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The eyes might be the window to the soul, but how their overall health impacts our own souls is rarely discussed. VSP Vision Care, an eye insurance company, partnered with Workplace Intelligence to survey 800 HR leaders and 800 full-time employees in the United States about the state of their eye health. Here are the key findings: We live on our screens: In a typical week, employees report spending 97 hours on screens, which translates to 210 days a year. Thirty-four of these hours are on a computer for work, 17 on a computer for personal use, 23 hours watching TV, and 23 hours on a cellphone. The majority of people have at least one eye problem: 63% of respondents reported at least one eye issue, an increase from last years 50%. Meanwhile, 73% reported wearing contacts or glasses, an increase from 67% last year. The most common issues were blurred vision (41%), dry or itchy eyes (24%), and eye strain or fatigue (23%). This is taking a toll on work and personal life: 69% of respondents said that eye problems are impacting their ability to be productive, 60% said eye problems impacted their ability to focus, and 46% said the problems took a toll on their mental health. The survey included a range of employees across generations and types of work arrangements, including on-site, hybrid, and remote work. All survey participants used a computer or laptop for work at least “sometimes,” according to the study’s methodology. As Kristi Cappelletti-Matthews, chief human resources officer at VSP Vision, noted in the report, “[When] you consider the importance of our vision and its link to our health and day-to-day work, its imperative that theres a collective effort to support better workplace health through exceptional vision care.
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E-Commerce
Scientists have finally given the all-clear to Earth from a newly discovered asteroid. After two months of observations, scientists have almost fully ruled out any threat from the asteroid 2024 YR4, NASA and the European Space Agency said Tuesday. At one point, the odds of a strike in 2032 were as high as about 3% and topped the worlds asteroid-risk lists. ESA has since lowered the odds to 0.001%. NASA has it down to 0.0017% meaning the asteroid will safely pass Earth in 2032 and there’s no threat of impact for the next century. Paul Chodas, who heads NASAs Center for Near Earth Objects Studies, said there is no chance the odds will rise at this point and that an impact in 2032 has been ruled out. “Thats the outcome we expected all along, although we couldnt be 100% sure that it would happen, he said in an email. But theres still a 1.7% chance that asteroid could hit the moon on Dec. 22, 2032, according to NASA. Chodas expects the odds of a moon strike will also fade. The world’s telescopes will continue to track the asteroid as it heads away from us, with the Webb Space Telescope zooming in next month to pinpoint its size. It’s expected to vanish from view in another month or two. Discovered in December, the asteroid is an estimated 130 feet to 300 feet (40 meters to 90 meters) across, and swings our way every four years. While this asteroid no longer poses a significant impact hazard to Earth, 2024 YR4 provided an invaluable opportunity” for study, NASA said in a statement. The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institutes Science and Educational Media Group and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content. Marcia Dunn, Associated Press aerospace writer
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E-Commerce
Its no exaggeration to say that Nvidia (Nasdaq:NVDA), to many people, is the most important stock on Wall Street these days. Last year, the company was responsible for more than 20% of the S&P 500s total return, and its a stalwart in a wide swath of 401(k) and IRA investment accounts. That alone would be reason enough for the companys fourth-quarter-earnings report to receive widespread interest on Wednesday after the market close. But recent slowdowns in Nvidias growth as well as artificial intelligence breakthroughs in China have raised questions about how the tech giant can remain on top. Analysts expect Nvidia will report revenue of $38.1 million and net income of $19.6 billion for the quarter ended in January. Earnings are expected to come in at $0.85 per share. NVDA shares, as of midday Tuesday, were trading at about the same level as last October. While Nvidia has seen its NVDA share price jump more than 61% in the past 12 months, the stock is down about 6% so far in 2025. The stock was down 1.8% in midday trading Tuesday. Investors, analysts, and even casual watchers of the stock market will be combing the earnings results to see if demand for Nvidias chips is waningand, if so, how it plans to continue growth. Barclays called this earnings report a crucial moment, and Fundstrat head of research Tom Lee says the earnings will show whether the current market pullback is only a flesh wound or something more serious. Nvidia has become the second-largest company on Wall Street, guiding major market indices, which makes Wednesdays earnings relevant to many investors, even those who dont care about AI. Here are some of the things Wall Street will be paying particular attention to once the numbers are released. Blackwell chip supply Volume production of Nvidias newest chip will be in the spotlight Wednesday. Investors are curious if the manufacturing issues that previously impacted the next-generation Blackwell line (which delivers a lot of power with higher efficiency) are now in the pastas well as how strong demand is looking. Last quarter, Nvidia told the Street it expected several billion dollars in revenue from Blackwell this quarter. Analyst firm Jefferies, in a note to investors, said it expects Nvidia will beat expectations and raise projections for future quarters. Tariff impacts Nvidia is unlikely to address any impact from Donald Trumps tariffs in its earnings release, but its a topic that could come up on the conference call. Nvidia has said it gets the majority of its products from North America, however its looking to widen its sources. A trade war, meanwhile, could hurt sales of Nvidia chips in other countries, especially as Trump considers tariffs of 25% or higher on chips, which could lead to retribution from trade partners. Big tech spending A report from TD Cowen late last week that Microsoft was set to slow its spending on data centers stoked fears that the recent market boom, which has been fueled by AI stocks, could be slowing. If accurate, that could indicate a dip in demand for Nvidias chips. (Microsoft, on Monday, said it still plans to spend $80 billion on infrastructure this year.) CEO Jensen Huang is likely to face questions about orders from key customers, including not just Microsoft, but also Meta, Alphabet and Amazon, despite those companies saying they planned to either stick with preannounced levels or increase their capital expenditures related to AI. New markets Most of Nvidias chips are currently used in data centers, but investors will be looking for the next growth area. That could come from autonomous vehicles or robots. Currently, both are a drop in the bucket, revenue-wise, but Huang has spoken enthusiastically about autonomous vehicles, saying that revenue will hit $5 billion in annual sales in the next fiscal year. “We’ve been working on self-driving cars now for some time,” Huang said at his keynote at CES. If it’s already a $5 billion business for us, imagine how big it’s going to be when we have 100 million new [self-driving] cars per year. This is likely going to be one of the largest robotics industries in the world and one of the largest computing industries in the world.” The DeepSeek impact NVDA shares took a steep dive on January 28 (losing $600 billion in market value in a single day) after DeepSeek was revealed, performing ChatGPT-like functions at a fraction of the cost of existing AI models. The maker of the Chinese AI system said it had spent just $5.6 million on the computing power for the chatbot. NVDA shares today remain about 10% below where they stood prior to DeepSeeks debut. On Wednesdays earnings call, Huang will have a window to explain why AI companies will continue to need more of the companys chips as the market grows. As Huang said in an interview with DDN’s Alex Bouzari last week, The market responded to [DeepSeeks model] as in, Oh my gosh, AI is finished . . . [that AI doesn’t] need to do any more computing anymore. Its exactly the opposite, adding that the need for more computing is intensive.
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