One clear theme dominated Microsoft's earnings call

 Microsoft got a few high fives from Wall Street on Tuesday night as its quarterly Azure sales bested analyst estimates amid an overall earnings beat. Microsoft's stock initially popped 4% in after-hours trading.

Then came the earnings call, where a clear theme emerged: caution.

While Microsoft execs struck an upbeat tone on the long-term impact of its partnership with OpenAI maker ChatGPT, the earnings call was noticeably downbeat from an economic standpoint — and by extension, a demand standpoint. The tone went a long way in explaining why Microsoft fired 10,000 employees last week in a major cost-cutting exercise.

Shares of Microsoft were roughly flat in premarket trading on Wednesday as of around 5:45 AM.

"We are lowering our FY23 growth from 7.1% to 4.8% year over year (10%+ year over year constant currency guidance rescinded) as macroeconomy continues to weigh on results with tough comparables and lowest commercial bookings growth in five years," Jefferies analyst Brent Thill wrote in a client note.

Yahoo Finance combed through Microsoft's earnings call looking for all of the Big Tech giant's clues on the state of the global economy.

Here's what we found (emphasis ours):

CEO Satya Nadella

• As I meet with customers and partners, a few things are increasingly clear. Just as we saw customers accelerate their digital spend during the pandemic, we are now seeing them optimize that spend. Also, organizations are exercising caution given the macroeconomic uncertainty.

• So, the question is, how many times is it given the overall inflation-adjusted economic growth? So, that's kind of how I look at it. Given that, I think the two things that we see — we commented on that even in the last quarter, and it's even in the outlook, which is the thing that customers are doing is what they accelerated during the pandemic. They are making sure that they're getting most value out of it or optimizing it. And then also being a bit more cautious... given the macroeconomic headwinds out there in the market.

• The market, you all are better readers of, quite frankly, what's happening out there. We can tell you what we see. What we see is optimization and some cautious approach to new workloads and that will cycle through, but we do fundamentally believe on a long-term basis, as a percentage of GDP, tech spend is going to go up.

CFO Amy Hood

• However, as you heard from Satya, we are seeing customers exercise caution in this environment, and we saw results weaken through December. We saw moderated consumption growth in Azure and lower-than-expected growth in new business across the stand-alone Office 365, EMS, and Windows commercial products that are sold outside the Microsoft 365 suite. From a geographic perspective, we saw strong execution in many regions around the world. However, performance in the U.S. was weaker than expected.

• LinkedIn and search will be impacted as ad market spending remains a bit cautious. In our Commercial business, we expect business trends that we saw at the end of December to continue into Q3. While customers are more cautious in their spend, we also have the opportunity to improve our execution, given our strong position in global growth markets.

• For LinkedIn, we expect mid-single-digit revenue growth with continued strong engagement on the platform, although impacted by the advertising trends noted earlier and the slowdown in hiring, particularly in the technology industry, where we have significant exposure.

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/one-clear-theme-dominated-microsofts-earnings-call-112431929.html

Migrants busted for shoplifting in NY won’t be deported — unless they’re convicted

 Four migrants who were busted for allegedly shoplifting at a Long Island Macy’s after being bused to the Big Apple from Texas won’t face deportation — unless they’re convicted, sources and legal experts said Tuesday.

The men, who are charged with stealing more than $12,000 in merchandise from Macy’s Roosevelt Field earlier this month, are getting a break because they are asylum seekers, not illegal immigrants who crossed the US border.

“They are given the benefit of the doubt because they have a pending application with the [US Citizenship and Immigration Services],” Queens-based immigration lawyer Luis Nicho told The Post.

“[The Department of Homeland Security] would normally disqualify you for asylum and put you in the process of being deported,” Nicho said.

Law enforcement are likely waiting to see how the case will shake out, and if the shoplifters cop to a lesser crime, they may still be eligible for asylum, he said.

“They will wait until they have a final disposition of the case to find out whether it’s deportable,” Nicho said.

Four asylum seekers were charged with shoplifting from Macys Roosevelt Field, and could be deported — if they’re convicted.

Nassau County Police Department

Four asylum seekers were charged with stealing more than $12,000 in goods from Macys Roosevelt Field earlier this month.

Google Maps

The accused thieves — Wrallan Cabezas Meza, 19, Miguel Angel Rojas, 21, Rafael Rojas, 27, and Jose Garcia Escobar, 30 — are accused of driving from Manhattan to the Nassau County mall on Jan. 9 and walking off with the goods.

They were caught when cops pulled over their 2006 BMW, which had bogus plates, according to criminal complaints filed in the case.

In court the following day, Rafael Rojas and Escobar were released without bail, while Miguel Rojas had bail set at $1,000 and Meza at $1,500, authorities said.

Nicho said the Empire State’s immigration “sanctuary” status also plays a role.

“The New York City attitude comes with the territory of them being overburdened and not wanting to cooperate with the feds,” he said. “But they will when it’s a serious enough crime.”

The attorney added, “Without an actual criminal conviction, you’re asking the local police to enforce civil immigration laws.”

“The sanctuary city status helps, with so many advocates in the city for them,” Nicho said.

https://nypost.com/2023/01/24/migrants-busted-for-shoplifting-wont-be-deported-unless-theyre-convicted/

CDC informs staff of reorganization after pandemic criticisms

 The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) informed its staff on Tuesday of several changes the agency will be making to its internal structure, with some offices merging their responsibilities and new offices being created.

This agency reorganization comes months after CDC Director Rochelle Walensky said her agency “did not reliably meet expectations” during the COVID-19 pandemic and would be undergoing an overhaul as a result.

“For 75 years, CDC and public health have been preparing for COVID-19, and in our big moment, our performance did not reliably meet expectations,” Walensky said in August. “As a long-time admirer of this agency and a champion for public health, I want us all to do better, and it starts with CDC leading the way.”

Throughout the pandemic, the CDC was criticized for issuing guidance that was confusing at times as well as for being too slow to share scientific data. These criticisms were later bolstered by a review conducted by the Department of Health and Human Services.

According to a CDC staff member familiar with the announcement, the majority of the organization will now report directly to the Immediate Office of the Director, moving away from what they referred to as a “Community of Practice structure” that had been employed before.

The Center for Surveillance, Epidemiology and Laboratory Services and the Center for State, Tribal, Local and Territorial Support will be combined into a new agency entity called the National Center for State, Tribal, Local and Territorial Public Health Infrastructure and Workforce.

The Center for Preparedness and Response will now be renamed the Office of Readiness and Response.

Several new offices will also be created, including the Office of Health Equity and the Office of Public Health Data, Surveillance and Technology. Regarding the latter, the CDC staffer said it was part of the agency’s aim to “build the data infrastructure necessary to connect all levels of public health with the critical data needed for action.”

Along with changes to the offices within the CDC, the agency staffer said a “new, centralized leadership team of multi-disciplinary experts” would be put together to provide supervision over the organization. Members of the team will include the CDC’s director, chief of staff and several deputy directors.

“These changes will improve efficiency, speed decision-making, and strengthen the communication of scientific information to the American public, ensuring CDC’s science reaches the public in an understandable, accessible, and implementable manner as quickly as possible,” said the staffer.

https://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/3828795-cdc-informs-staff-of-reorganization-after-pandemic-criticisms/

Suspect in Northern California shootings may have worked with victims, police say

 The suspect arrested in connection with a pair of shootings in Northern California on Monday may have worked with the victims, the local sheriff said.

“All of the evidence we have points to this being the instance of workplace violence,” San Mateo County Sheriff Christina Corpus said at a press conference on Tuesday.

Seven people were killed and one was injured in the two related shootings at farms in Half Moon Bay on Monday. 

Police arrested Chunli Zhao on Monday afternoon in the parking lot of the Sheriff’s Office Half Moon Bay Police Substation, where he was found sitting in his car. Zhao worked at Mountain Mushroom Farm, the site of the first shooting, Corpus said.

Zhao, who police believe acted alone, legally purchased and owned the semi-automatic handgun found in his car, the sheriff added.

Corpus added on Tuesday that the coroner’s office is still working to identify the victims and notify next of kin. 

“As some of these victims were members of our migrant community, this represents a unique challenge when it comes to notifications and identifications of next of kin,” she said.

https://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/3828492-suspect-in-northern-california-shootings-may-have-worked-with-victims-police-say/

Who will serve on panels to probe COVID-19, ‘weaponization’ of government

 House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) has released the names of the Republicans who will serve on a pair of subcommittees as part of the GOP’s promise to launch investigations into the Biden administration. 

McCarthy in a tweet Tuesday announced the GOP membership of two select subcommittees on the “Weaponization of the Federal Government” and the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The House voted along party lines to establish the weaponization committee earlier this month to probe ongoing investigations from the Department of Justice. The subcommittee was part of a list of demands that hard-line GOP House members had for McCarthy to win their support to become Speaker. 

McCarthy later promised to create both the weaponization and COVID-19 subcommittees a couple of days ahead of the Speaker vote. Republicans have described the weaponization subcommittee as “Church-style,” referring to a Senate select committee led by former Sen. Frank Church (D-Idaho) that looked into intelligence agencies. 

McCarthy said in a letter to his Republican colleagues that the subcommittee will expose the “weaponization of government against our citizenry, writ large.” 

The subcommittee will be led by Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), who was a close supporter of McCarthy during his Speaker bid and who serves as the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee. McCarthy said earlier this month that Jordan would chair the subcommittee. 

The other GOP members of the committee will be Reps. Darrell Issa (Calif.), Thomas Massie (Ky.), Chris Stewart (Utah), Elise Stefanik (N.Y.), Mike Johnson (La.), Chip Roy (Texas), Kelly Armstrong (N.D.), Greg Steube (Fla.), Dan Bishop (N.C.), Kat Cammack (Fla.) and Harriet Hageman (Wyo.).  

Roy and Bishop withheld their support for McCarthy through more than 10 ballots of the Speaker vote before switching to back him after McCarthy agreed to additional concessions. 

McCarthy previously announced last week that Steube will serve on the weaponization subcommittee following Steube’s hospitalization from falling off a 25-foot ladder and receiving multiple “severe” injuries. 

Steube was released from the hospital on Saturday, but he said he will be “sidelined” from Washington, D.C., at his home in Sarasota, Fla., for several weeks. He said he is “eager” to rejoin his colleagues in D.C. “as soon as possible.” 

The subcommittee will also include five Democratic members. 

Rep. Brad Wenstrup (R-Ohio) will serve as the chairman of the COVID-19 committee. 

The other members rounding out the GOP membership will be Reps. Nicole Malliotakis (N.Y.), Mariannette Miller-Meeks (Iowa), Debbie Lesko (Ariz.), Michael Cloud (Texas), John Joyce (Pa.), Marjorie Taylor Greene (Ga.), Ronny Jackson (Texas) and Rich McCormick (Ga.). 

Cloud was also opposed to McCarthy through most of the Speakership votes until throwing his support behind him for the last few ballots. 

Greene's personal Twitter account was suspended for violating the platform’s COVID-19 misinformation policies last January, but it was restored in November as part of several accounts that CEO Elon Musk reinstated after he took over the company. 

A Democratic-led House subcommittee released a report on the pandemic last month toward the end of the past session of Congress, blaming the Trump administration for harming the country’s response to the virus.

https://thehill.com/homenews/house/3829146-these-republicans-will-serve-on-panels-to-probe-covid-19-weaponization-of-government/

Propionic acid protects nerve cells and helps them regenerate

 Some autoimmune diseases attack the nerves in the arms and legs. Bochum-based researchers are pursuing a new approach to counteracting this damage.

Researchers at St. Josef Hospital Bochum have shown in lab experiments that propionate, i.e. the salt of a short-chain fatty acid, can protect nerves and help them regenerate. The findings could be useful for treating autoimmune diseases that cause damage to nerve cells, such as chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy (CIDP). Propionate is naturally produced in the intestine when dietary fiber is broken down.

In previous studies, a team from the same department at St. Josef Hospital Bochum, clinic of Ruhr University Bochum, Germany, had already demonstrated that people with multiple sclerosis (MS) are deficient in propionate and can benefit from taking additional propionate.

Accordingly, the substance could also be useful for patients with CIDP.

The group headed by Dr. Thomas Grüter and Dr. Kalliopi Pitarokoili from the neurological clinic at St. Josef Hospital published their results in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.

Propionate reduces cell death in cell culture experiments

CIDP patients suffer from sensory disturbances, muscle weakness and pain. The cause of the disorder is not fully understood. The immune system attacks the nerves in the arms and legs. The nerve sheath, an insulating coating around the nerve cells, is broken down and eventually the cells die. "The drugs that are currently available in the market are very expensive and primarily act on the immune system," says Thomas Grüter. "A therapy that protects the nerves and aids regeneration is not yet available."

In the current study, Thomas Grüter's team has now explored the protective effect of propionate in cell culture and in animal experiments. The group isolated the two most important cell types in the peripheral nervous system from rats: nerve cells and Schwann cells; the latter form the sheath of the nerve cells.

The researchers cultivated the two cell types separately and exposed them to oxidative stress, which usually causes damage to the cells. The team treated some cell cultures with propionate and compared the effects with untreated cultures. Significantly fewer cells died in the treated cultures. In addition, the cells grew back more readily after treatment than when no propionate had been administered. Animal experiments confirmed these results: after administering propionate, the nerve cells had better protection against oxidative damage.

The researchers also gained new insights into the mechanism of propionate action. They showed that the substance targets the receptor FFAR3 on the surface of nerve cells and Schwann cells and also affects the reading of DNA via histone molecules. This produces new enzymes and proteins that protect against harmful influences and help repair damage.

The findings from previous studies with MS patients suggested to the Bochum researchers that propionate could have a beneficial effect on CIDP patients. The research group headed by Professor Aiden Haghikia had shown that taking propionate has an anti-inflammatory effect in people with multiple sclerosis and reduces the relapse rate.

More information: Thomas Grüter et al, Propionate exerts neuroprotective and neuroregenerative effects in the peripheral nervous system, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (2023). DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2216941120

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2023-01-propionic-acid-nerve-cells-regenerate.html

How to re-energize tired T cells when treating cancer, viral infections

 A new study by researchers at The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center—Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital and Richard J. Solove Research Institute (OSUCCC—James) suggests a way to re-energize critical killer immune cells that have become exhausted when fighting cancer or chronic viral infections.

Immune cells called CD8 T cells are critically important in the immune system's efforts to eliminate cancer cells and viral infected cells from the body. These cells are also key players in immune therapies called immune checkpoint blockade and CAR T-cell therapy.

For this animal and cell study, researchers first developed a new model system to study human CD8 T-cell dysfunction and whether the dysfunction can be reversed.

The work revealed that chronic signaling by transforming growth factor beta 1 (TGFβ1) accelerates the killer cells' loss of function. It also showed that boosting the activity of a cytokine called bone morphogenetic protein 4 (BMP4) while blocking TGFβ1 could preserve the function of chronically stimulated human CD8 T cells. This also improved responses in animal models to tumors and to a chronic viral infection.

The researchers report their findings in the journal Nature Immunology.

"When killer T cells become severely dysfunctional, they are unable to effectively clear cancer or viral infections from the body, and they do not respond well to immunotherapies," said principal investigator Hazem Ghoneim, assistant professor in the Department of Microbial Infection and Immunity.

"We found that rebalancing TGFβ1 and BMP signaling can unleash these dysfunctional T cells and enhance their response to T cell-based immunotherapies and other immune checkpoint therapies," said Ghoneim, who is also a member of OSUCCC-James Cancer Biology Research Program.

"This novel strategy could potentially improve the effectiveness of these therapies and help to clear chronic infections or tumors more effectively," he added.

Ghoneim and his colleagues reasoned that cues in the tumor microenvironment likely triggered the shift of T cells to a pathway leading to dysfunction. They also reasoned that identifying the key signals involved in that shift would reveal new targets that could improve the effectiveness of T-cell immune therapies.

Constant exposure to cancer-cell antigens in the tumor microenvironment causes killer T cells to show signs of mild burnout and to become mildly dysfunctional. The researchers found that these mildly dysfunctional T cells are driven to a state of profound dysfunction by chronic exposure to TGFβ1 that remain stable even after resting the cells.

They also found that the cytokine BMP4 limits the exhaustion and improves the survival of chronically stimulated CD8 T cells.

The researchers then used animal models to show that adjusting the balance of TGFβ1 and BMP signaling could:

• Maintain the tumor-killing ability of human CD8 T cells;
• Boost exhausted T-cell responses to an immune checkpoint blockage therapy; and
• Control a lifelong chronic lymphocytic choriomeningitis viral infection.

"Our findings," Ghoneim said, "indicate that relative levels of TGF beta and bone morphogenetic protein in a tumor microenvironment strongly influence the function of chronically stimulated CD8 T cells, revealing a potential new strategy to epigenetically reprogram dysfunctional T cells during immune checkpoint blockade therapy."

Other Ohio State researchers involved in this study were Abbey A. Saadey, Amir Yousif, Nicole Osborne, Roya Shahinfar, Yu-Lin Chen, Brooke Laster, Meera Rajeev, Parker Bauman and Amy Webb.

More information: Abbey A. Saadey et al, Rebalancing TGFβ1/BMP signals in exhausted T cells unlocks responsiveness to immune checkpoint blockade therapy, Nature Immunology (2022). DOI: 10.1038/s41590-022-01384-y

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2023-01-re-energize-cells-cancer-viral-infections.html