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Source: Austin Business Journal
The Federal Reserve left interest rates unchanged at its final meeting of the year and officials signaled that they would wait to see how the economy fared before making another move.
Officials penciled in no rate changes next year, according to their latest set of quarterly economic projections, and saw only one move in 2021, followed by a second in 2022.
That wait-and-see outlook suggests that Chair Jerome Powell and his colleagues are comfortable with the current level of borrowing costs after ushering in three interest rate cuts between July and late October. Those moves were meant to guard the economy from the fallout of President Donald Trump’s prolonged trade war and slowing growth abroad.
Now, “the committee will continue to monitor the implications of incoming information for the economic outlook, including global developments and muted inflation pressures,” the Fed said in its post-meeting statement.
“The current stance of policy is appropriate to support the expansion of economic activity, strong labor market conditions, and inflation near the committee’s symmetric 2% objective,” the statement said. Officials dropped their previous caveat that “uncertainties about this outlook remain,” in a sign of their increasing confidence in the economy.
“Job gains have been solid, on average, in recent months, and the unemployment rate has remained low,” the statement said.
But they did not suggest everything was rosy: “Although household spending has been rising at a strong pace, business fixed investment and exports remain weak.”
Powell’s colleagues lined up uniformly behind the decision to leave policy on hold this month. All 17 Fed officials were comfortable leaving rates unchanged and only four see higher rates in 2020, based on the economic projections, down from nine when the Fed released its last set of quarterly projections in September.
While Trump has been pressuring the Fed to slash interest rates more aggressively, even urging Powell and his colleagues to cut borrowing costs below zero, the central bank operates independently of the White House and answers to Congress.
Lawmakers have given the central bank two goals: achieving and maintaining stable inflation and maximum employment. They adjust interest rates to either speed or slow the economy in a quest to accomplish those goals.
Unemployment is at a 50-year low and the job market continues to grow steadily, which is helping to fuel consumer spending and stoke broader economic growth. Inflation, on the other hand, has been mired below 2% for much of the economic expansion.
While very slow price gains might sound good to everyday consumers, they can create problems if prolonged. The Fed’s policy interest rate incorporates inflation, so weak increases leave the central bank with less room to cut borrowing costs to prop up the economy in the case of an economic downturn.
Fed policymakers see price gains returning to their 2% goal only by the end of 2021, based on their latest economic projections.
Trade remains a critical wild card for the central bank. Trump’s spat with China and other trading partners continues to stoke business uncertainty and weigh on investment, and while the tensions have shown recent signs of easing, how they will end is anyone’s guess. Barring a last-minute delay, another round of tariffs on Chinese goods is to go into effect Sunday, at which point the United States will have imposed levies on nearly every shoe, laptop and bicycle imported from China.
“Policy changes in the speed of a tweet,” said Diane Swonk, chief economist at Grant Thornton. “As good as they feel about things, they also know how fast they can change.”


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Ubisoft has postponed the launch of its new video game title “watchdogs” in the next year.
div Even “The Crew” will appear only next year, said the French game publisher. Ubisoft originally wanted to join the game in time for the release of the new game console One Xbox and Playstation 4 on the market. As a result of the delay, the company already lowered its forecast for the current fiscal year. The sales will vorauslichtlich only between 995 million and 1.04 billion euros are held as previously planned 1.42 to 1.45 billion euros.
“Watchdogs” will now appear in the spring of 2014. You have not willing to compromise from the beginning in terms of quality, the development team writes in a blog post on the reasons. Shortly before the release date of the game in which the player takes on the role of a skilled hacker and programmer, but it became clear that there is still a lot to BOTH COMMUNITY “polish and fine tuning”, it says. Sony and Microsoft get their new consoles next month at the start.

domain: news


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Car Awards Group Inc. (CAGI), the award-giving body made up of the country's premier motoring journalists, has officially launched its search for the 2011-2012 Car of the Year-Philippines (COTY-PH).
Qualified entries for the 2011-2012 Car of the Year-Philippines are all new passenger cars and commercial vehicles introduced to the market between October 2010 and October 2011. The vehicles will be subjected to both qualitative and technical evaluation.
The qualitative assessment will examine the vehicle's aesthetics, ergonomics, noise, vibration and harshness levels, ride comfort and space. The technical evaluation will measure through the use of calibrated instruments the vehicle's zero-to-100kph acceleration in seconds, its braking distance from 100kph-to-zero in meters and its handling though a 120m chicane course.
The qualitative evaluation will be conducted at the Ortigas Home Depot parking lot on September 11, 18 and 25, and October 2, 9 and 16 while the rigorous technical testing will be held at the Clark International Speedway on October 26 and 27.
The awarding ceremonies for the 2011-2012 COTY-PH winners will be held in April 2012 during the Manila International Auto Show at the World Trade Center in Pasay City.
"Despite the slowdown in 2011 car sales after last year's record highs, prospects for the Philippine automotive industry continue to be bright. With automotive manufacturers and distributors bringing in the latest models and offering a wider range of product offerings, Filipino consumers now have more options to choose from," said CAGI president and Top Gear Philippines' technical editor Ferman Lao. "I believe that through COTY-PH, motoring journalists can provide useful information to Filipino consumers to guide their purchase decisions."


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Maine Has Significant Decrease in Camping Reservations as Popularity Explodes in Rest of US
The pandemic has fueled the popularity of camping, but Maine is going backward.
Camping was trending upward before the pandemic, and Covid really kicked people's desire to get away into high gear. In fact, according to a report by Outdoorsy, over 10 million households camped for the first time in 2020. That was one-fifth of all camping households. Data from Recreation.gov—a trip planning and reservation portal for U.S. public lands—showed that camping reservations were close to 3.3 million in 2020, up by about one-third from 2019 and by more than two-thirds from five years before that.
Except for Maine, where you would think we would be leading the nation in camping!
According to the new report from Outdoorsy, to find the states where camping has grown in popularity the most over the past five years, they analyzed data from Recreation.gov. Then states were ranked according to each location’s percentage change in camping reservations from 2015 to 2020. Researchers also calculated the total increase in camping reservations from 2015 to 2020, total camping reservations in 2020, and the public land (national park, national forest, lake, etc.) with the most camping reservations in 2020.
Here's where it makes you scratch your head. The analysis found that from 2015 to 2020, Recreation.gov reported a 46.5% decline in camping reservations made in Maine.
- Percentage change in camping reservations (2015–2020): -46.5%
- Total increase in camping reservations (2015–2020): -9,363
- Total camping reservations (2020): 10,757
- Most popular destination: Acadia National Park
To put this in perspective, here are the stats for the entire country:
- Percentage change in camping reservations (2015–2020): 68.1%
- Total increase in camping reservations (2015–2020): 1,323,031
- Total camping reservations (2020): 3,267,142
- Most popular destination: Yosemite National Park
California had the most reservations at 234,881 and Indiana saw the biggest increase in reservations jumping a whopping 481.3%! Maine had the biggest drop at 46.5%.
Hmm. Is it because they aren't just camping here, they are MOVING here? I'm not sure if this is good news or bad news - but it is interesting news.
10 Best Campgrounds in Maine


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Is Hong Kong the New Tech Hub of China?
By now, it’s more-or-less inevitable that China will become Asia’s next major tech hub. With a bigger workforce than anywhere else on Earth, the country is currently being fought over by many of tech’s giants, hoping to secure a slice of this emerging mega-market. But where is this coming tech explosion going to take place? Received wisdom would tell us that one of the mega-cities like Beijing or Shanghai or Shenzhen is the likely favourite – combining gigantic populations with an already-established digital business scene. However, we’re not convinced. During the course of our research, we’ve come across plenty of evidence that Shanghai and Beijing are slowly falling out of favour, in preference for a southern rival.
Yes, Hong Kong is currently shaping up for what might be the biggest start-up growth in Asia for years. From faster internet access than its mainland rivals to a firmly pro-business attitude and a relaxation of censorship, the signs point toward canny developers making their base in China’s most-Westernised city. For a full run down of our data, check out our infographic below. But first, a quick overview of the main points:
It’s no secret that China is one of the most-controlled societies on Earth. A vast government firewall severely restricts what residents can view online at any given time, while an endemic surveillance culture ensures everyone is always being watching. However, this does not and never has applied to Hong Kong. As we note below, Hong Kong has utterly unrestricted internet access, along with a far higher percentage of citizens who routinely go online (90% compared to just 72% in Beijing).
Obviously, numbers like this are going to be very tempting to foreign companies wishing to locate their Chinese base there; but it’s not just where internet is concerned that Hong Kong is ahead of its mainland rivals. Whereas the mainland boasts only three, government-operated mobile service providers, Hong Kong has five independently-owned services. The benefits of this freedom from government intrusion are summed up in statistics on phone ownership. On the mainland, the percentage of mobile phones per person is 81.2%. In Hong Kong, it’s 230%.
Of course, it’s not purely within the tech industry where Hong Kong’s advantages become apparent. One of the most-striking aspects of our research was into business in Hong Kong versus the rest of China. On the mainland, we discovered, it can take up to 60 days to register a new business and open a bank account. In Hong Kong it takes only two. The positive effect this has had on investment is easy to see: whereas Beijing and Shanghai both saw net decreases in the percentage of Chinese tech startup hosts in 2012, Hong Kong saw a significant increase – suggesting the tide may be turning. Even more amazing, the region went from boasting a mere 6 members for startupshk.com in 2009, to over 5,000 by 2012. Such a rate of growth is nothing short of phenomenal; a fact compounded by our discovery that Hong Kong had more than double the number of new businesses launched compared to New York City in 2011.
However, there are still obstacles Hong Kong needs to overcome if it wants to become a leading tech hub. Most prominent among these are rent prices: average property prices in Hong Kong are 30% higher than in New York City – undoubtedly a worry for anyone looking to open a new business. Then there’s the problem of scalability: Hong Kong’s small population (around 7million) makes it hard for new start-ups to scale up.
But for all we’ve tried to highlight the problems facing the city, the truth is that Hong Kong “is poised to become one of the world’s technological leaders.” If our infographic research suggests anything, it’s that we can expect to see Hong Kong dominating Asia’s tech markets in the very near future.
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(Bloomberg) -- Arkansas has made free speech a crime, according to the American Civil Liberties Union, and the evidence is right there on a toasted bun.
The ACLU, the Animal Legal Defense Fund and the Good Food Institute filed for a preliminary injunction on Wednesday in support of a lawsuit Tofurky Co. brought last month against a new state law that bars food makers from using words like burger, steak, dog and meat to describe plant-based products. They argue the law’s true purpose is to benefit the beef industry by censoring competition and have asked the court to stop the state from enforcing the law while a federal judge in Arkansas weighs the suit.
“We’re talking about penalties” for “calling a veggie burger a veggie burger,” the Good Food Institute said in a statement.
As Americans increasingly turn to plant-based foods, the meat and dairy industries have pushed, state by state, for bills that restrict the way vegetarian and vegan products like tofu dogs are labeled. They argue food can be called “milk” only if it’s the result of lactation and “meat” only if it’s from a slaughtered animal.
Now the plant people are fighting back, saying there’s nothing misleading about using those terms because consumers are already accustomed to plant-based food descriptions like coconut meat, veggie burgers and beefsteak tomatoes. The ACLU is even waving the Bible, right there in the Bible Belt.
“And God said, Behold I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed,” Wednesday’s filing cites from the Book of Genesis. “To you it shall be for meat.”
Read More: Vegan-Food Makers Sue for Right to Use ‘Meat’ in Products’ Names
(Updates third paragraph to remove an earlier statement by the Good Food Institute that jail time is an element of the Arkansas law. It isn’t.)
To contact the reporter on this story: Deena Shanker in New York at firstname.lastname@example.org
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Anne Riley Moffat at email@example.com, Peter Jeffrey, Steve Stroth
For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com
©2019 Bloomberg L.P.


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The business community in Nakuru County have commended the government for the promised affordable electricity tariffs because it has the capacity of spurring rural economies and promote cottage industries.
The chairman of small scale traders, Johnstone Ndegwa said power costs make up to 40 per cent of manufacturing expenses in the country, thus the proposed reduction will be a short in the arm for startups, once the benefits are cascaded to consumers.
He said cheaper power would increase innovation and rural small scale industries including value addition, packaging of farm produce and reduce transportation costs.
Speaking during a press conference at his Viwanda office Wednesday, Ndegwa said while big businesses have mitigation tactics for the high power costs such as passing the costs to consumers, installing backup generators, or diversifying, small business simply close down.
In addition, he said development of rural cottage industries was significant to the youth because aging parents cling to land forcing their children to migrate to urban areas in search of work.
However, the chairman said once they lack employment at urban areas they stay idle, abuse drug, alcohol and engage in crime, yet there was great potential in value addition in the rural areas.
The chairman said the vegetable sub-sector was worth millions and yet a lot of them rot at farms during the rainy seasons, when production was much higher than the local demand.
He also said young entrepreneurs could cash in on the growing middle class who are healthy conscious and prefer carrot, cabbage and tomato juices.
At the same time, Ndegwa urged the government to include affordable internet connectivity to spur faster growth of rural areas and reduce movements from rural to urban areas.
He noted that the ever increasing number of hawkers on the streets of Nakuru city was due to lack of amenities in the rural areas and once provided, the menace would lessen.
By Veronica Bosibori


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WhatsApp Trails on Business Chat
Whatsapp Trails On business chat.The challenge of monetization:
WhatsApp’s approach may have intrinsic barriers.”It’s always a delicate balance when you mix consumer and business applications,” said Alan Lepofsky, senior analyst at Strategy Analytics.”On the one hand,it provides value to customers as they can interact with brands in conversation – like communicating directly with a restaurant while discussing dinner plans,”he told the E-Commerce Times.”On the other hand, consumers do not want to be overly harassed by brands, especially if they are pushing advertisements that are not relevant,” noted Lepofsky.Setting up a professional chat feature “tries to force a commercially designed tool to solve a very different problem,”said Rob Enderle, senior analyst at Enderle Group.”They would probably be better off to start with a clean slate and use Facebook Messenger,” he told the E-Commerce Times.
WhatsApp on business chat,Messaging App Melee:
Competition is keen in the enterprise messaging applications.Although WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger are linked to the top position in the market, each with 1 billion users, according to Statista, these figures reflect the global reach of Facebook.Q Mobile is not far behind, with 877 million users, figures from Statista show. Not so, with 846 million. Skype and Snapchat follow with 300 million users each.Despite its market position, WhatsApp for Business “is redundant for existing web solutions,” said Enderle.In addition, “this class of tools does not evaluate well unless you can automate the experiment,” he said,”which often contradicts the goal because people do not like to chat with robots “.Another potential link point is whether WhatsApp could provide enough
user privacy guarantees.Eighty-nine percent of the 24,000 consumers who participated in a recent Verint study rated privacy as essential and 86% said they would like to know if their data would be passed on to third parties.Still, there is a hope for WhatsApp’s plan to monetize through business chat.
Eighty percent of survey participants say they enjoy a personalized service for their needs.
No threat to Facebook ads:
Facebook is fighting Google for the dominance of online ads, but the ability of WhatsApp business chat may not have any impact on the competition. It is likely that companies that use WhatsApp chat will use it as a complement to their Facebook pages or as an opportunity to contact customers who do not have access to Facebook.”WhatsApp business pages and chats are different channels for interactions with customers,” Lepofsky of Constellation noted.”People continue to go to a brand’s page … and it’s about integrating a brand into WhatsApp cats,” he said. “A page is more about marketing, while a Chatbot WhatsApp will be more interactive.”
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Maersk to launch world’s first carbon-neutral liner vessel in 2023
Maersk aims to build the world's first carbon-neutral liner vessel for container shipping in 2023, seven years ahead of the initial 2030 ambition, the company announced.
The vessel will be a methanol feeder with a capacity of approximately 2,000 TEU and would be deployed on one of the intra-regional Maersk networks.
The aim is to run the vessel on carbon neutral e-methanol or renewable bio-methanol from day one, although the vessel will be able to operate on standard VLSFO. The Institute of Methanol welcomed the announcement.
“Methanol is proven as a clean, efficient and safe marine fuel that offers immediate decarbonization benefits to vessel operators with substantial net GHG reductions, full compliance with IMO2020 and a pathway that leads to net carbon neutrality as production of renewable Methanol grows," said Chris Chatterton, Chief Operating Officer of the Methanol Institute.
The announcement comes in the midst of rising customer demand for sustainable shipping chains and the acceleration of demand-support technical advances in the sector.
Maersk's current fleet replacement plans include both the methanol-fueled feeder vessel and the decision to add dual fuel engines for future newbuildings.
The organization requires CAPEX effects to be manageable. Maersk said that it plans to have $4.5-5.5 billion for 2021-2022 in its CAPEX guidance released last week.
The liner major ended the year with record quarterly earnings, predicting a range of $8.5-10.5 billion in underlying EBITDA for 2021, compared to $8.3 billion in 2020.
Commenting on the prospects of ordering new ships last week, Skou said Maersk needed some of its aging tonnage to be replaced, adding that nothing drastic should be expected.
Maritime Business World


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Twitter has revealed a 119% growth in revenue to $250m, with advertising revenue having grown by 125 per cent to $226m, despite user growth slowing with an increase of 5.8 per cent.
The company reported that its user rate had reached 255 million active users during the first quarter, below analyst expectations, which has seen its share price fall as a result, while it also reported a net loss of $132m during the same period. Meanwhile, its timelines reached 157 billion views for the first time, an increase of 15 per cent, while mobile MAUs grew to 198 million during the first quarter, an increase in 31 per cent year on year.
Of its total advertising revenue, mobile made up approximately 80 per cent, while data licensing and other revenue grew by 76 per cent to reach $24m.
Dick Costolo, CEO of Twitter, described the first quarter as “very strong”
He added: “Revenue growth accelerated on a year over year basis fuelled by increased engagement and user growth.
"We also continue to rapidly increase our reach and scale. With the integration of MoPub, we now reach more than 1 billion iOS and Android users each month, making us one of the largest in-app mobile ad exchanges in the world and the only one at scale to offer native in-app advertising."
The company has projected its revenue to be between £270m-£280m for the second quarter of 2014, with adjusted EBITDA projected at between $25m - $30m, while the full year is projected to generate revenue of between $1,200m and $1,250m, with adjusted EBITDA forecast as ranging between $180m to $205m.
During the same period, the company expanded partnerships with Nielsen, Kantar and GfK, and launched a number of improved tools for its advertisers.


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iMessage is one of Apple’s most used features, and Dan Moren thinks iOS 14 is a good time to give it a boost.
Apple has many opportunities to offer products that are smaller than their current offerings, while still providing a top-notch experience.
Rumors of an iPhone sans ports arose at the end of last year, but a few recent developments have lended credence to the speculation.
Dan Moren moved to iCloud Drive from Dropbox last year, but there are still a few missing features that Apple should deliver.
Many of Apple’s product categories are performing like gangbusters, but there are a few places where the company could stand to invest more.
Apple prides itself on its integration between hardware, software, and services. But even it misses sometimes.
Apple acquires other companies pretty frequently, but doesn’t always admit to it. Dan Moren takes a look at the three most recent public acquisitions by the Cupertino-based company.
As Apple becomes embroiled in another battle with the government over cybersecurity, Dan Moren argues that the company should double down on its privacy stand.
After focusing a lot of time and energy on pro Mac users, Dan Moren thinks that consumer Macs could use a little love too.
With this year’s iPhones already on the market, rumors for the next two years of Apple’s smartphones have already started to bloom.
Signs point to Apple changing its development practices to combat software bugginess, but Dan Moren thinks there’s a lot more the company could be doing.
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Apple said Wednesday that it is cruising streets in specially equipped cars to gather pictures and other data for its free online mapping service.
Virtual reality is creeping into our world.
Her electronic waste is someone else's treasure.
Wal-Mart's push to get its suppliers to give farm animals fewer antibiotics and more room to roam is expected to have a big impact on the food industry, experts say.
Playboy on Thursday launched a new mobile app—but don't look for nudity.
Prices for eggs and turkey meat are rising as an outbreak of bird flu in the Midwest claims an increasing number of chickens and turkeys. Market experts say grocery stores and wholesalers are trying to stock up on eggs, but ...
ACT test takers take note: The No. 2 pencil is losing its cachet. Greater numbers of high school students will be able to take the college entrance exam on a computer next year.
Google, Yahoo and other major technology companies are far more inclined to hire Asians as computer programmers than to promote them to become managers or executives, according to a study released Wednesday.
Veteran tech executive John Chambers plans to step down after more than 20 years as CEO of Cisco Systems Inc., a major supplier of computer networking gear that makes the Internet work.
A hydrogen-fueled vehicle will lead the field at a NASCAR race for the first time when a 2016 Toyota Mirai serves as the official pace car Saturday night at Richmond.


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Sound clever in meetings with this concise snapshot of the new games you need to know about.
Here every Friday you’ll find big games gone global, fresh soft launches, the latest release dates and everything in between.
Monster Hunter Now (Niantic/Capcom)
There will be high hopes for this one at Niantic. After trying to make the Pokémon Go formula work with other brands that just didn’t quite fit, Monster Hunter feels about right. It’s out now worldwide on iOS and Android, and after months of pre-orders it is top of the charts in the US, Japan, UK and across Europe.
Apple’s iPhone 15 Pro games
Apple pushed its games offering a little harder than usual in its September keynote, using some triple-A console games to demo the power of the new iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max. Hit play on the above video to skip straight to the brief but notable games section.
The tech giant announced that Resident Evil Village, Resident Evil 4 Remake and Death Stranding are coming to iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max “later this year”, and Assassin’s Creed Mirage is coming to the same top-end phones “in the first half of 2024”.
Apple has long used games to showcase hardware performance in its keynotes and this felt like a step up, though these games have no chance of troubling the top grossing charts.
Elsewhere in the showcase, there were also cameos from Ubisoft’s The Division Resurgence – “launching in early 2024” – and Hoyoverse’s Honkai: Star Rail and Genshin Impact.
Match Factory (Peak/Zynga)
The Toon Blast and Toy Blast maker put its new matching game out into soft launch last week. Peak’s new puzzler has handsome 3D matching on a jumbled-up game board and is out now in the UK and Turkey only.
Little Nightmares (Playdigious)
Playdigious continues to port over interesting indie-flavoured games to mobile. Following on from the likes of Dead Cells and Streets of Rage 4, this horror game from Tarsier Studios will be coming to iOS and Android on December 12, and is available to pre-order now.
Motorsport Manager 4
This is a premium racing management sim that clocks in at $6.99/£6.99, and occupies a very similar ‘dad game’ space to Football Manager. It’s out now worldwide on iOS and Android.
AFK Football (Wildlife)
Wildlife’s new game is out on iOS and Android globally now, and mixes team-building and upgrading with idle-style football matches.
SaGa Emerald Beyond (Square)
Revealed in this week’s Nintendo Direct, this is a Square JRPG that’s also coming to iOS and Android in 2024.
Warbits+ (Risky Labs)
Touch Arcade reports that this mobile reimagining of cult Nintendo series Advance Wars is getting a beefed up remake. It’s coming first to Steam then later to mobile at some point.
Sky Islands (Gionathan Pesaresi)
Prolific solo indie developer Gionathan Pesaresi (AKA Neutronized) has had some success with the Super Cat Tales games, and has been making great 2D platformers at an impressive rate for years. This latest one is a Fez-inspired puzzle-platformer that has some fun switching between 2D and 3D.
Football Manager Mobile 2024 (Sports Interactive)
As we reported earlier this week, Netflix has exclusively signed the next edition of Football Manager Mobile, starting with the 2024 iteration coming on November 6.


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EGR Broking recommends selling shares in Britain’s part-nationalised bank Lloyds, which have surged some 45 percent since the start of 2013, in order to bank profits on that rally before Lloyds’ interim results at the start of next month, before then buying back the stock at a cheaper price.
Lloyds is up by 1.1 percent at 69.53 pence in early session trading, but EGR Broking managing director Kyri Kangellaris expects the stock will struggle to make much more headway without first falling back.
“At this stage it is hard to see much more upside from the current price without a correction. There may be an opportunity to sell at current levels and then buy back at cheaper prices or buy other shares, and it is prudent to reduce exposure before August 1st, when the half-yearly results are announced, in case of any nasty surprises,” Kangellaris writes in a trading note.
The British government owns around 39 percent of Lloyds and 81 percent of rival Royal Bank of Scotland after bailing out both companies during the global financial crisis.
Lloyds shares had hit a 2-1/2 year high earlier this month as overseas investors stepped up their interest in buying part of the bank, with media reports suggesting some may want half the government’s stake.
Reuters messaging rm://email@example.com


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Following reports last month, On has now officially been listed on the New York Stock Exchange. A group of 100 runners, including all five co-founders of the Swiss sportswear brand, made their way through Manhattan and over to Wall Street to ring the stock exchange’s famous bell.
Sources previously reported that On was hoping to reach a valuation of $5 billion. On is one of the fastest-growing sportswear brands in the world, having taken the running world by storm over the past 10 years and slowly but steadily establishing itself in the lifestyle market as well. On’s half-year sales numbers in 2021 grew 85 percent when compared to the same period in 2020.
In addition to impressive numbers, the brand also passes the eye test. More and more people are wearing On sneakers in big cities and, while the big brands still dominate, you’d be surprised by how many On sneakers you’ll see on the street.
On hopes that its listing on the NYSE will help the brand keep its independence and continue its phase of hyper-growth into the future. The IPO, paired with On’s impressive momentum, and the fact that fellow Swiss legend Roger Federer is on board as a co-entrepreneur, lay solid foundations for future success.
Stay tuned for more information on On’s public offering. In the meantime, check out our favorite On sneakers here.
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Overland Park-based NPC International Inc., the largest Pizza Hut franchisee, is taking a bigger bite in Wendy’s.
NPC has announced an agreement to buy 62 Wendy’s restaurants for $52.6 million from Valenti Mid-Atlantic Managment LLC. The units to be acquired are in south-central Pennsylvania, in the Harrisburg and Allentown areas.
As part of the transaction, NPC said it plans to remodel some of the restaurants in Wendy’s new format.
NPC also said it agreed to acquire six property locations from Valenti for $3.6 million.
The restaurants will be owned and operated by NPC Quality Burgers Inc., an NPC subsidiary.
NPC operates about 1,152 Pizza Hut restaurants and delivery centers in 27 states, primarily in the Midwest, South and Southeast. It also operates 184 Wendy’s restaurants in five states.
The purchase is expected to be completed in late April, pending several approvals, iincluding one from The Wendy’s Co.
“This acquisition will be our seventh acquisition in the Wendy’s system since 2013 and will increase our holdings to 246 restaurants with expected annual revenue exceeding $350 million,” or about 30 percent of NPC’s total consolidated revenue, Jim Schwartz, the company’s chairman and chief executive officer said in a statement.
NPC is largely owned by an entity controlled by Olympus Growth Fund V L.P.


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In a recent development, the South Korean tech giant Samsung and SK Telecom have joined together and unveiled a new smartphone in the country. The latest offering is the Samsung Galaxy Wide5. It is a budget smartphone with 5G connectivity offering a slew of specifications that are quite appealing.
Is It Samsung Galaxy F42 5G?
Well, the Samsung Galaxy Wide5 makes use of a large display, a 64MP primary camera sensor within the triple-camera unit, a capacious battery and ample internal storage space. What’s interesting is that this smartphone is believed to be launched as the Samsung Galaxy F42 5G in India.
Ahead of its launch, the Galaxy Wide5 was speculated to be a refreshed variant of the Galaxy A22 5G. However, the device appears to have a different rear design and main camera. Samsung is expected to unveil the Galaxy F42 5G in India likely with the model number SM-E426B-DS. Since the model number is similar to that of the Galaxy Wide5, it is said to be launched in India with the rebranding Galaxy F42 5G.
Samsung Galaxy Wide5 Specs
When it comes to specifications, the Samsung Galaxy Wide5 with the model number SM-E426B has been launched with a 6.6-inch Infinity-V display with an FHD+ resolution. The screen houses an 8MP selfie camera sensor. At its rear, there is a triple-camera setup that comprises a 64MP primary camera sensor, a 5MP secondary ultra-wide lens with a 115-degree field of view, and a 2MP tertiary depth sensor.
Under its hood, the Samsung Galaxy Wide5 makes use of a MediaTek Dimensity 700 SoC teamed up with 6GB of RAM and 128GB of storage space. There is a microSD card slot for expandable storage space. The smartphone runs Android 11 OS out-of-the-box. A 5000mAh battery powers the smartphone from within along with support for 15W fast charging. Also, there is a side-mounted fingerprint sensor on the Samsung smartphone.
Given that the Galaxy Wide5 has been unveiled, we can expect the Galaxy F42 5G to also be launched sometime soon in India. Taking the previous launches from the company into consideration, we can expect it to be priced competitively in the country.


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Console PlayStation 5
We talked about it last month, the new pair of sneakers with PlayStation colors will be released in this sweet month of May. Between two game releases you’ll have to be quick if you want to get them because you can expect them to be out of stock as soon as they are released.
The news of the day is that the team that worked on the design of the console is also involved in the concept of this sneaker.
You’ll have to get to the Nike app and site as soon as possible on May 14 to get them (watch for the release time so you don’t miss them).
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Sir David Samworth and his family enjoyed the greatest wealth among food manufacturers, according to the annual list, reaching 215th with a worth of £576M. Last year the owners of manufacturer Samworth Brothers ranked 252nd and were worth £465M.
Samworth Brothers acquired the West Cornwall Pasty Company for an undisclosed sum earlier this year, expanding the manufacturer’s pasty market share in Britain.
The second and third wealthiest families in food manufacturing were Warburton and Boparan.
The Warburton family fell down this year’s Rich List to 225th place but were still worth £545M. This was despite their wealth increasing by £15M compared with last year.
It was the second year in a row that family was placed lower in the list – after they ranked 206 in 2015’s Rich List.
Earlier this year, the Warburtons business was named the best food manufacturing employer in The Sunday Times’s list of The 30 Best Big Companies to work for 2017 – the only food manufacturing company to make it on the list.
Rose up the rankings
2 Sisters owners Ranjit and Baljinder Boparan rose up the rankings of this year’s Sunday Times Rich List, boosted by their recent purchase of Bernard Mathews.
The Boparans ranked 227th on this year’s list, up from 267th last year. The pair was worth £544M, a jump of £114M since the last Rich List.
Rutland Partner’s sale of Bernard Matthews to Boparan Private Office drew criticism from the Work and Pensions Committee. The Committee claimed Rutland was more interest in lining its own pockets than the welfare of Bernard Matthews’ workers.
Other members of the food and drink industry that made it onto the list included Noble Foods chairman Peter Dean. They were ranked 534th on the list with an estimated worth of £212M.
William Jackson Food Group owners the Oughtred family were ranked 686th and were estimated to be worth £163M.
Richest food and drink manufacturing families
The Weston family – who’s British wealth stems from a 20.8% stake in Associated British Foods owner Wittington Investments – placed seventh in this year’s list, with an estimated worth of £10.5bn.
Leading the list of richest food and drink manufacturing families were Heineken owners Charlene De Carvalho-Heineken and Michel De Carvalho. The pair were ranked the 10th richest people in the UK, with a combined wealth of £9.3bn.
The Grant-Gordon whisky family – owners of the Glenfiddich brand – was ranked the richest in Scotland, with a fortune of £2.37bn and placing 50th on the list.
The Sunday Times Rich List is published in April each year and details the 1,000 richest people living in the UK.
This year saw brothers Sri and Gopi Hinduja top the list with a combined worth of £16.2bn, their personal wealth increasing by 33.2bn. The owners of conglomerate Hinduja Group came second last year.
Warner Music Group owner Len Blavatnik climbed from third position last year to second this year and is now worth £15.98bn.
Meanwhile, look out for our photogallery of the food and drink firms that featured in this year’s Rich List.
Food and drink manufacturers – the richest families
- The Samworth family – worth £576M
- The Warburton family – worth £545M
- Ranjit and Baljinder Boparan – worth £544M
- Charlene De Carvalho-Heineken and Michel De Carvalho – worth £9.3bn
- The Grant-Gordon family – worth £2.37bn


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Motorola has announced their new Defy smartphone which claims to be dust-proof, water and scratch resistant. Featuring 3.7-inch touchscreen display, the Motorola Defy will be available exclusively at all StarHub outlets by 18 December.
Spiros Nikolakopoulos, vice president and general manager, International Distribution Markets, Motorola Mobility, introduced the new Motorola Defy which claims to be the world’s first life-proof smartphone. According to Nikolakopoulos, life proof means to suit one’s lifestyle, citing the example of throwing the phone in your bag without the need to worry about it (being spoilt) or even the need to have a phone casing, not to mention the Defy is dust-proof, water and scratch resistant.
The Motorola Defy is extremely light, weighing just 118g and boasts Corning Gorilla Glass that has great resistance to impact and scratch damage.
Unlike some smartphones on the market that are running Android 2.2 (or the upcoming Nexus S on Android 2.3), the Motorola Defy is on Android 2.1. However, it also offers other features including 3G mobile hotspot for Internet sharing and Motorola Phone Portal to manage and share media content across desktop, phone and the web.
The mini-USB connector is on the left of the Defy, while the right holds the volume controls. There’s no camera mode/camera shutter button, which means you have to touch the display to capture your photos and videos.
At the rear is the 5-megapixel camera with flash while the top holds the power button and the 3.5mm audio jack.
The Motorola Defy will be exclusive to StarHub and the recommended retail price for the phone is S$528 (before telco subsidies).


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Jul 27, 2017
L'Oreal eyes record margins as first-half profits rise
Jul 27, 2017
Cosmetics company L'Oreal on Thursday predicted it would make a record profit margin this year as it posted higher first-half sales and earnings boosted by growth in luxury products and emerging markets.
L'Oreal said its first-half operating profit rose 7.1 percent from a year ago to 2.53 billion euros ($2.95 billion), while revenue increased by 4 percent to 13.41 billion euros.
According to a consensus forecast compiled for Reuters by Inquiry Financial, analysts had been predicting an operating profit of 2.56 billion euros and sales of 13.8 billion euros.
L'Oreal sold The Body Shop earlier this year and it said the earnings boost from that disposal, along with its first-half results, made it well placed for the rest of 2017.
"Over the full year, the sale of The Body Shop, and the accretive effect this has on profitability, means that we will be able to strongly increase our profitability, which for the first time could reach 18 percent of sales, and also to take the opportunity to strengthen our business drivers in order to accelerate our market share gains and thus our future growth," said L'Oreal Chairman and Chief Executive Jean-Paul Agon.
"This strategic choice, combined with the good first-half results, strengthens our confidence in our ability to once again outperform the cosmetics market in 2017, and to achieve growth in both our sales and profits," added Agon.
Sales rose 15.4 percent at the company's luxury arm, which includes products such as Lancome, and L'Oreal also reported a strong performance at its digital and online businesses.
The French company added there were also strong growth in markets such as mainland China, Hong Kong and Mexico, which was helping offset slower growth in France and Europe.
L'Oreal is the latest major luxury goods group to post robust first-half results.
Earlier this month, French peer LVMH reported a 23 percent rise in first-half operating profit, Burberry posted better-than-expected same store sales while Swatch struck a confident note on its outlook.
Swiss foods group Nestle owns around 23 percent of L'Oreal, while L'Oreal in turn owns some 9 percent of healthcare company Sanofi.
© Thomson Reuters 2023 All rights reserved.


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The MPC's package of stimulus measures, which exceeded markets' expectations, demonstrates that it is currently placing little weight on the inflation outlook. Even so, if inflation matches our expectations and overshoots the 2% target by a bigger margin next year than the MPC currently thinks is acceptable, it will have to consider its zeal for more stimulus.
We expect April's consumer price figures, due on Wednesday, to show that CPI inflation leapt to 2.3%, from 1.9% in March, exceeding the MPC's 2.2% forecast in the latest Inflation Report.
February's consumer price figures provided hard evidence that the import price shock, caused by sterling's depreciation last year, is filtering through faster than the MPC expected. We expect CPI inflation to continue to exceed the forecast set out in February's Inflation Report.
The 12-month average German trade surplus continues to set records, rising to €18.2B in January, but exports started the quarter on a weak note, falling 2.1% month-to-month in January, equivalent to a mere 1.9% rise year-over-year.
Argentina's central bank held interest rates at 60% on Wednesday, as was widely expected.
Calling the ECB has suddenly become a lot more complicated.
Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena SpA will step up efforts to win investors for an expanded debt-to-equity swap over the coming days, pressing ahead with a 5 billion-euro ($5.3- billion) capital increase as its options to avoid a state rescue dwindle. Pantheon Macroeconomics Chief Euro Zone Economist Claus Vistesen weighs in on "Bloomberg Daybreak: Americas."
Economists are divided evenly on whether Tuesday's consumer price figures will show that CPI inflation held steady at 2.9% or edged down to 2.8% in June.
The fall in CPI inflation to 2.6% in June, from 2.9% in May, greatly undershot expectations for an unchanged rate and it has made a vote by the MPC to keep interest rates at 0.25% in August a near certainty.
Argentina's economy is firing on all cylinders, thanks to improving fundamentals and a positive external backdrop.
Today's preliminary estimate of Q3 GDP looks set to indicate that the Brexit vote has had little detrimental impact on the economy so far.
The tone of Fed Chair Powell's opening comments at the press conference yesterday was much more dovish than the statement, which did little more than most analysts expected.
Business investment has punched above its weight in the economic recovery from the crash of 2008; annual real growth in capex has averaged 5% over the last five years, greatly exceeding GDP growth of 2%. This recovery is unlikely to grind to a halt soon, since profit margins are still high and borrowing costs will remain low. But corporate balance sheets are not quite as robust as they seem, while capex in the investment-intensive oil sector still has a lot further to fall.
The Chancellor's decision immediately to spend all the proceeds from the OBR's upgrade to its projections for tax receipts appears to leave his plans exposed to future adverse revisions to the economic outlook.
Today's advance CPI data will show that EZ inflation pressures rose further at the end of Q3. The headline number likely will exceed the consensus. We think inflation rose to 0.5% year-over-year in September from 0.2% in August, slightly higher than the 0.4% consensus.
Sometime very soon, likely in the second quarter of this year, the stock of net housing wealth will exceed the $13.1T peak recorded before the crash, in the fourth quarter of 2005. At the post-crash low, in the first quarter of 2009, net housing equity had fallen by 53%, to just $6.2T. The recovery began in earnest in 2012, and over the past year net housing wealth has been rising at a steady pace just north of 10%. With housing demand rising, credit conditions easing and inventory still very tight, we have to expect home prices to keep rising at a rapid pace.
Households' decision to reduce their saving rate sharply was the main reason why economic growth exceeded forecasters' expectations in the aftermath of the Brexit vote.
The E.C.'s Economic Sentiment Indicator for the U.K., released yesterday, painted an upbeat picture of the economy's recent performance. The ESI picked up to 109.4 in February from 107.1 in January; its average level since 1990 is 100. February's reading was the highest since December 2015, and it slightly exceeded the E.U.'s average of 108.9.
The preliminary estimate of a 0.5% quarter-on-quarter rise in GDP in Q4 slightly exceeded our expectation and the third quarter's growth rate, both 0.4%. Nonetheless, there was little to console the optimists in the figures. The recovery remains unbalanced, with industrial production and construction output falling by 0.2% and 0.1% respectively, while services output rose 0.7% quarter-on-quarter.
The absence of hawkish undertones in the minutes of the MPC's meeting or in the Inflation Report forecasts took markets by surprise yesterday. The dominant view on the Committee remains that the economy will slow over the next couple of years, preventing wage growth from reaching a pace which would put inflation on trac k permanently to exceed the 2% target.
Markets' expectations for official interest rates have shifted up over the last fortnight, and the consensus view now is that the MPC will hike rates before the end of this year. As our first chart shows, the implied probability of interest rates breaching 0.25% in December 2017 now slightly exceeds 50%.
By any yardstick, U.K. productivity growth has been terrible in recent years. Output per hour exceeded its pre-recession peak only in the second quarter of 2015, and it has grown at an average annual rate of just 0.6% this decade. U.S. productivity growth has been equally dismal since 2010. But the U.K.'s performance is more worrying, because the productivity slump during the recession suggested scope for a period of catch-up. In the U.S., by contrast, productivity surged during the recession as firms cut headcount sharply.
London has been the U.K.'s growth star for the last two decades. Between 1997 and 2014, yearover-year growth in nominal Gross Value Added averaged 5.4% in London, greatly exceeding the 4% rate across the rest of the country. Surveys since the referendum, however, indicate that the capital is at the sharp end of the post-referendum downturn.
Sterling was the worst performing G10 currency in 2016 and most analysts anticipate further weakness in 2017. The cost of purchasing downside protection for sterling over the next year also continues to exceed upside protection, as our first chart shows.
Colombia's August inflation rate exceeded BanRep's 2-to-4% target range yet again, rising to a six-year high of 4.7%, from 4.5% in July. The signs of stabilization over the previous couple of months proved to be temporary. Core inflation has jumped above the upper bound of the inflation target too, climbing to 4.2%--the highest rate since 2009--in August from 4.0% in July, suggesting that the pass-through from the depreciating currency into consumer prices is starting to hurt. Inflation in tradables jumped in August to 5.2% from 4.7%, underscoring the hit from the COP's drop.
In one line: Consistent with Q1 GDP growth exceeding the MPC's forecast.
Friday's GDP report likely will fuel concerns the economy has little underlying momentum. Granted, quarter-on-quarter growth probably sped up to 0.6% in Q3--exceeding the economy's potential rate--from 0.4% in Q2.
Progress in reducing the budget deficit has ground to a virtual halt, despite the ongoing fiscal consolidation. Public sector net borrowing excluding public sector banks--PSNB ex.--was £10.6B in September, exceeding the £9.3B borrowed in the same month last year.
The slowdown in quarter-on-quarter growth in households' real spending to 0.4% in Q1--just half 2016's average rate--was driven entirely by a 0.1% fall in purchases of goods. Households' spending on services, by contrast, continued to grow briskly. Indeed, the 0.8% quarter-on-quarter rise in households' real spending on services exceeded 2016's average 0.5% rate.
Activity surveys picked up across the board in April, offering hope that the slowdown in GDP growth--to just 0.3% quarter-on-quarter in Q1-- will be just a blip. The headline indicators of surveys from the CBI, European Commission, Lloyds Bank and Markit all improved in April and all exceeded their 2004-to-2016 averages.
We would be quite surprised if today's official payroll number exceeded the 135K ADP reading; a clear undershoot is much more likely.
November's Markit/CIPS construction report brings hope that the sector no longer is contracting. The PMI increased to a five-month high of 53.1 in November from 50.8 in October, exceeding the 52-mark that in practice has separated expansion from contraction.
Political turmoil in Brazil continues to undermine President Dilma Rousseff's leverage over the economy. On Friday, the Lower House of Congress voted to start impeachment proceeding against Ms. Rousseff. She has until early April to present her defense against charges that she doctored government accounts and used graft proceeds to fund the 2014 electoral campaign.
After the drama of the last few days, Brexit developments now are set to proceed at a slower pace.
August's consumer price figures, released today, likely will show that households' spending power is being increasingly eroded by rising inflation. We think CPI inflation picked up to 0.8%, from 0.6% in July, exceeding the consensus, 0.7%, for the third consecutive month.
CPI inflation increased to 2.9% in May, from 2.7% in April, exceeding the no-change expectation of both the consensus and the MPC, as well as our own 2.8% forecast.
We expect today's consumer prices figures to show that CPI inflation picked up to 0.5% in May, from 0.3% in April, exceeding the 0.4% rate anticipated by both the consensus and the MPC, in last month's Inflation Report. We expect the increase to be driven by a jump in the core rate to 1.4%, from 1.2% in April.
March's consumer price figures, released tomorrow, look set to show that inflation's ascent was kept in check by the later Easter this year compared to last. Nonetheless, CPI inflation will take big upward strides over the coming months, and it likely will exceed 3% by the summer.
July's consumer price figures, due tomorrow, likely will bring early evidence that sterling's Brexit-driven depreciation already is pushing up inflation. We think that CPI inflation picked up to 0.6% in July from 0.5% in June, exceeding the consensus forecast for an unchanged reading. Experience of past depreciations suggests that July's figures likely won't be the last time the consensus is surprised by the speed of the rise in inflation.
The measures to support the economy through the coronavirus crisis, unveiled by policymakers on Budget day, exceeded expectations.
Over the last decade, the MPC has underestimated the extent and duration of departures of CPI inflation from the 2% target. Inflation exceeded the MPC's expectations in the early 2010s, as policymakers underestimated the impact of sterling's prior depreciation and overestimated the role that slack would play in stifling price pressures. Inflation also undershot the MPC's forecast between 2014 and 2016, when sterling's appreciation reduced import prices.
Colombia's January inflation rate easily exceeded BanRep's 2-to-4% target range yet again, jumping to 7.5% from 6.8% in October, the fastest increase since December 2008. This is putting pressure on BanRep to continue tightening, following 150bp rate hikes, to 6.0%, since September.
The U.K. is one of the smallest winners among advanced economies from the precipitous decline in oil prices. British oil production still fulfils about 55% of the U.K.'s demand, even though it has declined by two-thirds since its 1999 peak. Oil consumption therefore exceeds production by a much smaller margin in the U.K. than in most other European countries. As a result, the boost to the U.K. economy from the $10 decline in oil prices over the last month isn't much to write home about.
Investors have been caught out by the speed of the recent rise in RPI inflation and have revised up their expectations. Even so, inflation swaps imply that markets expect RPI inflation to be 3.6% in one year's time, not much above the latest print, 3.2% in February. We still think RPI inflation will exceed markets' expectations.
If Fed Chair Yellen's objective yesterday was to deliver studied ambiguity in her Testimony--and we believe it was--she succeeded. She offered plenty to both sides of the rate debate. For the hawks, she noted that unemployment is now "...in line with the median of FOMC participants' most recent estimates of its longer-run normal level", and that inflation is still expected to return to the 2% target, "...once oil and import prices stop falling".
Gilt yields have collapsed this year, aided by a surge in safe-haven demand, the much lower outlook for overnight interest rates and the resumption of QE. Bond yields also have fallen globally, but the drop in the ten-year gilt yields to a record low of 0.53%, from nearly 2% at the beginning of 2016, has greatly exceeded the declines elsewhere, as our first chart shows.
The rundown of the Fed's balance sheet has proceeded in line with the plans laid out b ack in June 2017.
The FTSE 100 has fallen by 4% over the last two weeks, exceeding the 1-to-3% declines in the main US, European and Japanese markets. The FTSE's latest drop builds on an underperformance which began in early 2014. The index has fallen by 10% since then--compared to rises of between 10% and 20% in the main overseas benchmarks--and has dropped by nearly 15% since its April 2015 peak. We doubt, however, that the collapse in U.K. equity prices signals impending economic misery. The economy is likely to struggle next year, but this will have little to do with the stock market's travails.
January's CPI inflation of 1.8%, up from 1.6% in December, was one-tenth lower than anticipated by the consensus, the Bank of England and ourselves. The undershoot, however, was entirely due to a pull-back in clothing inflation which is unlikely to be sustained. Price pressures across the rest of the economy have continued to intensify, suggesting that CPI inflation still is on course greatly to exceed the 2% target later this year.
August's consumer price figures caught everyone by surprise. CPI inflation increased to 2.7%, from 2.4% in July, greatly exceeding the consensus and the MPC's forecast, 2.4%.
October's colossal 1.9% month-to-month jump in retail sales volumes greatly exceeded the 0.5% consensus and even our own top-of-the- range 1.0% forecast.
The third quarter national accounts, due to be published on Friday, likely will not alter the picture of economic resilience immediately after the referendum. The latest estimate of GDP growth often is revised in this release, but revisions have not exceeded 0.1 percentage points in either direction in the last four years, as our first chart shows.
Governor Kuroda commented yesterday that he doesn't think Japan needs more easing at this stage. If he means that the BoJ does not have to change policy to provide more easing then we think he is right, on two and a half counts. First, Japan is likely to receive a boost under its current framework as external rate rises exceed expectations, driving down the yen.
Retail sales increased by 1.0% month-to-month in August, exceeding our no-change forecast and spurring markets to price-in a 65% chance that the MPC will raise interest rates at its next meeting on November 2, up from 60% beforehand.
If the economy is to enter recession, falling business investment probably will have to be the main driver. Growth in consumer spending likely will slow sharply over the next year as firms become more cautious about hiring new workers and inflation begins to exceed wage growth again.
Surveys suggest that today's retail sales figures will show that sales volumes increased by around 1% month-to-month in June, significantly exceeding the consensus, 0.4%. But the pickup in June likely will be just a blip; the further intensification of the squeeze on real wages and a tightening of unsecured lending standards will keep retail sales on a flat path in the second half of 2017.
February's consumer price report, released tomorrow, likely will show that CPI inflation has breached the MPC's 2% target for the first time since November 2013. Indeed, we think the headline rate jumped to 2.2%, from 1.8% in January, exceeding the 2.1% rate expected by the MPC and the consensus.
Halfway through the third quarter, we have no objection to the idea that GDP growth likely will exceed 2% for the third straight quarter.
Sebastián Piñera returns to the Presidential Palacio de la Moneda, succeeding Michelle Bachelet as president of Chile, as in 2010.
On the face of it, British manufacturers are weathering the global slowdown well. The Markit/CIPS PMI jumped to 55.1 in March, from 52.1 in February, and now comfortably exceeds those for the Eurozone, U.S. and Japan.
Retail sales volumes jumped by 2.3% month-to-month in April, exceeding the 1.0% consensus and even our 2.0% forecast. It would be a big mistake to conclude, however, that households' spending will propel the economy forward this year like it did between 2013 and 2016.
July's consumer price figures--published on August 15th, while we are on vacation--look set to show that June's drop in CPI inflation was just a blip. We think that CPI inflation ticked up to 2.7% in July, from 2.6% in June, on track to slightly exceed 3% toward the end of this year.
Brazil's lower house of Congress on Sunday voted to start impeachment proceedings against President Dilma Rousseff, who is accused of tampering with the public accounts to help secure her re-election in 2014. Ms. Rousseff's opponents obtained 367 votes, exceeding the two-thirds majority, needed to send the motion to the Senate.
Chief U.S. Economist Ian Shepherdson on U.S. housing starts
Ian Shepherdson, chief economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics, discusses the impact of improving wage growth and inflation on the Federal Reserve ahead of today's February jobs report. He speaks on "Bloomberg Surveillance."
pantheon macroeconomics, pantheon, macroeconomic, macroeconomics, independent analysis, independent macroeconomic research, independent, analysis, research, economic intelligence, economy, economic, economics, economists, , Ian Shepherdson, financial market, macro research, independent macro research


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Last year, after the boycott resolution had been passed, FLOC vice president Justin Flores said: “[Reynolds American] can barely agree on what the committee's name should be, let alone what they're going to do - We've been getting a little further along in the conversation, but 10 years is long enough, and we believe they're not taking us seriously."
Now the Toledo-based union has stepped up the action and is launching a national boycott of all Reynold’s products, including the VUSE electronic cigarette. The boycott kicks off this week with planned demonstrations outside convenience stores in more than sixty American cities.
In Toledo, home to the union, the demonstration begins later today, between 5:30 p.m. to 6:15 p.m., outside a 7-Eleven store at near the University of Toledo’s main campus. Demonstrators “will be demanding a stronger commitment to human rights in general, and especially the labour conditions placed on field workers employed by North Carolina-based Reynolds American, the U.S. subsidiary of British American Tobacco P.L.C., one of the world’s largest tobacco companies.”
FLOC president Baldemar Velasquez said: “We want to pressure Reynolds into fundamental human rights and labour rights. The vast majority of [tobacco] farms do business with farm labour contractors; they’re known to be very abusive and dishonest.”
Central to the store protests is the demand that they stop carrying VUSE electronic cigarettes. Leaflets are going to be handed out and the union says it will repeat the demonstrations on a monthly basis.
A Reynolds statement said: “R.J. Reynolds has been a leader in promoting better conditions for tobacco farm workers, regardless of union status. We are proud of what has been accomplished and are committed to work with manufacturers, growers, and other parties, including FLOC, to continue finding workable solutions.”
The union’s problem is that the tobacco company is hiding behind North Carolina law. Reynolds claims the law prohibits them from being able to requiring the growers to have a union agreement with FLOC.
FLOC has 20,000 members working on the farms that supply tobacco to Reynolds. The union contends that their members are not allowed to assemble, organise, or issue grievances.
Vaelasquez added: “There’s retaliation if workers complain. These are some of the fundamental things we want to address. I don't know how long this will take. We just boycott until we make something happen. It’s like turning a freight train around in its tracks.”


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Asus Zenfone Live handset was launched earlier this year in the month of May at a price point of Rs. 9,999/-, which then later fell to Rs. 8,999/- and now as the sub 10K price segment is having immense competition, the company has decided to give this smartphone another 1,000/- rupees price cut, which now makes it available at a price point of Rs. 7,999/-. However, surprising the Gold color variant of this handset is still selling at a price point of Rs. 9,999/-.
Talking about the specifications of this smartphone, it sports 5” HD 720p IPS display and it is powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 Quad-Core processor clocked at 1.4GHz coupled with Adreno 305 graphics processor and it is having a 2GB of RAM.
Recommended – Zenfone Live Detailed Performance and Battery Review.
Zenfone Live runs on Android Marshmallow operating system out of the box and it has 16GB of internal storage which can be further expanded up to 128GB via microSD card.
This handset is equipped with a 13-Megapixel rear auto-focus camera and up front, it is having a 5-Megapixel camera along with selfie flash. This smartphone comes with BeautyLive app, which applies all the beautification filters and settings in real-time and it can also directly live-stream your front selfie videos.
In terms of connectivity, it comes with dual-SIM (hybrid) slots and it is packing a 2650 mAh non-removable Polymer battery.
After this price cut, the Asus Zenfone Live smartphone is available in black and pink color option at a price point of Rs. 7,999/- on online shopping portal Flipkart. However surprisingly, the gold color variant with similar specifications is still selling at Rs. 9,999/-.
Asus Zenfone Live Key Specifications
- 5” HD IPS Display
- Android 6.0 (Marshmallow) OS
- Snapdragon 400 Quad-Core Processor
- 2GB RAM / 16GB Storage
- MicroSD up to 128GB
- 13MP Rear Camera with LED Flash
- 5MP Front Camera with LED Selfie Flash
- Dual SIM Slots (hybrid)
- 2650 mAh non-removable Battery
- Available on Flipkart


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| Globaltimes.cn | 2012-6-21 18:35:03
Geely Automobile held a launching ceremony at the Exhibition Hall of Kuwait Automotive Imports Co W.L.L (KAICO) (Al Shaya & Al Sagar) on June 11, 2012, marking the Chinese automakers' official entry into the Kuwaiti market. Present at the ceremony were some of senior officials of Geely, automotive dealers from Kuwait and officials of the Chinese Embassy in Kuwait, including Pan Zhinan, the political counselor, and Hu Yaowu, the commercial counselor.
Three Geely models were released in the ceremony to cater for different demands of local buyers and supposed to win customers with their high quality, well proven design and advanced technology. According to KAICO's CEO Yousef Al-Shaya, 200 Geely cars will be introduced into the Kuwaiti market first and they are expected to gain one percent market share in the first year by virtue of KAICO's effective marketing channel and quality after-sales service, which are believed to facilitate Geely's strong sales performance in Kuwait.
Geely, based in Zhejing, ranks among China's fastest growing privately-run automakers, and KAICO, as one of Kuwait's leading automotive companies, has signed contracts with renowned brands like Mazda, Peugeot, Mobil, Michelin and Apollo, etc.
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Rain has confirmed that it suffered an issue that resulted in some clients being incorrectly billed for their services.
One reader who contacted MyBroadband said they had downgraded their 5G service to Rain’s unlimited off-peak 4G data product because they were not satisfied with the performance of their 5G connection.
They received confirmation that they had been downgraded, and were told in the confirmation email that they would be charged a pro-rata rate for the 4G product of R241.67, and from July onwards they would pay the full R250 per month.
However, the user said they were then billed for the full price of the 5G service on the same day – which comes to nearly double the price they were meant to pay as per the confirmation email.
Many similar reports
There have also been numerous reports on Hellopeter complaining about similar billing issues.
“I registered for a SIM card and I got 2 SIM cards delivered. I didn’t understand why this was done, however, I had the one SIM card cancelled and only activated the one,” said one user.
“I started using it a week before the end of May. What happened to the pro-rata amount? I am again now billed for the second SIM card, which I didn’t active and don’t understand why?”
Another user said they were double charged for their Rain SIM.
“My wife and I took out the 5G R699 [deal]. We were charged when we placed the order and today again I see we are charged. Please advise why?”
Users have also complained about 5G connectivity.
“I have intermitted connectivity issues since getting 5G,” said one user. “I constantly have to restart the 5G Router and then the connection is fine for a few days and then the connectivity issues persist.”
Another said they have had a Rain SIM card for a month but have not seen speeds above 1Mbps throughout this period.
Rain told MyBroadband that a limited number of its clients had been billed incorrectly.
“Unfortunately, a small portion of Rain clients have been incorrectly billed (less than 2%),” said Rain.
“We immediately identified the error and emailed clients the same day.”
Rain said that the extra charges that had resulted from this have been refunded, and should reflect in clients’ accounts within three days.
“No action is required from customers,” said Rain.
In response to complaints regarding its connection speeds, Rain also said that while its 5G network had suffered issues in the past, these issues have been resolved.
It cited tests conducted by MyBroadband which found that its 5G network has improved substantially.


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Fangs, but no fangs.
The original NES Castlevania has seen its fair share of re-releases over the years, but the same can’t be said for its alternative arcade version.
VS. Castlevania was originally released for the Nintendo VS. System of arcade hardware, which for the most part offered tweaked versions of NES games designed to focus more on head-to-head gameplay. We say “for the most part” because VS. Castlevania doesn’t bother with that; despite the name, this is a strictly solo affair.
Read the full article on nintendolife.com


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Diwali and Christmas may have saved DMart’s quarter
- DMart’s revenue crossed the ₹9,000 crore mark in the October to December quarter of FY2022.
- The normalcy around this festive season was an added bonus which boosted customer’s confidence in shopping online.
- DMart’s EBITDA margins are going to be in the 8-8.5% range in the December quarter.
AdvertisementRevenue of Avenue Supermarts — which runs retail store chain DMart — crossed a whopping ₹ 9,000 crore in the October to December quarter as more customers increased their budget for Diwali and Christmas shopping. This was the company’s highest quarterly revenue in the last two years.
The normalcy around this festive season was an added bonus, which further boosted customer’s confidence in shopping offline. This is exactly where DMart and its extensive network of 263 retail outlets end up benefit from, analysts and stock brokers believe.
But the sales figure is not the only thing that is going to be great for this retail store chain in the December quarter, say analysts. The revenue figure was only a sneak peak into DMart’s third quarter financial statement that is bound to be released this Saturday, on January 8. And it is definitely something that investors should keep an eye out for.
According to Neha Khanna, cofounder and director of financial services group Valpro, the company’s gross margin is likely to improve year-on-year due to relatively higher general merchandise sales and rising fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) product prices.
DMart’s EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortisation) margins are going to be in the 8-8.5% range in the December quarter, she added.
There is nothing about DMart’s Q3 results that retail investors need to be worried about, but the same is hard to say for the January to March quarter of 2022. Especially, as the threat of a third COVID-19 wave hitting India lingers on.
It’s time DMart starts thinking of ecommerce
DMart has always focused extensively on its retail chain business, but it now needs to go for a digital spin. The competition coming from digital only players like JioMart and BigBasket had been increasing rapidly since the last two years.
But now Khanna believes that DMart and other groceries players — whether online or offline — are going to face tough challenges from players in the quick commerce domain.
AdvertisementWhether it’s Swiggy’s InstaMart, Zomato-backed Blinkit (formerly Grofers) or soonicorns (startups that are close to a billion dollar valuation) Zepto and Dunzo, all are priming 10 minutes delivery. While there are debates whether customers need these services, the fact of the matter remains that investment in the ecommerce space is getting heavier.
DMart added 59 stores in 2022.
Source: DMart’s regulatory filings
“Dmart is dependent on physical stores for the majority of its operation, there are several competitors in this field, only if DMart improves its existing ecommerce platform to attract customers we can expect something to be different [in January to March quarter],” Manoj Dalmia, founder and director at Proficient Equities, told Business Insider.
Even though DMart’s revenue hit a new record between July and September and the profit grew well above its pre-pandemic level, its stock took a 7% dip in trade after the second quarter earnings report came out.
The street’s concern was the lack of strength shown by India’s largest retail chain (by market value) in the online space. Stock broking firm JM Financial had then highlighted that DMart Ready’s — the ecommerce front of Avenue Supermarts — revenue declined 8% in the same time frame, even though the company expanded its ecommerce operations to Surat and Vadodara.
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Promek’s factory in Velika Plana will employ another ten workers in the upcoming period, and they also plan to expand the production facilities, Luca Nanetti, director of Promek, told eKapija.
The Italian company, which deals in precision processing of metal and sheet metal, celebrated ten years of activities in Velika Plana yesterday.
– We are going to have 70 people working in one shift at our two facilities here, and in the upcoming period, our plan is to set up a second and subsequently a third shift – Nanetti explained.
Promek exports the components produced in Velika Plana to its parent company SIPLA from Bologna, which has been in business for over 40 years now. The parts are then used in assembly of the machines for the packing industry.
Promek has been active in Velika Plana since 2007, when they opened their first facility. Two years after that, the company opened its second production facility here. “We import all the raw materials from Italy”, Nanetti explains.
To mark the anniversary of their operations, the company has also opened PromekLAB, a technical lab at the Nikola Tesla Technical School in Velika Plana. They have also signed an agreement with the school stipulated paid work practice in the period of 40 days for the best senior class students. Last summer, the production facilities of the Italian company served as classrooms for the first group of student-interns.
This post is also available in: Italiano


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TOKYO >> Gibier cuisine, which features game meat from such animals as deer and wild boar, is rising in popularity. French for game meat, “gibier” is often associated with luxury, but also the stigma of the meat having a peculiar taste and smell. But new preparations may boost diners’ experience of gibier cuisine.
At French Izakaya Uwashima in Sumida ward in Tokyo, venison tacos (about $8) have been on the menu since November, aligned with deer hunting season in Japan.
The dish uses deer shank and other parts of the Hokkaido Yezo sika deer, simmered with vegetables and served in tortillas. The tacos have been popular, mainly among female customers.
“It has a light and delicious taste with none of the gaminess,” said one diner.
The restaurant offers deer steak every hunting season. But this year, it hopes customers will enjoy casual eating with the venison tacos, which can be eaten with one hand. The restaurant hopes the dish will enable more customers to enjoy gibier.
“Gibier is a common ingredient in French cuisine,” said chef-owner Yoshiyuki Uwajima, who has worked in French restaurants. “Venison is aromatic and easy to eat and has become more popular in recent years in Japan. I hope that those who are usually unwilling to try new things will give it a chance.”
Wine Bar Bologna in Tokyo’s Shinjuku ward began serving Bolognese (about $11.35) using wild boar meat last fall. “Although many people are unfamiliar with wild boar meat, its feral, sweet flavor has been welcomed as something new,” said the bar owner.
While gibier has a reputation for being served at either high-class restaurants or as regional cuisine, it is now being enjoyed in everyday cooking, with products sold in retail stores. Packaged curries at Muji stores, which come in wild boar and venison options, have been sold since 2021.
In November, the Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Ministry started the website National Gibier Fair 2023 (gibier-fair.jp/) that showcases a variety of dishes, including a ramen chain gyoza made with deer meat and a dining bar’s deer shank and root vegetable pot-au-feu. It shares a listing of about 1,500 restaurants and stores that sell gibier products.
Part of the motivation for the government’s efforts to increase game consumption is the destructive impact wildlife has on crops. According to the farm ministry, crop damage in fiscal 2022 cost nearly $105.4 million, and deer and wild boars accounted for some 60% of the damage.
According to the Japan Gibier Promotion Association, an organization based in Nagano, the meat of deer and wild boar is rich in vitamins and iron.
“Deer meat has well-developed lean muscles, so you can fully enjoy its umami,” said Norihiko Fujiki, an association director. “Wild boar meat is sweet, and its melt-in-your-mouth fat is irresistible.”
Toshiyuki Ozaki of Gurunavi, Inc., a Tokyo-based company that runs an online gourmet restaurant guide, said, “The spread of values emphasizing sustainability and the fact that wild game is now sold at chain restaurants and (nearby) stores have increased people’s interest in wild game, particularly among young people, including those in their 20s.”


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Despite a recent crackdown by the US Justice Department and the Federal Trade Commission on a spate of mergers, the US government has now officially approved the incorporation of these two beer giants.
The legal complaint and settlement with Herbalife unveiled Friday by the Federal Trade Commission answers several questions about the Los Angeles-based nutritional supplement marketing company, but leaves the most important question wide open. The answered questions involve Herbalife’s business...
After months and months of mud raking and bravado in the financial press and no shortage of fear inducing presentations from the likes of Square Hedge Fund Manager Bill Ackman, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has settled with supplement company Herbalife. Since late 2012, Bill Ackman focused his cross hairs [...]
US watchdog puts out advisory for other smart home makers The US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has decided not to move forward with an investigation into smart-home company Nest and its decision to end support for the Revolv hub.…
The Federal Trade Commission has finally closed its investigation into Herbalife—the nutritional-supplement company and multilevel-marketing business whose critics have accused it of being a pyramid scheme. That unsavory term is precisely...Show More Summary
…According to the New York Times: The Federal Trade Commission, in announcing the settlement with Herbalife on Friday, had strong words for the company that call into question some of its longstanding distribution practices. “This settlement will require Herbalife to
Bill Ackman is digging in. After the Federal Trade Commission on Friday reached a settlement with Herbalife — the multilevel marketing company — Ackman's hedge fund said the findings "constitute a pyramid scheme." The FTC specifically didn't call Herbalife a pyramid scheme. Show More Summary
Damn you, Federal Trade Commission! Damn you to hell.
Herbalife Ltd. has agreed to pay $200 million to consumers and change its business practices to settle a two-year federal investigation triggered by allegations by activist investor Bill Ackman. The Federal Trade Commission announced the settlement Friday, saying the Los Angeles company's compensation...
Bad news for Bill Ackman. The Federal Trade Commission on Friday reached an agreement with multilevel marketing firm Herbalife, that kept it from being labeled a pyramid scheme. Ackman, the founder of Pershing Square Capital Management,...Show More Summary
The Federal Trade Commission has not determined that Herbalife is a pyramid scheme or fraud like Bill Ackman had alleged for years, delivering a blow to the billionaire hedge fund manager.
The Federal Trade Commission has concluded that Herbalife is not a pyramid scheme. In a release on Friday, the FTC said Herbalife, a multilevel marketing firm that sells nutritional supplements, will restructure its operations and pay...Show More Summary
The Massachusetts Democratic senator is urging the Federal Trade Commission to look into the industry's business practices. Here's why.
It looks like Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment may not have been totally transparent when it came to promoting Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor, leading to a complaint from the Federal Trade Commission that could lead to stricter practices in the future.
A trio of Democratic U.S. senators wrote to the Federal Trade Commission on Wednesday morning to request a study of how Airbnb and similar companies are easing the conversion of residential dwellings into unregulated hotel rooms. The letter, signed by sens. Show More Summary
LOS ANGELES — PewDiePie bashed reporters Wednesday for singling him out in articles about the Federal Trade Commission and Warner Bros. "pay for play" settlement." In a video uploaded Wednesday — titled "THE PEWDIEPIE 'SCANDAL'!!" —Show More Summary
The Federal Trade Commission and Warner Bros. have reached a settlement following an FTC charge that the publisher failure to alert consumers that it paid numerous YouTube personalities to post positive impressions of gameplay of 2013's...Show More Summary
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC), the nation’s consumer protection agency, announced that it has reached a settlement with Warner Bros. Home Entertainment after the company was charged with paying influencers -- including YouTube’s...Show More Summary
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Federal Trade Commission says Warner Bros. has agreed to settle charges that it deceived consumers by not properly disclosing that it paid those with big followings on YouTube and social media to promote a video game. The government says Warner Bros. Show More Summary
Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor publisher Warner Bros. has been rapped by the US Federal Trade Commission for deceiving customers with a paid-for YouTube promotion. Numerous YouTube "influencers" were paid thousands of dollars to generate positive promotional content featuring Shadow of Mordor. Show More Summary


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The reason I ask is that Coke has announced that they no longer do. (Goetzl, 2012)
Based on the CFO’s DVR habits the company has decided to focus its ad spending on live events and sports. But Nielsen data from earlier this month showed that while 40% of US tv viewers have DVRs only 8% of overall tv viewing is time-shifted. And then mostly because consumers want to watch two shows at the same time. (Friedman, 2012)
I don’t know off hand who Coke’s primary consumer is, but sports programming tends to underdeliver women, where only about 1/3 of viewers are female. (Ripper, 2011) (The Olympics are an exception as they draw more women than men.) So that could be a concern.
And then there’s the fact that when Pepsi cut back on tv advertising last year they fell to the number three brand. (CBS News, 2011)
What do you think? Will this strategy be a winner for Coke?
Goetzl, D. (2012, March 22). Coke To Focus On Events, Loses Faith In 30-Second Spot. mediapost.com. Retrieved March 29, from http://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/170853/coke-to-focus-on-events-loses-faith-in-30-second.html?edition=44899
Friedman, W. (2012, March 1). Live View Numbers Drop, But DVR Jumps. mediapost.com. Retrieved March 29, fromhttp://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/169188/live-view-numbers-drop-but-dvr-jumps.html
Van Riper, T. (2011, September 30). The Sports Women Watch. forbes.com. Retrieved March 29, fromhttp://www.forbes.com/sites/tomvanriper/2011/09/30/the-sports-women-watch/
(2011, March 17). Pepsi slips to No. 3 in cola war. CBC news. Retrieved March 29, fromhttp://www.cbc.ca/news/business/story/2011/03/17/pepsi-coke-cola.html


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WCVB-TV is reporting that a monster snow pile that refuses to die remains off Ring Road in Framingham. These photos show a dirty pile of snow and debris in a lot near Shoppers World.
Let the shopping begin. Get exclusive promotions and sales from your favorite retailers. And never miss a great deal again.


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Weak Retail Sales Could Dampen Q3
Friday the 13th wasn't unlucky for U.S. data watchers, but it did provide a few reminders of potential trouble spots for the economy. A weak report on U.S. retail sales for June, released on July 13, took the luster off the big sales gains of May and March and looked more like the weak initial reports for February and April.
Meanwhile, another report released on July 13 showed firm gains in export and import prices that could prove troublesome for the Federal Reserve as it endeavors to keep a lid on inflation.
But there was good news as well. A surge in a widely followed consumer sentiment index for July suggests only limited downside risk to consumer spending in the current quarter. And a big rise in business inventories in May boosted prospects for second-quarter growth as well.
On the whole, the reports signal that risks to the second-quarter gross domestic product outlook probably shifted more to the upside than the downside, despite the weak retail figures. Action Economics' second-quarter GDP annual-rate estimate remains at 3.4%. However, we have lowered our third-quarter GDP estimate to 2.8%, in response to the weak June sales data, leaving an oscillating pattern in GDP growth rates since the second quarter of last year around an underlying trend that we would currently peg at just below 3%.
Here is our rundown of the July 13 releases:
Retail sales: They fell 0.9% in June, while sales excluding autos were down 0.4%, both weaker than expected. This followed an upwardly revised headline gain of 1.5% in May (1.4% previously), though April was bumped lower to -0.3% (from -0.1%). The ex-auto figure for May was revised up to 1.6% (from 1.3%), but April was knocked down to -0.1% (was +0.1%).
June's declines were broad-based. Motor vehicles and parts sales declined 2.9% after a 1.1% surge in May. Gas station sales were down 1.1%, while clothing sales were off 1.4%. Furniture and building material sales declined 3.0% and 2.3%, respectively.
The report revealed widespread June weakness that reversed part of the outsize strength in May. Yet the revisions to past months were minor, so the impact for the quarterly forecasts is greater for the third quarter than the second. The data are consistent with a slowing in real consumption growth to 1.3% in second quarter, vs. our prior 1.4% estimate, following the outsize 4.2% gains in each of the prior two quarters. We have lowered our third-quarter consumption forecast to 2%, from 2.5%, though the outlook will depend on whether the big swings in the monthly sales figures extend into July. The strong July Michigan confidence reading (see below) raises prospects for a July-August bounce.
Trade prices: Import prices increased 1.0% in June, and export prices rose 0.3%. May's 0.9% surge in import prices was revised up to 1.1%. May export prices were also revised a bit higher, to 0.2%, from 0.1%. On a year-over-year basis, import prices are up 2.3% (vs. 1.1% in May). Export prices are up 4.1% year over year (from 4.3% in May).
Among June imports, petroleum prices were up 4.7% on top of hefty gains since February. Excluding petroleum, import prices edged up 0.2%. Agricultural export prices surged 2.9% in June, while the up trend in core export prices moderated in the month to a 0.1% gain, following increases of 0.3% to 0.5% in each of the prior six months.
The U.S. trade price indexes for June revealed the strength that had been expected, given price pressures related to global strength in food and energy prices, a strong global economy, and a falling dollar.
The core figures took a breather this month relative to the powerful run thus far in 2007, but this should prove temporary. For imports, prices rose 0.2%, below the 0.3% to 0.5% gains of the past three months, while core export prices rose 0.1%, following six straight months of gains in the 0.3% to 0.5% range. Even these moderate gains are problematic for the Fed, however, as foreign trade generally restrains U.S. prices via weaker gains for the core figures from this sector than from the broader economy. In this case, the lull in the figures still left gains that roughly matched the trend in the domestic inflation measures.
We will continue to assume 0.2% headline gains for the producer price index, consumer price index, and personal consumption expenditure chain price reports for June, with 0.2% core price gains for all but PPI, where we assume a 0.1% core gain. The firm June trade price data, and overshoots in other core and headline measures from desired rates, will remain a thorn in the side of the Fed, as it continues to focus disproportionately on inflation risks.
Business inventories: Inventories rose 0.5% in May, while sales surged 1.3%, following April's 0.4% inventory gain and the 0.7% increase in April sales. The inventory-sales ratio continued to shrink, falling to 1.26, from 1.27, in April and 1.30 as recently as February.
The U.S. business inventory report revealed a big headline inventory gain in May that was driven by a much-bigger-than-expected 0.6% retail inventory gain. That's important for the second-quarter GDP outlook, given that the surge was only partly auto-related. The ex-auto retail inventory figure enters the GDP calculation, and this rose 0.7%. This gain occurred alongside the already released inventory gains of 0.3% for the factory sector and 0.5% for the wholesale sector.
The mix, which left a 0.5% overall inventory gain that followed a 0.4% April increase, leaves a big April-May inventory reversal in place from the sizable inventory correction through the fourth quarter 2006-first quarter 2007 period.
University of Michigan consumer sentiment: The Michigan sentiment index jumped to 92.4 in the preliminary print, vs. 85.3 in June, which was much better than expected. Strength was paced by the future economic outlook, where the index rose to 83.9 from 74.7. The current conditions index climbed to 105.7 from 101.9. The one-year-ahead inflation expectations median slipped to 3.3% from 3.4%.
Renewed stock price strength and a modest gasoline price correction may have helped these readings. We will boost our forecast for the Conference Board's consumer confidence index for July to 106, following the 103.9 reading in June.
Overall, though the various confidence measures have moderated in recent months from the heights reached at the start of the year, they remain solid on an historic basis and are consistent with third-quarter strength in retail sales, despite the downswing just noted in the June sales data.
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StocExpo has officially been postponed from March 2021 to 29 June - 1 July 2021 in a decision made in consultation with the community.
The live show and associated awards, which regularly attracts key visitors and exhibitors from across the industry, will be held at the Antwerp Expo in Antwerp, Belgium.
As well as networking opportunities and a world-leading exhibition on the show floor, the bulk storage community will benefit from the insights of some of the industry’s leading experts on a wide range of trends and issues impacting the industry, from cyber security to LNG and beyond.
Also, at the show will be a brand new Emergency & Response Zone, a next-gen roundtable debate, with input from StocExpo’s Forty Under 40 (due to be announced in early 2021), as well as a critical post-COVID-19 market analysis.
Lourda Derry, COO of Easyfairs Global, says, “We’re thrilled to be able to announce the return of StocExpo; we know how valuable it is to the industry and it’s great to be back in Antwerp.
“We know it’s a little later in the year than usual; we had hoped to hold the show in March as usual but we felt it safer to delay so we could ensure the event could be held in person. Virtual shows can offer a certain level of content, but we understand how important it still is for us to connect and continue to foster key relationships face to face. We are confident that, with the positive global news, we will be able to bring the community back together in a more powerful way than ever!
“Tank storage was already in a time of transition before the pandemic struck, so now collaboration and knowledge sharing are more important than ever before; it’s the key to the sector’s ongoing success. StocExpo 2021 will be the event for everyone to regroup and reassess and move forward into the future with confidence.”
This decision has been made in close consultation with the industry and due to the ongoing unforeseeable, unavoidable and unprecedented global scope of the Coronavirus pandemic. This has led to the Belgian Government implementing ongoing measures to maintain social distancing, further continuing the Force Majeure situation.
During the lead up to the June 2021 show, StocExpo will launch a series of digital events, putting the focus on the key issues that the industry currently faces and its solutions. The new ‘Tank Talk Spotlight On…’ series will connect innovative brands with forward-thinking specifiers to cover innovation and digitalisation trends. The last of these spotlights will be part of a virtual conference, ‘The Terminal of Tomorrow’, running over the previously allocated show days; this virtual StocExpo conference will provide the knowledge, resources, and tools terminals need to prepare for 2021 and beyond.
StocExpo provides a platform for industry to come together, networking with people from across the supply chain and find the products and solutions needed for their businesses.
Read the article online at: https://www.lngindustry.com/liquid-natural-gas/04122020/stocexpo-postponed-to-june-2021/
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