The daily business briefing: February 6, 2023

Italy's National Cybersecurity Agency (ACN) warned Sunday that a large-scale ransomware attack had targeted thousands of computer servers across Europe, the United States, and Canada. The attack targets known vulnerabilities in VMware ESXi technology that had not been fully patched. "These types of servers had been targeted by hackers in the past due to their vulnerability," according to ACN. "However, this vulnerability of the server was not completely fixed, leaving an open door to hackers for new attacks." Experts estimate that thousands of computer servers have been breached, and more are expected to be compromised as the attack continues.

The Adani Group's crisis deepened on Monday as shares in the Indian conglomerate's companies continued to fall, bringing its cumulative loss of market value to more than $110 billion. The selloff started after a U.S. short-seller, Hindenburg Research, released a report on Jan. 24 accusing Adani of stock manipulation and unsustainable debt. The conglomerate, founded by billionaire Gautam Adani, has denied the allegations but failed to soothe investors. Dozens of members of India's main opposition party were detained during protests and parliament was suspended following disruptions sparked by Adani's crisis, Reuters reported Monday. Gautam Adani, who has lost $60 billion in net worth in the selloff, is repaying $1.1 billion in debt before it's due in a bid to reassure creditors.

Wholesale egg prices started to fall at the end of January, NPR reported Sunday, citing U.S. Department of Agriculture data. The wholesale price of a dozen eggs in the Midwest fell by 58 cents to $3.29 a dozen. Grocery store prices tend to lag behind wholesale changes, but shoppers should soon see some relief from the recent surge in egg prices, said David Ortega, a food economist at Michigan State University. Prices have soared as inflation pushed up the price of chicken feed, transportation, and labor, but the main factor has been an outbreak of bird flu. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that more than 58 million birds have died or been culled.

U.S. stock futures fell early Monday ahead of more earnings and a Tuesday speech by Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell that could offer hints of the central bank's next steps in its campaign to fight inflation by raising interest rates. Futures tied to the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500 were down 0.7 percent and 1.0 percent, respectively, at 6:45 a.m. ET. Nasdaq futures were down 1.3 percent. The federal government reported Friday that the economy added 517,000 jobs in January, more than twice as many as economists expected. The unemployment rate fell to 3.4 percent, the lowest since 1969. The report fueled speculation the Fed might raise borrowing costs more than expected to cool the economy enough to contain rising prices.

Dell Technologies plans to eliminate 6,650 jobs to cut costs as demand for personal computers plunges, Bloomberg reported Monday. Eliminating the positions will reduce Dell's global workforce by 5 percent, the computer maker said in a regulatory filing. Dell executives say worsening market conditions have made the future uncertain for the computer maker. PC makers benefited from surging demand early in the coronavirus pandemic as lockdowns forced people to work, play, and study at home, but as schools and businesses reopened sales plummeted. Dell's shipments in the fourth quarter of 2022 were down 37 percent compared to the same period in 2021, according to industry analyst IDC.