Category: 3. Business

(Bloomberg) — A rally that put the stock market within a striking distance of its all-time highs struggled to gain further traction ahead of next week’s Federal Reserve decision. Bitcoin halted its rebound. Bonds fell.

While most shares in the S&P 500 rose, the gauge was little changed. Bets on a Fed reduction next week remained intact despite a slide in jobless claims — a noisy reading that captured the Thanksgiving period. Meta Platforms Inc. jumped 4% as Bloomberg News reported executives are considering budget cuts for the metaverse group next year.

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Investor worries that the frenzy around artificial-intelligence has gone too far caused a wobble in equity markets last month. But the strong outlook for the sector alongside expectations that policy easing will fuel corporate profits propped up bets on further gains.

“The key question hanging over markets is whether a potential Federal Reserve rate cut next week can trigger a so-called Santa rally,” said Fawad Razaqzada at Forex.com. “For now, the S&P 500 forecast remains cautiously constructive, albeit with more hesitancy creeping in.”

The S&P 500 hovered near 6,845. The yield on 10-year Treasuries rose three basis points to 4.09%. The dollar fluctuated. The yen climbed as Bloomberg News reported that key members of the government wouldn’t try to stop the Bank of Japan if it decides to raise rates.

“After last week’s sharp rebound, the S&P 500 has made limited progress so far this week,” said Razaqzada. “Even so, the structure retains a mildly bullish slant.”

Several previously broken levels have now been reclaimed, reinforcing the impression that the bulls maintain a degree of control, he added.

To Matt Maley at Miller Tabak, while the market has spent the past few days consolidating gains, the set-up is a very good one.

“So unless we get a big reversal over the next few trading days, the advantage will definitely be with the bulls,” he said.

Maley notes that one area that could do well if we get a strong year-end rally is the small-cap space.

“A push to a new significant all-time high might finally attract the kind of momentum money that could help this part of the stock market outperform,” he said. “Of course, if the mega-cap tech stocks start to roll-over in a big way, all bets will be off.”

The US tech sector is likely to remain a key driver for the market’s next leg up, but its recent underperformance also points to other compelling opportunities across the market, according to Ulrike Hoffmann-Burchardi at UBS Global Wealth Management.

“As we expect US equities to rally into 2026, we think under-allocated investors should add exposure,” she said. “Beyond the tech sector, we expect a good performance from the health care, utilities, and banking sectors to broaden the foundation for further gains.”

Hoffmann-Burchardi continues to expect two rate cuts by the end of the first quarter of 2026.

“In addition to being supportive to equities, the Fed’s easing path also creates a positive backdrop for quality bonds,” she said.

On the macro front, applications for US unemployment benefits fell last week to the lowest in more than three years, indicating that employers are still largely holding onto workers despite a wave of recent layoffs.

Separate data from Challenger, Gray & Christmas showed announced layoffs at US companies fell last month after surging in October, but were still the highest for any November in three years.

“Overall, the net takeaway from the data served to confirm the crosscurrents evident in the labor landscape,” said Ian Lyngen at BMO Capital Markets.

Policymakers will not yet have the government’s November jobs report in hand for their meeting next week. The report, originally due Dec. 5, was delayed until Dec. 16 as a result of the record-long government shutdown. That release will also include October payrolls figures.

“There remain some negative payroll employment readings. But the US labor market is not collapsing based on timely data & reports that have leading indicator properties,” said Don Rissmiller at Strategas. “We continue to believe the Fed will cut the fed funds rate again by 25 basis points in December.”

While investors are largely betting policymakers will cut rates again, officials have rarely been so divided as many still prefer leaving rates elevated to keep inflation in check.

Before their final policy meeting of the year, Fed officials will get a dated reading on their preferred inflation gauge. On Friday, the September income and spending report — long delayed because of the government shutdown — is due to be released.

The figures will include the personal consumption expenditures price index and a core measure that excludes food and energy. Economists project a third-straight 0.2% increase in the core index. That would keep the year-over-year figure hovering just below 3%, a sign that inflationary pressures are stable, yet sticky.

Corporate Highlights:

Meta Platforms Inc.’s Mark Zuckerberg is expected to meaningfully cut resources for building the so-called metaverse, an effort that he once framed as the future of the company and the reason for changing its name from Facebook Inc. Meta Platforms risks a temporary European Union ban on the rollout of new policies over how its AI features in WhatsApp, after being hit by the latest probe into Big Tech’s alleged dominance on the continent. Paramount Skydance Corp. said Warner Bros. Discovery Inc. isn’t being fair in its process to sell itself and isn’t acting in shareholders’ best interests, as a competitive bidding process is underway. Salesforce Inc. gave an outlook for revenue in the current period that topped analysts’ estimates, suggesting the software company is persuading customers to buy its AI tools. Snowflake Inc. gave an outlook for operating margin that fell short of analysts’ estimates, raising concerns among investors about the profitability of new AI-based tools. Dollar General Corp. raised its full-year outlook, showing how value-focused retailers are winning over consumers hunting for deals. Kroger Co. lowered the top end of its full-year sales forecast, suggesting that competition is intensifying among food sellers for discerning consumers. Toronto-Dominion Bank, Bank of Montreal and Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce all beat estimates on results that included strong performance in their capital-markets businesses, continuing a trend seen across other Canadian lenders and wrapping up a year marked by buoyant markets and more advisory work. Novo Nordisk A/S left open the door for additional work on its pill version of Ozempic for Alzheimer’s disease after a pair of failed trials, saying that patients showed a biological response in a handful of areas despite getting no cognitive improvement. Rio Tinto Group’s new chief executive will focus on cutting costs and selling assets in a bid to turn the world’s second largest miner into a slimmed-down operation centered primarily on iron ore and copper. Some of the main moves in markets:

Stocks

The S&P 500 was little changed as of 12:06 p.m. New York time The Nasdaq 100 was little changed The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.1% The Stoxx Europe 600 rose 0.5% The MSCI World Index rose 0.3% Bloomberg Magnificent 7 Total Return Index rose 0.3% The Russell 2000 Index rose 0.7% Meta rose 4.1% Currencies

The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index was little changed The euro fell 0.1% to $1.1659 The British pound was little changed at $1.3350 The Japanese yen rose 0.2% to 154.93 per dollar Cryptocurrencies

Bitcoin fell 1.6% to $92,266.32 Ether was little changed at $3,164.38 Bonds

The yield on 10-year Treasuries advanced three basis points to 4.09% Germany’s 10-year yield advanced two basis points to 2.77% Britain’s 10-year yield declined one basis point to 4.43% The yield on 2-year Treasuries advanced four basis points to 3.52% The yield on 30-year Treasuries advanced two basis points to 4.75% Commodities

West Texas Intermediate crude rose 1.4% to $59.78 a barrel Spot gold rose 0.2% to $4,212.92 an ounce ©2025 Bloomberg L.P.

Cornell’s NanoScale Science and Technology Facility (CNF) hosted its 2025 Annual Meeting on November 18 at the Statler Hotel, bringing together researchers, industry partners, faculty, students, and national collaborators to spotlight CNF’s leadership in micro- and nanotechnology. 

The program showcased advances in photonics, quantum devices, semiconductor fabrication, sustainability, life sciences and workforce development. Speakers across academia and industry emphasized a shared mission: strengthening U.S. semiconductor leadership through collaboration and a robust innovation pipeline

Decision-Making Amid Uncertainty 

Invited keynote speaker Cheryl Strauss Einhorn, Cornell Graduate, author and founder of Decisive, a decision sciences company, chose to address the audience through an informal interview/Q&A led by Prof.  Judy Cha, Director of the CNF. It was an engaging conversation providing insight into complex problem solving and decision-making process.   

IBM: Wafer Scale Semiconductor Lab to Fab Process Development and Prototyping 

Dr. Dirk Pfeiffer, Director of IBM’s Microelectronics Research Laboratory (MRL), was a plenary speaker at the CNF Annual Meeting. In his presentation, Dirk outlined MRL’s core mission of accelerating semiconductor technologies from early-stage innovation to wafer-scale development and manufacturing, bringing concepts effectively from “lab to fab”.  Dirk highlighted the importance of academic partners like the CNF that remain vital for understanding emerging materials before they reach manufacturing. 

Driving Innovation Through Community and Collaboration

The meeting also featured talks from Cornell researchers, including flying microrobots developed in Itai Cohen’s lab, advances in assisted reproduction from Alireza Abbaspourrad’s group, and new Creative Technologies for Teaching and Workforce Training led by Becky Lane at the Center for Teaching Innovation.

CNF Director Judy Cha presented the Nellie Whetten Award to Ph.D. student Yeryun Cheon recognizing the achievements of women in science, while a special panel of CNF staff introduced a new suite of tools.  Attendees were able to ask questions and hear directly from CNF experts about the equipment and the expanded capabilities now available to the research community. Throughout the day, participants engaged with vendors and student posters featuring emerging work in nanofabrication, materials research, and device innovation.

Across presentations, one theme resonated: CNF’s unique position as a national nanofabrication user facility for research, prototyping, product development, nanofabrication training, and cross-disciplinary discovery. As quantum and nanofabrication technologies continue to accelerate, CNF is helping to equip researchers, industry partners, and future engineers for the next wave of innovation.

The event was made possible with support from CNF’s sponsors: AJA International, JEOL, Oxford Instruments, REYNOLDSTECH, Corning, 3C Technical, ASML, Edwards, EFC Gases and Advanced Materials, Evident, GenISys, Heidelberg Instruments, IEEE, Kurt J. Lesker, LAB 14, Lam Research, Pozzetta, Plasma-Therm, Samco, Semi, Tescan, Xallent, Applied Energy Systems, RedBarnHPC, C&D Semiconductor Services, The Cornell Store, and Wegmans.

 

Ly shows that one function this serves is to send versions of a protein to different parts of the cell. Many proteins contain ZIP code-like sequences that tell the cell’s machinery where to deliver them so the proteins can do their jobs. Ly found many examples in which longer and shorter versions of the same protein contained different ZIP codes and ended up in different places within the cell.

In particular, Ly found many cases in which one version of a protein ended up in mitochondria, structures that provide energy to cells, while another version ended up elsewhere. Because of the mitochondria’s role in the essential process of energy production, mutations to mitochondrial genes are often implicated in disease.

Ly wondered what would happen when a disease-causing mutation eliminates one version of a protein but leaves the other intact, causing the protein to only reach one of its two intended destinations. He looked through a database containing genetic information from people with rare diseases to see if such cases existed, and found that they did. In fact, there may be tens of thousands of such cases. However, without access to the people, Ly had no way of knowing what the consequences of this were in terms of symptoms and severity of disease.

Meanwhile, Cheeseman, who is also a professor of biology at MIT, had begun working with Boston Children’s Hospital to foster collaborations between Whitehead Institute and the hospital’s researchers and clinicians to accelerate the pathway from research discovery to clinical application. Through these efforts, Cheeseman and Ly met Fleming.

One group of Fleming’s patients have a type of anemia called SIFD — sideroblastic anemia with B-cell immunodeficiency, periodic fevers, and developmental delay — that is caused by mutations to the TRNT1 gene. TRNT1 is one of the genes Ly had identified as producing a mitochondrial version of its protein and another version that ends up elsewhere: in the nucleus.

Fleming shared anonymized patient data with Ly, and Ly found two cases of interest in the genetic data. Most of the patients had mutations that impaired both versions of the protein, but one patient had a mutation that eliminated only the mitochondrial version of the protein, while another patient had a mutation that eliminated only the nuclear version.

When Ly shared his results, Fleming revealed that both of those patients had very atypical presentations of SIFD, supporting Ly’s hypothesis that mutations affecting different versions of a protein would have different consequences. The patient who only had the mitochondrial version was anemic, but developmentally normal. The patient missing the mitochondrial version of the protein did not have developmental delays or chronic anemia, but did have other immune symptoms, and was not correctly diagnosed until his 50s. There are likely other factors contributing to each patient’s exact presentation of the disease, but Ly’s work begins to unravel the mystery of their atypical symptoms.

Cheeseman and Ly want to make more clinicians aware of the prevalence of genes coding for more than one protein, so they know to check for mutations affecting any of the protein versions that could contribute to disease. For example, several TRNT1 mutations that only eliminate the shorter version of the protein are not flagged as disease-causing by current assessment tools. Cheeseman lab researchers, including Ly and graduate student Matteo Di Bernardo, are now developing a new assessment tool for clinicians, called SwissIsoform, that will identify relevant mutations that affect specific protein versions, including mutations that would otherwise be missed.

“Jimmy and Iain’s work will globally support genetic disease variant interpretation and help with connecting genetic differences to variation in disease symptoms,” Fleming says. “In fact, we have recently identified two other patients with mutations affecting only the mitochondrial versions of two other proteins, who similarly have milder symptoms than patients with mutations that affect both versions.”

Long term, the researchers hope that their discoveries could aid in understanding the molecular basis of disease and in developing new gene therapies: Once researchers understand what has gone wrong within a cell to cause disease, they are better equipped to devise a solution. More immediately, the researchers hope that their work will make a difference by providing better information to clinicians and people with rare diseases.

“As a basic researcher who doesn’t typically interact with patients, there’s something very satisfying about knowing that the work you are doing is helping specific people,” Cheeseman says. “As my lab transitions to this new focus, I’ve heard many stories from people trying to navigate a rare disease and just get answers, and that has been really motivating to us, as we work to provide new insights into the disease biology.”

As for Wilcox, he’s long been one of that small group of privacy zealots who buys his SIM cards in cash with a fake name. But he hopes Phreeli will offer an easier path—not just for people like him, but for normies too.

“I don’t know of anybody who’s ever offered this credibly before,” says Wilcox. “Not the usual telecom-strip-mining-your-data phone, not a black-hoodie hacker phone, but a privacy-is-normal phone.”

Even so, enough tech companies have pitched privacy as a feature for their commercial product that jaded consumers may not buy into a for-profit telecom like Phreeli purporting to offer anonymity. But the EFF’s Cohn says that Merrill’s track record shows he’s not just using the fight against surveillance as a marketing gimmick to sell something. “Having watched Nick for a long time, it’s all a means to an end for him,” she says. “And the end is privacy for everyone.”

Merrill may not like the implications of describing Phreeli as a cellular carrier where every phone is a burner phone. But there’s little doubt that some of the company’s customers will use its privacy protections for crime—just as with every surveillance-resistant tool, from Signal to Tor to briefcases of cash.

Phreeli won’t, at least, offer a platform for spammers and robocallers, Merrill says. Even without knowing users’ identities, he says the company will block that kind of bad behavior by limiting how many calls and texts users are allowed, and banning users who appear to be gaming the system. “If people think this is going to be a safe haven for abusing the phone network, that’s not going to work,” Merrill says.

But some customers of his phone company will, to Merrill’s regret, do bad things, he says—just as they sometimes used to with pay phones, that anonymous, cash-based phone service that once existed on every block of American cities. “You put a quarter in, you didn’t need to identify yourself, and you could call whoever you wanted,” he reminisces. “And 99.9 percent of the time, people weren’t doing bad stuff.” The small minority who were, he argues, didn’t justify the involuntary societal slide into the cellular panopticon we all live in today, where a phone call not tied to freely traded data on the caller’s identity is a rare phenomenon.

Go high or go wide? DeepSeek and ByteDance, the two leaders of China’s AI industry, are adopting vastly different strategies.

On Monday, DeepSeek released DeepSeek V3.2, another open-weight model that anyone can tinker with. The startup says it performs on par with the latest models from OpenAI and Google, and it even beats them on some key mathematics benchmarks.

That same day, ByteDance, whose dominance in AI applications we covered previously, introduced even more ways for people to use its chatbot, Doubao. ByteDance is now working with a Chinese smartphone manufacturer to embed Doubao into the operating system, giving it access to different apps and allowing it to conduct agentic tasks with them. In other words, it’s coming for Apple’s Siri.

Both ByteDance and DeepSeek have AI apps with over 140 million monthly users. But their latest announcements represent two diverging trends in China’s AI industry. While some companies are still competing with their Western counterparts to build ever more capable models, others have quietly withdrawn from that game and are focusing on how they can integrate their AI tools into people’s everyday lives.

DeepSeek Resurfaces

DeepSeek’s latest open-weight model may have disappointed some of its most loyal followers, who are still waiting for R2, a much-anticipated update to the initial model that rocked Silicon Valley in January. Instead, DeepSeek released V3.2 and V3.2-Speciale, which are better-optimized versions of its previous model V3.2-Exp, released in September.

Still, V3.2 caused a stir in the AI industry because DeepSeek claims it can solve the type of advanced math questions asked at the International Mathematical Olympiad, and its performance on other coding and reasoning tasks is supposedly on par with or above GPT 5 and Gemini 3. “It suddenly dawned on me why they call the company DeepSeek with the whale as a motif. Because just like a whale, it rarely surfaces, but every time it surfaces, it always makes a massive splash,” says Jen Zhu Scott, an AI investor and the cofounder and CEO of Power Dynamics, a modular data-center solutions firm.

However, I can’t help but feel like this arms race of AI models is getting a little tiring, particularly because so many new ones have been released in the last month, each claiming to take humanity one step higher. In less than 20 days, we had OpenAI’s GPT 5.1, Google’s Gemini 3 Pro, Anthropic’s Claude Opus 4.5; throw in Chinese open source models like Moonshot’s Kimi K2 and DeepSeek’s V3.2, and it becomes a total mess. My attention span can be summarized by this perfect meme.

“At the end of the day, we can’t keep up with all these hairline differences between different models, different releases,” Zhu says. “It actually doesn’t make a huge difference, apart from some kind of stock market speculation on who’s gonna win.”

Early benefits are visible. While 53% of Irish firms report productivity gains from AI agents, only 38% see cost savings. This highlights the gap between task efficiency and enterprise impact. Trust is particularly thin: just 7% express high trust in agents across multiple functions.

Why trust is the bottleneck

The impact of low trust is not abstract; especially for specific high stakes activities. No Irish respondents report high trust in agents to conduct financial transactions, only 4% for autonomous customer interactions, and 9% for data analysis and insights.

Companies hesitate to hand over critical decisions to systems they can’t fully audit, govern, or explain. This explains why measurable value is lagging despite investment intent.

In parallel, the 2026 Global Digital Trust Insights Survey shows a world grappling with other data-related tensions: 41% of Irish organisations are adopting AI and machine learning to strengthen their cyber defence, while globally managed services are being used to support AI (38%), threat management (28%), data protection (27%) and third-party risk (17%).

Yet, 39% of respondents globally indicate that a data breach has cost their organisation over $500,000 in the last three years, and most companies (83%) split spend evenly between proactive and reactive measures — a sign that resilience and trust mechanisms are still maturing.

Data foundations still decide outcomes

Ireland’s trust gap is anchored in data readiness. Four in ten organisations cite data issues as the top barrier to realising value from agents. Integration with legacy systems is also more acute locally than in the US.

The Digital Trust Insights Survey aligns with this finding: Irish firms are increasing cyber risk investment (57%), but knowledge gaps and unclear risk appetite remain prominent barriers to using AI for cyber defence.

Without high quality, well governed, securely accessible data, agent performance, trust and return on investment will stall.

From back office to the front line

Adoption patterns are shifting. Customer service is now the leading use case in Ireland, ahead of operations and finance. But adoption remains patchy in sales and marketing, and only a minority are using agents to redesign processes or create new products.

That hesitancy mirrors cyber trends: while 78% of organisations expect cyber budgets to rise and 41% are adopting AI and machine learning to strengthen their cyber defence, many teams admit to skills and knowledge gaps in applying AI responsibly.

Until governance, assurance and risk ownership are crystal clear, leaders will keep agents near the “human in the loop” perimeter and away from autonomous decisions in revenue critical journeys.

What Irish leaders can do now

Build transparent guardrails: Treat trust as a design requirement, not an afterthought. Define “high stakes” thresholds (such as financial postings, contractual commitments or regulated customer interactions, for example) and require explainability, human validation and auditable logs for those flows. The Digital Trust Insights Survey data shows boards are backing cyber and data risk investment; use that momentum to embed Responsible AI policies and model risk controls alongside your existing cyber frameworks.

Fix data at the source: Prioritise the datasets that feed your first scaled agents and apply basic hygiene: lineage, quality rules, access controls and retention. Integrate with legacy systems via standardised APIs to limit brittle point-to-point builds. Our AI Agent Survey indicates that data issues and integration are the biggest Irish barriers; solving them will lift both performance and confidence.

Make cyber and AI one conversation: Security leaders are already prioritising AI capabilities; align this with your agent roadmap so threat detection, data loss prevention and identity controls are tuned to agent behaviours (for example, elevated scope service accounts or automated actions). Given that only a small fraction of organisations report full capability across data risk measures, closing this gap raises assurance and accelerates adoption.

Upskill for oversight, not just usage: The surveys point to knowledge and skills gaps as top obstacles. Train for oversight, not just usage. Governance, failure modes, red-teaming and incident playbooks matter as much as daily operations. This supports safe autonomy where it matters and reduces reliance on ad hoc controls.

Measure enterprise value, not task wins: Link agent outcomes to cost to serve, cycle time and revenue metrics, not just task time saved. With only 38% reporting cost savings despite widespread productivity gains, shifting measurement will force process redesign and accountability at the business unit level. Start with two or three journeys where you control both the data and the decision rights.

The destination is trusted autonomy

Irish leaders agree: AI agents will reshape work. But without trusted autonomy built on secure data and transparent governance, the promise will stall.

Start earning trust now, and enterprise-scale value will follow.   

This article was first published on www.businesspost.ie

 

MINNEAPOLIS, MN — Reese’s Puffs cereal is entering a new era with its first new flavor combo since the cereal debuted in 1994. Reese’s Puffs cereal Dark Chocolate Naturally Flavored is a richer, deeper take on the beloved peanut butter and chocolate combo, made with Hershey’s cocoa, real Reese’s Peanut Butter and the signature Reese’s Puffs cereal crunch fans love.

For more than three decades, Reese’s Puffs cereal has taken on many forms — from Big Puffs and Minis to limited-edition Bunnies and Bats. But aside from a Peanut Butter-only drop, the brand has never strayed from its original milk chocolate flavor. Until now.

“We’ve seen how much people enjoy Reese’s Puffs outside the morning routine, especially late night, and dark chocolate continues to grow within the Reese’s portfolio,” said Megan Brooks, Business Unit Director at General Mills. “Reese’s Puffs Dark Chocolate Naturally Flavored brings that deeper chocolate flavor to a cereal experience people already know and enjoy, any time of day.”

To mark the launch, Reese’s Puffs cereal is introducing a new universe on the back of the box in partnership with Vault49, called “Reese’s After Dark.” This collectible box transforms the cereal aisle into a glowing neon city where dark chocolate takes over. The universe is filled with hidden Easter eggs — from UFO-shaped Reese’s Cups to secret neon messages — creating an experience as bold as what’s inside the box.

Reese’s Puffs cereal Dark Chocolate Naturally Flavored is hitting retailers nationwide this month. For fans of the original, don’t worry — the classic Reese’s Puffs cereal with milk chocolate flavor isn’t going anywhere. The new Dark Chocolate flavor simply gives cereal lovers another way to enjoy that iconic peanut butter and chocolate combo.

PLEASANTON, Calif., Dec. 4, 2025 /PRNewswire/ — Workday, Inc. (NASDAQ: WDAY), the enterprise AI platform for managing people, money, and agents, has been named a Leader in the 2025 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Financial Planning Software¹ for the fourth consecutive year. A complimentary copy of the report is available here.

Workday helps financial planning and analysis (FP&A) teams anticipate change, analyze multiple scenarios on the fly, and improve cross-functional collaboration to navigate uncertainty and provide strategic insights. Leading organizations including Blackberry Limited, Boston Scientific Corporation, Guardian Life Insurance Company of America, Spotify USA Inc., and more trust Workday Adaptive Planning to deliver agile plans and financial forecasts that drive deeper insights and faster decisions.

“Today’s finance teams need a smarter, faster way to plan, one that puts them in the driver’s seat. With AI at the core, Workday empowers finance to truly own their planning process, allowing them to make quick changes and adapt with ease, without relying on IT or consultants,” said Ben Pierce, general manager, Adaptive Planning, Workday. “We believe this recognition reflects what we hear from customers every day: the future of planning is AI-enabled, owned by the business, and designed for simplicity and immediate results.”

Workday delivers the modern, intuitive financial planning tools that help organizations thrive. With Workday, organizations can:

• Quickly adapt plans and forecasts as business conditions change to make planning and analysis more accurate and efficient.
• Use predictive analytics to stay ahead of market trends with Workday’s growing portfolio of agentic AI solutions – including Planning Agent, which can help organizations reduce data exploration and analysis by 30%.
• Improve collaboration and alignment across departments and regions, integrating financial and operational data across ERP, CRM, marketing and HR systems, and data warehouses to support consistent, accurate financial and operational processes. 

Gartner Peer Insights documents customer experience through verified ratings and peer reviews. As of December 2, 2025, Workday reviews include the following:

• “Workday Adaptive Planning has solved our budget process needs seamlessly. Since we implemented it over 6 years ago, we have gained back several hours per month on process steps, while enabling our analysts to spend more time on value-add.” – VP of Finance in the manufacturing industry [read full review]
• “We are extremely happy with all aspects of Adaptive Planning, including the user-friendly and easy to navigate interface, the expert implementation consultants, the ease of ongoing maintenance as well as the readily available post-implementation resources and support.” – Director of Financial Planning and Analysis in the transportation industry [read full review]
• “I feel like anything I have needed to do to improve my company’s corporate financial model has been achievable directly because of Workday Adaptive Planning. The automation and scalable features, the ability to have custom integrations, and the speed at which any support tickets are resolved are all second to none.” –  Finance Manager in the software industry [read full review]

For More Information

Gartner Disclaimer
GARTNER is a registered trademark and service mark of Gartner, Inc. and/or its affiliates in the U.S. and internationally, MAGIC QUADRANT and PEER INSIGHTS are registered trademarks of Gartner, Inc. and/or its affiliates and are used herein with permission. All rights reserved.

Gartner Peer Insights content consists of the opinions of individual end users based on their own experiences, and should not be construed as statements of fact, nor do they represent the views of Gartner or its affiliates. Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in this content nor makes any warranties, expressed or implied, with respect to this content, about its accuracy or completeness, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.

About Workday
Workday is the enterprise AI platform for managing people, money, and agents. Workday unifies HR and Finance on one intelligent platform with AI at the core to empower people at every level with the clarity, confidence, and insights they need to adapt quickly, make better decisions, and deliver outcomes that matter. Workday is used by more than 11,000 organizations around the world and across industries – from medium-sized businesses to more than 65% of the Fortune 500. For more information about Workday, visit workday.com.

© 2025 Workday, Inc. All rights reserved. Workday and the Workday logo are trademarks of Workday, Inc. All other brand and product names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders.

Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements including, among other things, statements regarding Workday’s plans, beliefs, and expectations. These forward-looking statements are based only on currently available information and our current beliefs, expectations, and assumptions. Because forward-looking statements relate to the future, they are subject to inherent risks, uncertainties, assumptions, and changes in circumstances that are difficult to predict and many of which are outside of our control. If the risks materialize, assumptions prove incorrect, or we experience unexpected changes in circumstances, actual results could differ materially from the results implied by these forward-looking statements, and therefore you should not rely on any forward-looking statements. Risks include, but are not limited to, risks described in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”), including our most recent report on Form 10-Q or Form 10-K and other reports that we have filed and will file with the SEC from time to time, which could cause actual results to vary from expectations. Workday assumes no obligation to, and does not currently intend to, update any such forward-looking statements after the date of this release, except as required by law.

Any unreleased services, features, or functions referenced in this document, our website, or other press releases or public statements that are not currently available are subject to change at Workday’s discretion and may not be delivered as planned or at all. Customers who purchase Workday services should make their purchase decisions based upon services, features, and functions that are currently available.

¹ Gartner Magic Quadrant for Financial Planning Software, Regina Crowder, Sid Sahoo, Mike Lashinsky, 2 December 2025

 

SOURCE Workday Inc.

More than 250,000 cases of shredded cheese distributed across 31 states and Puerto Rico are the subject of a voluntary recall due to possible contamination with metal fragments, according to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

The recall by Great Lakes Cheese Co. affects more than 1 million bags of shredded cheese, including mozzarella and parmesan blends. The recall includes Happy Farms by Aldi and Publix Italian Six Cheese Blend.

A complete list of products, UPC codes, batch numbers, sell-by dates and states affected are available on the FDA website.

In a question-and-answer interview with Northeastern Global News, Northeastern University professor and food safety policy expert Darin Detwiler explained why the recall affected so many different products and how metal contamination can harm consumers.

How is it possible for food products to become contaminated with metal fragments?

Food is produced with a lot of moving parts. In a cheese plant, stainless steel equipment shreds, conveys and packages the cheese. If a blade wears down, a bolt loosens or a part breaks, tiny metal pieces can enter the product stream.

Any food run through mechanical equipment can be exposed to metal fragments from a worn or broken part. That includes cereal, frozen vegetables, ground meats, baked goods, candy and other commercially processed, produced and packaged ready-to-eat foods or meals.

Plants use metal detectors, X-ray machines and magnets to catch these fragments. But no system is perfect, which is why when a piece is found, companies often pull entire lots out of caution.

What is the danger to consumers of exposure to metal fragments?

The FDA gave this a Class II recall, meaning the chance of severe harm is considered remote but there is still a risk of temporary or reversible injury.

Possible effects include scratches or cuts in the mouth; chipped teeth; cuts to the throat or digestive tract and abdominal pain or, in rare cases, internal bleeding.

Larger or sharper fragments can cause real harm. The advice is simple: Don’t eat it. Toss it or return it.

Why did this one recall affect dozens of shredded cheese products? 

Many store brands come from the same handful of large manufacturing plants.

A single cheese processor may produce dozens of “private label” cheeses. Think of it like one bakery making cookies for many different grocery stores. Same cookie, different labels.

So if one production line has an issue, every brand that used that line during that window is included in the recall.

Great Lakes Cheese Co. is one of the biggest cheese manufacturers in the country, which explains why the impact stretches across 31 states and many retail chains.

Just two years ago, in August 2023, Great Lakes Cheese Co. recalled 7,218,700 pounds of cheese due to incorrect refrigeration instructions on the packaging.

And last year, in May 2024, Schreiber Foods recalled over 830,000 units of cream cheese spreads because of potential salmonella contamination.

Why are the recalls considered voluntary?

Under U.S. law, most food recalls are voluntary, but this does not mean they are optional.

The FDA typically requests or strongly advises a recall, and companies nearly always comply. 

Typically, the FDA identifies an issue such as contamination, mislabeling or undeclared allergens, provides evidence to the firm and strongly advises a recall.

The firm is required to perform all corrective actions and report progress to the FDA.

Companies almost always comply because this protects consumers as well as protecting the company from greater liability by showing regulators they are acting responsibly. This also helps with their insurance companies if they are sued by a customer.

The system is called voluntary, but there is nothing casual about it. This is a coordinated public health action. 

If a company refused, the FED could escalate with public warnings, detentions and seizure of the product. In rare cases, it could use its authority to mandate a recall.

The real measure of food safety is not the absence of recalls. It is how quickly and transparently companies act when something goes wrong.