The Boston Globe - 05.19.2019

OCTOBER 5, 2019 9

25

THEBOSTONGLOBE

Index of publicly traded companies in Massachusetts

Wall Street ended a choppy week of trading with a broad
rally that drove the Dow Jones Industrial Average more
than 370 points higher. The gains Friday also gave the S&P
500 index its best day in seven weeks, though the bench-
mark index still finished with its third straight weekly loss.
Technology, health care and financial stocks powered much
of the rally, which was spurred by mixed job market data
for September. The report showed that employers are still
adding jobs at a healthy clip, albeit more slowly, and that
the national unemployment rate dropped to a five-decade
low. ‘‘There’s probably some relief this morning that the la-
bor report didn’t confirm or enhance the weakness that we
saw out of the two (economic) surveys,’’ said Bill Northey,
senior investment director at U.S. Bank Wealth Manage-
ment. ASSOCIATED PRESS

Markets

WallSt.endsweekwitharally

DOW JONES industrial average

NASDAQ Composite index

S&P 500 index

Globe 25 index

SOURCE:BloombergNews

HP Inc. will slash as much as

16 percent of its workforce as

part of a broad restructuring

meant to cut costs and boost

sales growth amid the company’s

first change in top leadership in

four years.

The personal computer giant

said it will cut 7,000 to 9,000 po-

sitions through firings and volun-

tary early retirement. The job re-

ductions will help save about $

billion by the end of fiscal 2022,

the Palo Alto, Calif.-based compa-

ny said Thursday in a statement.

HP had 55,000 employees as of a

year ago, the last time it disclosed

the figure.

The company faces a number

of uncertainties. Dion Weisler, the

chief executive officer who has

shepherded the company since its

2015 split with Hewlett Packard

Enterprise Co., is stepping down

Nov. 1 due to family health rea-

sons. The incoming CEO, Enrique

Lores, is a longtime HP executive.

The company’s printing business,

a major source of profit, has seen

falling sales and recently was

dubbed a ‘‘melting ice cube’’ by

analysts at Sanford C. Bernstein.

BLOOMBERG

HP plans to cut

up to 9,000 jobs

Startup workers often worry

that going public means the fun

is about to end — quarterly finan-

cial reports, disciplined spending,

cheaper coffee. At WeWork, not

going public may have brought a

worse fate.

Just three days after withdraw-

ing its registration for an initial

public offering, WeWork informed

staff of far-reaching job cuts to

come by the end of the month,

said people who attended the

meeting. Three top executives de-

livered the news from a room at

WeWork’s New York headquarters

Thursday afternoon. Although the

executives didn’t specify how

many jobs were on the line, peo-

ple familiar with the discussions

have pegged the amount at about

2,000, representing some 16 per-

cent of the global workforce. De-

liberations are ongoing, and the

number could change.

Signs that the party is ending

came in both subtle and more di-

rect ways. Many staff meetings at

WeWork, even somber ones, have

an alcoholic beverage on hand.

This one did not. An employee

asked in the meeting whether the

WeWork Global Summit, a celeb-

rity-adorned event in Los Angeles

that employees look forward to

every year, would still take place

in January. Executives said it

would not.

The cost-cutting at WeWork’s

parent company, We Co., resem-

bles what’s happening now at

Uber. The ride-hailing company

said it was cutting more than 800

employees this summer.

BLOOMBERG

At WeWork, fun

looks to be over

MONTPELIER, Vt. — The Ver-

mont Supreme Court is allowing

a group of foreign investors to

seek negligence and breach of

contract claims against the state

over insufficient oversight of proj-

ects at the Jay Peak ski resort

that authorities say were fraudu-

lent.

The court wrote it its Friday

decision that ‘‘after inducing

plaintiffs to invest in the Jay Peak

Projects by promising to provide

‘extra safeguard of state over-

sight,’ ” the Agency of Commerce

and Community Development

‘‘had a duty to provide that prom-

ised oversight.’’ But it failed to do

so.

The former owner and presi-

dent of Jay Peak were accused of

misusing more than $200 million

raised from foreign investors

through the EB-5 visa program.

They have reached settlements

and pleaded not guilty to federal

charges over a failed plan to build

a biotechnology plant.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

Investors can sue

Vt., court rules

By Nicole Perlroth

and David E. Sanger

NEW YORK TIMES

SAN FRANCISCO — Iranian

hackers targeted hundreds of e-

mail accounts associated with

at least one presidential cam-

paign, as well as those of Ameri-

can journalists and current and

former US government offi-

cials, Microsoft said Friday, in a

sign of how cyberattacks will

become a fixture of the 2020

presidential election.

Microsoft said in a report

that hackers, with apparent

backing from Iran’s govern-

ment, had made more than

2,700 attempts to identify the e-

mail accounts of current and

former government officials,

journalists covering political

campaigns, and accounts asso-

ciated with one major presiden-

tial campaign. In at least four

cases, the hackers successfully

infiltrated inboxes.

Microsoft would not name

the campaign.

The report was released as

the Trump administration con-

tinues to weigh a cyberstrike

against Iran to punish Tehran

for what White House officials

charge was an Iranian attack on

Saudi oil facilities last month.

The Microsoft researchers

said the hackers had tried to at-

tack 241 accounts and were

successful in four cases, using

fairly unsophisticated means.

In those cases, the hackers ap-

pear to have used information

available about their victims

online to discover their pass-

words. It was unclear what in-

formation they stole.

For weeks, officials from the

FBI, the Department of Home-

land Security, and the National

Security Agency have said they

are particularly concerned

about Iranian-backed attacks.

Their worries stemmed from

rising tensions over new sanc-

tions on Iran and nascent Irani-

an activity in the 2018 midterm

elections.

While the officials said they

believed that all the US presi-

dential candidates were likely

targets, President Trump’s cam-

paign has long been considered

a prime target.

It was Trump who aban-

doned the 2015 nuclear deal

with Iran last year, and who has

ramped up sanctions to the

point that Iran’s oil revenues

have dropped sharply. The Unit-

ed States has also designated

Iran’s Revolutionary Guard a

terrorist group. The Guard over-

sees the nuclear program and,

by some accounts, Iran’s best

hacking group, its Cyber Corps.

But it is not clear whether

the group Microsoft identified

reports to the corps or is made

up, deliberately, of freelancers

and others whose affiliations

are harder to trace.

When Iranian officials are

asked about cyberattacks, they

admit nothing but note that at-

tacks have been two-way. Three

times in the past decade, the

United States has directed cy-

berweapons against Iranian

targets.

Microsoft reports Iranian

hacking attacks on campaigns

MATTHEW J. LEE/GLOBE STAFF

Hundreds of

protesters on

strike at the

Battery Wharf

Hotel marched

through the North

End toward Paul

Revere Park for a

demonstration

Friday. The strike

began on Sept. 5.

HOTEL

STRIKE

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