has undergone. He worked alongside the firm's founder and executives, like Archana Parekh, head of Asian equities. Speaking with Business Insider at the end of 2024 about the firm's thinking about equities investing, Schurr said Balyasny tapped him to build a centralized research function for stockpicking teams that focused on primary research in addition to managing a large portfolio. Now, he'll be taking his talents to Izzy Englander's $73 billion manager after he sits out a year to comply with the non-compete clause in his contract. Unlike other multistrategy portfolio managers, Schurr didn't want to use alternative data like credit-card receipts to focus on "triangulating and calling quarters" by estimating a company's earnings before they're released, calling the popular investing process "a strategy of diminished expected returns" when he spoke to BI last year. In a presentation at a conference at the University of Alabama's Culverhouse College of Business this March, Schurr went into greater detail about how he finds opportunities and researches potential investments. In a recording of his presentation viewed by BI, Schurr described how he applies a short-seller's lens to long bets in his book. He also used his experience as a short-seller to identify three buckets of stocks with "certain types of things we should never short." He recommended data providers such as 280first, Zion Research, and BamSEC to augment the process. "Wall Street is an echo chamber," he said, and good investors look outside of the normal channels. He pointed to YouTube reviews of consumer products and Reddit forums dedicated to a specific company as places where investors could glean insights from. On a slide titled "How We Maintain Performance," Schurr outlined that his teams "thrive in obscurity" and look for stocks with less than three teams covering the name. The ability to hold a stock through volatile markets is important, Schurr said, telling the students in attendance that "all the money to be made" is going to come from yearslong positions, not quarterly wins. "The market is going to change constantly over the next 20 years," he said, and tools like alternative data and artificial intelligence are "commoditized very quickly."

Snap shares fell more than 12% Wednesday after the social media company withheld second-quarter guidance due to the uncertain macroeconomic environment. "While our topline revenue has continued to grow, we have experienced headwinds to start the current quarter, and we believe it is prudent to continue to balance our level of investment with realized revenue growth," the company said Tuesday, adding that macro conditions could impact advertising demand. Snap's finance chief Derek Andersen said during an earnings call that some advertisers are already seeing an impact from changes to the de minimis exemption. President Donald Trump's shifting tariff plans have created an unsettling backdrop for companies this earnings season. Fears of a weakening economy have also fueled concerns that companies could ease up advertising spending, where Snap makes a key component of revenues. Despite holding back on guidance, Snap reported 14% revenue growth, up from $1.19 billion a year ago to $1.36 billion. Snap's loss also narrowed 54% to $140 million, or 8 cents per share, from about $305 million, or 19 cents, last year. The loss was due to a $70.1 million charge related to cash severance, stock-based compensation expenses and other costs associated with a 2024 restructuring. Snap also signaled ongoing user growth. The company said it hit 900 million monthly active users, up from 850 million in August, the last time Snap provided that stat. DAUs fell to 99 million from 100 million in North America during the period, but Snap says it doesn't expect more declines this quarter. Many on Wall Street expect the company's lack of visibility into the second quarter and macro backdrop to weigh on shares and adjusted price targets to account for it. "While [price-to-sales ratio] is nearing a historical bottom and could support stock, we reiterate our neutral rating as Snap has been pressured more than peers in prior macro downturns," said Bank of America's Justin Post. Other social media companies saw shares move lower, including Pinterest and Reddit, last down 4% and 8%, respectively. WATCH: Ad spending shifts amid tariffs: Here's what to know Sign up for free newsletters and get more CNBC delivered to your inbox

Connecting decision makers to a dynamic network of information, people and ideas, Bloomberg quickly and accurately delivers business and financial information, news and insight around the world Americas+1 212 318 2000 EMEA+44 20 7330 7500 Asia Pacific+65 6212 1000 Connecting decision makers to a dynamic network of information, people and ideas, Bloomberg quickly and accurately delivers business and financial information, news and insight around the world Americas+1 212 318 2000 EMEA+44 20 7330 7500 Asia Pacific+65 6212 1000 Citadel Securities is urging the Securities and Exchange Commission's new leadership to examine a list of what it argues are emerging and mounting risks, including opaque trading in so-called private rooms and the push by US stock markets to operate around the clock. Billionaire Ken Griffin's market-making firm sent more than 30 recommendations, spotlighting concerns in equities, credit, treasuries, options and digital assets. Subjects included private rooms — a twist on dark pools, in which only certain parties are allowed to transact.

The most anticipated part of Apple's Thursday earnings won't be iPhone sales or Mac forecasts – it'll be CEO Tim Cook's comments on how the company is dealing with President Donald Trump's tariffs. Apple is one of the most exposed companies to Trump's tariffs and expected retaliation. It makes about three-quarters of its overall revenue from physical goods — iPhones, Macs and Apple Watches — mostly made in China or elsewhere in Asia. "It's how Apple responds to 'everything else' that will set the tone for post-earnings sentiment," wrote Morgan Stanley analyst Erik Woodring in a Monday note. "We are monitoring the situation and don't have anything more to add than that," Cook said during Apple's January earnings call. Those were the company's most recent comments on Trump's trade policy. Apple is perhaps the highest-profile example of a company that's gotten caught up in Trump's trade war. It's the most valuable U.S. company, hundreds of millions of Americans own iPhones and Cook built his reputation in Silicon Valley as an operations expert who keeps Apple's inventory low and its logistics tight. But Apple and Cook have stayed tight-lipped publicly even as Trump administration officials called for the company to move iPhone production to the U.S., imagining millions of Americans "screwing in little screws" to build the devices. The White House suggested that Apple was capable of building iPhones in the U.S., something that many analysts said is impossible at worst and would result in a $3,500 iPhone at best. I helped Tim Cook, recently, and that whole business," Trump said in an oval office briefing earlier this month after he delayed the highest-tariffs on non-China nations for 90 days. It was a move that boosted Apple stock. Cook has maintained a line of communication with the Trump administration, according to Trump, dating back to his first term. TD Cowen predicts that the current tariffs will cost Apple about 6% of its annual earnings this year. It's not just investors that want a peek into Apple's thinking — Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., questioned Cook about what he discussed with the Trump administration ahead of the president's decision to pause tariffs on non-China nations. Apple's share price remains lower than it was on April 2, even though analysts have said the pause will give Apple some flexibility to avoid the highest tariffs, thanks to its production locations in India and Vietnam. Several recent reports have said that Apple will try to source as many iPhones as possible from from India, which only faces a 10% tariff, to avoid the highest 145% tariffs on China. But although Apple has been ramping up iPhone production in India since 2017, the company has only recently begun to ship commercially significant quantities in recent years, and Apple hasn't confirmed the pivot to India or discussed its Indian production capabilities. Another closely-watched metric will be Apple's China revenue, which could indicate if rising nationalism will hurt iPhone sales in the company's third largest market, which includes Hong Kong and Taiwan. Some analysts have noted that the smartphone owners in China are more likely to switch phone brands than Western consumers. There's concern that now those Chinese consumers could take cues from media and government officials and buy Chinese phone brands, such as phones made by Huawei. Dipanjan Chatterjee, principal analyst at Forrester, said that if Apple were to move a lot of production out of China, it would also have to consider if that could upset the Chinese consumer. "If Apple is going to pull production out of China, that's not going to go down well in that market," Chatterjee said. Analysts polled by FactSet expect Apple to report $1.62 in earnings per share on $94.19 billion in sales, which would be an almost 4% revenue increase on an annual basis. WATCH: Street's biggest Apple bear says a production move to India is unrealistic Sign up for free newsletters and get more CNBC delivered to your inbox

Shares of Etsy tumbled more than 9% in afternoon trading, as stocks fell broadly after new economic data showed a contraction of 0.3%. The data spurred fears the economy was headed toward a recession from President Donald Trump's abrupt policy shifts, primarily around trade. Etsy said the results reflected it taking a $101.7 million impairment charge from the sale of Reverb. The company announced earlier this month it will sell off the musical instrument marketplace it acquired in 2019 to focus on its core marketplace and secondhand platform Depop, which it bought in 2021. Etsy operates an online marketplace that connects buyers and sellers with mostly handcrafted goods. Like many other retailers, the company is digesting the impact of Trump's sweeping tariffs, though CEO Josh Silverman said in February that the company is "vastly less" dependent on products from China, which was hit by aggressive levies of 145%. The company said it also established a "small operational task force" to address the tariffs, which has provided buyers and sellers with guidance on shipping timelines, along with other information. Earlier this month, Etsy began highlighting products from domestic sellers on its site as a way for shoppers to circumvent the extra costs associated with Trump's tariffs. Approximately 90% of sellers source their products domestically, Silverman said on a call with investors. "We are, of course, monitoring the ricochet impact of higher global tariffs on consumer spending in our core markets, particularly with regard to the cost of items people purchase every day and how this may impact demand for consumer discretionary items," Silverman said. Gross merchandise sales, a key metric that measures the total volume of goods sold on the platform, fell 6.5% year over year to $2.79 billion, which was in line with consensus estimates, according to FactSet. For the second quarter, Etsy forecast GMS to decline at a rate similar to or "potentially slightly better than" the 6.5% rate it saw this quarter. Active sellers on the platform fell 11.3% year over year to nearly 8.1 million, marking four straight quarters of declines. Active buyers also declined for the second consecutive quarter to 94.8 million. Etsy has been working to strengthen its image as a destination for unique gifts and products as it looks to return to growth and combats a fiercely competitive e-commerce market dominated by Amazon and, more recently, Chinese online retailers Temu, Shein and TikTok Shop. CORRECTION: This article has been updated to reflect that Etsy's earnings for the quarter were 46 cents per share. A previous version of this story stated an incorrect amount. Sign up for free newsletters and get more CNBC delivered to your inbox

​​Big Tech companies aren't just building AI — they're increasingly using it to write more of their code. He added that Microsoft is leaning on AI for more than just code generation. Last week, Google CEO Sundar Pichai said during Alphabet's earnings call that more than 30% of new code at the company is written by AI — up from 25% in October. At LlamaCon, Nadella asked Zuckerberg how much of Meta's code was created by AI, but the social media boss couldn't give a precise figure. Instead, Zuckerberg gave a prediction for the AI agents Meta's building to help write and test code for its Llama models: "Our bet is that in the next year, probably, maybe half the development is going be done by AI as opposed to people, and then that will just increase from there." For now, Meta is already using AI in more narrowly defined areas, such as ad ranking and feed experiments, where results can be closely measured, Zuckerberg said. It's not just the largest tech companies that are embracing AI for coding. Marc Benioff, the CEO of Salesforce, said in a February earnings call that the company would pause engineer hiring in 2025 because of AI, which he said had increased engineering productivity by 30%. Microsoft, for instance, is considering another round of job cuts aimed at middle managers and non-coders, BI first reported. Looking further ahead, Microsoft CTO Kevin Scott expects that within five years, 95% of all code will be AI-generated. "Very little is going to be line-by-line human-written code," he said last month on the 20VC podcast. Still, he emphasized that humans would remain essential in shaping the high-level structure, goals, and design of software.

Microsoft President Brad Smith says the U.S. tech giant is committed to respecting European laws — even though it may not always agree with them. But even when we've lost cases in European courts, Microsoft has long respected and complied with European laws," Smith said in a blog post Wednesday. Smith's comments are part of a charm offensive Microsoft is making in Europe this week, after tensions between the United States and European Union ratcheted up in recent weeks over U.S. President Donald Trump's tariffs. Trump's trade war with U.S. trading partners — including the European Union, China and others — has raised fears that the EU could use its regulatory crackdown on America's technology giants as a tool to counter trade restrictions. The EU has for years been trying to tame U.S. Big Tech firms over competition issues. The bloc's Digital Markets Act (DMA), which became enforceable last year, aims to tackle the market power of large so-called "gatekeeper" firms such as Google, Apple, Meta, Amazon and Microsoft. "We understand that European laws apply to our business practices in Europe, just as local laws apply to local practices in the United States and similar laws apply elsewhere in the world. This includes European competition law and the Digital Markets Act, among others," Smith said Wednesday. "We're committed not only to building digital infrastructure for Europe, but to respecting the role that laws across Europe play in regulating our products and services." Trump has previously cited the EU's regulatory actions against America's tech giants as a reason to hit the bloc with tariffs. In February, he threatened the bloc with duties to tackle "overseas extortion" of U.S. tech firms through digital taxes and fines. We want to hear from you. Sign up for free newsletters and get more CNBC delivered to your inbox

BYD is building a massive factory in Hungary as it looks to overtake Elon Musk's Tesla in Europe. The 300-hectare site on the outskirts of Szeged, Hungary, is expected to have a maximum capacity of around 200,000 vehicles a year, and satellite images provided to BI by Planet Images show how the factory is rapidly taking shape. Having conquered China's brutally competitive electric vehicle market, the Chinese EV giant is eyeing overseas expansion, exporting a record number of electric vehicles and hybrids in the first quarter of 2025. BYD is barred from the US market thanks to high tariffs and faces a 17% import tax in Europe, leading the company to invest in local factories such as the one in Hungary. The Chinese automaker is also set to break ground on a factory in Turkey in the coming years, and executives at the Warren Buffett-backed automaker have said that plans for a third European factory are under consideration. That poses a huge threat to Tesla, which has a gigafactory in Germany and counts Europe as its third-biggest market. Elon Musk's carmaker sold 327,000 vehicles in Europe last year but has seen sales collapse in 2025 amid intense backlash over Musk's interventions in European politics and support for the German far-right AfD party. Tesla's sales in Europe have fallen 37% in the first three months of the year, while BYD's have surged by nearly 300%. Hungary has proven to be a welcoming environment for Chinese companies looking to put down roots in Europe. Battery giant CATL, which is the world's largest manufacturer of EV batteries, is also building a $7.6 billion factory in the country as it seeks to tighten its grip on the continent's battery industry.

How much water should you drink per day? The answer varies, but it's always way more than six ounces. Don't judge the micro bottles by their size, though. Some fans tell Business Insider that they might just be worth the hype. Hydro Flask has taken things a step further — or should I say, smaller. The brand announced in late February that it was launching the $19 Micro Hydro: a 6.7-inch bottle made in collaboration with Hydro Flask Japan that holds just a few sips of your favorite drink. That's about 10 ounces less than the average plastic water bottle, and 25 ounces less than the trendy but bulky tumblers that have become standard. Currently, Micro Hydro Flasks are only available on resale websites for between $50 and $100 each. That's where she first encountered Micro Hydro Flasks, which she said instantly reminded her of the small water bottles she regularly saw people carrying during her past travels in China. "It's only here in America that we've popularized 40-ounce bottles," she said. They would laugh and say: Isn't that heavy? "So I wasn't totally surprised by the size, as maybe some people are," she added. On Instagram, some Hydro Flask shoppers have asked why anyone would buy such a small bottle. Instead, people said they've used their micro bottles to measure small pre-workout drinks, to keep soup hot, and as flasks for alcohol. She told BI that she's used her micro bottle as "an emergency milk stash" to keep the drink cold for her 1- and 3-year-old children on the go. Geneveive Kelley, a 25-year-old from California, told BI she uses her micro bottle "for everything" — but she especially loves using it to carry matcha. When some fans use the small product to carry water, they're using it because of its convenience. "It fits in pretty much every single purse that I have, and it fits in my jacket pockets," Ng said. "It actually can be really useful if I'm going out to brunch or somewhere I don't want to carry a full water bottle, and we're walking and talking and I suddenly need a sip." Kelley, a big Disney fan, said it's also helped her stay hydrated at Disneyland. "I hate bringing anything heavy into the park," she told BI. "I wanted something light, and because they have refill stations everywhere, [the Micro Hydro Flask] is really convenient." When Hydro Flask restocked its micro bottles in March, Ng said that buying them was like "getting concert tickets." She waited in line for 25 minutes to get the item, and at the checkout page, she said her payment wouldn't go through. It just kept processing — a common complaint from people who tried to purchase the micro bottles. While Ng was lucky enough to secure her purchase eventually, countless fans have shared online that they never made it past that page. What all three women — and other shoppers who have posted about the bottle on social media — agree on is that Micro Hydro Flasks aren't necessities. "I'm still drinking my normal intake of water. I just happen to have a little accessory that goes with me everywhere."

A theme in travel industry earnings this week has emerged: fewer Canadians are visiting the US. There have also been signs of a top destination they're headed to instead: Mexico. Hilton CEO Christopher Nassetta said on an earnings call Tuesday that the company, whose hotels are primarily in the US, had seen a decline in Canadian visitors. Caesars Entertainment, the Nevada-based hotel and casino company, also said on its earnings call that Canadian visitation was down. Both companies said, however, that Canadians made up a small portion of their overall business. Booking Holdings, an online travel booking company, also reported that Canada-US travel had slowed and offered some insight into where Canadian travelers are going instead. We saw a moderation in trends for inbound travel into the US, particularly from bookers in Canada, and to a lesser extent, from bookers in Europe," the company's chief financial officer, Ewout Lucien Steenbergen, said on Tuesday's earnings call. Steenbergen added that the company was "agnostic where they are traveling because usually, they're spending the same amount just at another destination." There have also been other indications from travel companies that Canadians are opting to visit Mexico over the US. Longwoods International, a market research consultancy specializing in the travel tourism industry, found in a survey published Tuesday that Mexico was one of the top destinations Canadians said they'd choose over the US. The survey, conducted earlier this month, included 1,000 Canadian adults who had taken a trip in the past three years and planned to take one in the next two years. In March, WestJet Airlines also said Canadian travelers were opting for Central America over the US. "There's clearly been a reaction," Alex Cruz, a vice chairman of WestJet, said on CNBC about how Trump's trade war had affected Canadians visiting the US. "What we are seeing, though, is people changing their destinations. Christian Wolters, the Canada president of tour organizer Intrepid Travel, also told NBC News last month that Canadian customers were avoiding the US and traveling domestically or to places such as Mexico and Costa Rica. The US Travel Association has said that a 10% reduction in visitors from Canada, the top source of international travelers to the US, could mean a loss of $2.1 billion in spending and 14,000 jobs. Do you have a story to share about Canada-US travel?

President Donald Trump said voters should have expected him to impose so-called reciprocal tariffs on the world when they chose to back him in last year's presidential election. "Well, they did sign up for it, actually. And this is what I campaigned on," Trump said of the tariffs during an interview with ABC News that aired Tuesday. "We've been abused by other countries at levels that nobody's ever seen before," Trump said. A higher set of tariffs, which varied by country, went into effect on April 9 before Trump announced a 90-day pause on the same day. Trump, however, said his tariffs on America's trading partners were a necessary measure. "I could have left it that way, and at some point, there would have been an implosion like nobody's ever seen. But I said, 'No, we have to fix it,'" Trump told ABC News. "I have wanted to do this for many years." Trump has defended his tariff policy on multiple occasions. On April 20, Trump wrote in a Truth Social post that business leaders who were against his tariffs didn't appreciate what he was doing for them. "THE BUSINESSMEN WHO CRITICIZE TARIFFS ARE BAD AT BUSINESS, BUT REALLY BAD AT POLITICS," Trump wrote on Truth Social on Easter Sunday. Christopher Tsai, the president and chief investment officer of the investment management firm Tsai Capital, told Business Insider that businesses would probably not have enough time to adjust to Trump's tariffs, even with the announced 90-day pause. People's jobs are at stake, and businesses that have been thriving and contributing to the economy for years are all of a sudden in an extremely different situation. The White House didn't respond to a request for comment from BI.