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According to news reports, Miami-Dade police recently arrested a used car dealer and charged him with rolling the odometer on a used 2101 Mazda CX9, wiping out more than 81,000 miles.
Electronic odometers were supposed to make it difficult for car dealers to deceive used-car buyers by going miles away from the odometers. But the switch to electronic odometers has just created a black market for odometer rigs that are cheap and easy to buy online.
The multi-billion dollar scam continues to hurt used car buyers. In fact, it is very easy for devious car dealers to engage in odometer fraud, with little fear of getting caught.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is tasked with monitoring odometer fraud, but the agency is chronically understaffed and underfunded, and rarely acts unless it finds a widespread pattern of illegal backtracking.
One of the worst effects of odometer fraud: Victims of this illegal practice often end up paying out of their pocket for expensive and unexpected repairs that can leave them in debt or without a car.
Double whammy – Even if you buy an extended service contract, they usually exclude coverage for vehicles with variable meters.
How can you avoid falling prey to crooked car dealers who change odometers? paying off car tips To learn how to get a good deal on a safe and reliable used car, without having to set foot on a car dealer’s plot of land.
Read more: Miami Herald: Miami car dealer slipped odometer 81,000 miles, cops say


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Demand for credit cards remains relatively stable, and banks are introducing new technologies like AI and chatbots into the payments experience, according to the biennial Credit CARD Act report released by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau today. The report included a section on credit card innovation that highlighted several ways technology has enabled consumers to access and manage their credit scores, compare credit card options and have greater control over card functionality.
Consumers opened roughly 106 million new credit card accounts in 2018, though new account volumes remained below pre-recession highs across all risk tiers, the report said. Using application volume as a measure, demand for credit cards reached their peak in 2016 and approval rates have become more stringent since then. Total credit card balances were around $900 billion at the end of 2018, surpassing pre-recession highs, and total credit lines across all consumer credit cards also approached a pre-recession high at $4.3 trillion.
Credit card delinquencies and charge-offs fell sharply since their recession-era peaks, and currently remain below pre-recession lows. Total cost of credit on revolving accounts increased since 2017, due in large part to rising interest rates. The cost increase was driven across all risk tiers by general purpose cards—which often have interest rates linked to the prime rate, the CFPB noted.
Rewards cards continue to account for a greater share of credit card spending and account for more than 60 percent of all originations, signaling that rewards factor significantly in consumers’ choice of credit card. Cardholders continued to prefer cash rewards over other rewards like points or miles.

domain: news


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SaviTrak(TM) to provide RFID-Based Information on the Location and Security of Shipments Between China and the United States
SAVANNAH, Ga., June 5 / / - Shanghai International Port Group (SIPG), the Georgia Ports Authority (GPA) and Savi Networks today announced their plans to launch an RFID-based network that automatically tracks the location and security of containerized cargo transported between the Port of Shanghai in China and the Port of Savannah in Georgia. Called the "Shanghai-Savannah Express Trade Lane Project," the companies announced their partnership plans today at the Third Annual China Trade and Logistics Conference held at the Savannah International Trade and Convention Center.
SIPG and Savi Networks have jointly developed a localized China RFID solution which includes electronic seal and GPS integrated handheld for this project. This solution builds on a project previously conducted by SIPG from Shanghai to Yantai and will facilitate SIPG's objective of being a global information and logistics hub.
The solution will be built upon an open, international standards-based network platform, including compatibility with ISO standard 18000-7 for active RFID devices and ISO standard 18185 for electronic container security devices, both operating at the 433.92 MHz radio frequency.
"We're embarking on this pilot with Savi Networks to ensure that SIPG provides our customers and China Customs with state-of-the-art information services to optimize both the efficiency and security of shipments both domestically and globally," said Bao Qifan, Executive Vice President at SIPG.
"The extension of our real-time information service to the Port of Shanghai adds yet another critical link to our growing network throughout the global supply chain," said Vic Verma, chief executive officer of Savi Networks.
After the successful completion of the project, SIPG and Savi Networks will extend its Radio Frequency Identification (RFID)-based solution and SaviTrak(TM) information service to terminal facilities operated by SIPG at the Port of Shanghai, one of the world's largest and busiest ports and key gateway for products manufactured in China and shipped to the United States. SaviTrak(TM) already exists at the Port of Savannah under a previously announced agreement between the Georgia Ports Authority and Savi Networks.
Savi Networks, the operator of a global network providing real-time information services on in-transit inventory, is a joint venture between Savi Technology, Inc., a Lockheed Martin company [NYSE: LMT], and Hutchison Port Holdings. To learn more about Savi Networks, visit: www.savinetworks.com.


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Inflation has been cooling since the middle part of 2022 according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Consumer Price Index (CPI) and Producer Price Index (PPI) numbers. The CPI and PPI December readings of 6.5% and 6.2%, respectively, are happily lower than their peaks last year at 9.1% and 11.7%. However, this is still uncomfortable compared to the 1.5-2.5% CPI range of pre-Covid times.
The Federal Reserve is watching the inflation data closely, as they are the jobs reports and other economic indicators. Last Tuesday, investors were eager to hear Fed Chair Jerome Powell’s first comments following the strong employment report the previous Friday. The concern was that the surprise job number would change Powell’s outlook coming out of the last Fed meeting.
Powell instead repeated his prior remarks, which were that a disinflationary trend was underway, and there remained a distance to travel before the measures taken tamed inflation. Powell also pointed out that the robust job growth showed why it might take so long to reduce inflation to the Fed’s target level.
It seems like we’re still in the middle of this journey of whiplash inflation. Although inflation has fallen in recent months, it has not fallen enough to satisfy the Fed – or Americans in general. Our team at BCS Wealth Management will continue to provide financial guidance according to the current economic landscape and what we believe is in your best interest.


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Renault Samsung Motor Co., the local unit of French automaker Renault S.A., said Friday it plans to sell 1,000 units of its electric vehicles (EVs) in South Korea this year in a bid to become an industry leader in the country's battery-powered car market.
"The company's annual sales goal for the year of 1,000 units is about one-third of the amount that the government is looking to have people purchase this year," Park Dong-hoon, sales chief and vice president of Renault Samsung, said ahead of the opening ceremony of the International Electric Vehicle Expo on Jeju Island.
"Our ambition is to become an industry leader in the South Korean electric car market," he added.
Renault Samsung's SM3 ZE electric car is the country's No. 2 best-selling EV, having sold 309 units last year, trailing Kia Motors Corp.'s Soul EV, which sold 414 units.
As one way to help realize the sales target, Park emphasized that switching the country's taxis to such eco-friendly vehicles first and foremost will be critical to popularizing the concept here.
"The electric vehicle market in South Korea is still quite limited as the customers' decision to purchase these cars is based mostly on how much of a government subsidy is given rather than looking at the pros of the car models themselves," Park said.
"The current lack of charging stations, as well as the law restrictions of installing them near apartment buildings and similar living quarters here, are also problems that need to be dealt with in order to expand the electric vehicle market."
By supplying just 500 electric cars to the country's fleet of taxis, some 2.4 million people will be able to experience those cars each year, the Renault Samsung vice president said, adding that targeting the taxi industry first will "greatly contribute to the expansion of electric vehicles in South Korea."
The South Korean electric car market, although still relatively small, has been rapidly expanding over the past few years, as last year's sales figure of 1,183 units was a 65.5 percent increase from the 715 units sold in 2013. (Yonhap)


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PHOENIX, Aug. 3, 2018 /PRNewswire/ — DOMM, a cannabis focused brand in Arizona, is bringing its unique experience combining delivery, memberships, and a unique lounge to Florida in 2019.
With expansion in Arizona, including delivery services coming to the Tucson market, Todd and his team are excited to bring this unique opportunity to his home state of Florida. Starting with delivery services for 3 locations in the Gulf Coast, and eventually adding a DommLife lounge, the goal is to expand the offerings to the entire state!
To kick off the new launch, DOMM will be the title sponsor of the U.S. CANNABIS CONFERENCE & EXPO in Miami on August 24-26. Recreating the DommLife experience in a lounge booth at the entrance, you can meet the DommLife ambassadors, meet Todd himself, and even be interviewed on camera to be shared on DommLife’s Instagram and Facebook live streams. In addition to our conference booth, we’re excited to invite everyone to our Saturday night Yacht party with tickets going on sale soon.


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When it comes to the design and “look and feel” of business and consumer-class personal computers, Apple has set a high bar during the last decade with its MacBook lineup. Hewlett-Packard Inc. has been upgrading its own fleet of business and consumer PCs over the last half-dozen years with its EliteBooks and Envys and has indeed achieved an elegance of its own.
Now Dell, that bastion of the good ole blue-collar portable PC that you can bang around and watch it keep going like the Energizer bunny, is aiming to move higher up the “cool” scale with its latest products. The company has come to the conclusion that when someone comes to a meeting and sets down a laptop on the table, the appearance of that laptop tells stories about the person using it. Nobody wants those stories to be bad ones.
So, at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas next week, Dell will be showing off snazzy XPS 13 PCs (the “13” indicates a 13-inch screen size) with new exterior and casing features to go with the usual software and feature upgrades you get with any new-generation machine.
In another “cool” vein, Dell is releasing a new Ubuntu Linux-powered XPS 13 model at CES 2018, which will attract nearly 200,000 attendees and take place in several locations Jan. 8 through 12. The company is offering the Ubuntu developer edition with Linux preloaded starting at $949.99 on Dell.com in the U.S. and Europe. The machines became available on Jan. 4.
Technology as an Expression of Style
“Technology has become an expression of style for those who use it, though fashion can be fickle,” Dell Vice-President and General Manager Frank Azor, who’s in charge of the company’s XPS, Alienware and Dell Gaming businesses, wrote Jan. 4 in a blog post. “One thing we do know is that elegance doesn’t go out of style.”
In redesigning the XPS 13, Azor said, “we took inspiration from the realm of fashion, where rose gold remains a trending color and white accents have been growing in popularity, seen everywhere from watch bands to sneakers. However when turning our XPS white, we strived to achieve elegance and invested more than a dozen people, 11,520 hours and 50 trials to create a new system that was as stunning inside and out.
“The Dell design team didn’t want to simply paint a system white; they wanted to use authentic materials and make sure the system looked as beautiful on Day 1,000 as it does on Day 1,” Azor said.
The XPS was first unveiled at the 2012 CES; since then, it has proven to be Dell’s most successful laptop and winner of more product awards than any other line in Dell’s history. The most recent plaudit is that it was named a CES 2018 Innovation Award winner.
New Crystalline Silicon Cover Material
Azor said Dell used a new crystalline silica material with the white color literally woven in, like a fabric, in nine composite layers. Dell is the first to use this woven glass fiber in a laptop, he said. The alpine white glass fiber weave is also durable, Azor said, because its soft-textured lattice has titanium oxide for a pearlescent sheen and UV coasting and stain-resistant coating to prevent yellowing or staining over time.
“In fact, if you get a pen mark or other stain on the white interior you can just wipe it off. And with a heat resistance superior to metal, woven glass fiber also stays cooler to facilitate longer performance,” he said.
Beyond the appearance and look and feel of the laptop, the XPS 13 features a high-end InfinityEdge display, and the unit itself a full 30 percent (3.4mm) thinner as well as lighter (2.7 pounds) than previous models. The higher resolution display incorporates 2.5 million more pixels with 4K Ultra HD compared to the previous QHD+, in a 100% sRGB screen, Dell said.
Unless you choose the Ubuntu version, the XPS 13 comes with Windows 10 and is powered by the latest Intel 8th Generation Quad Core processor and can store up to 1TB worth of files on its solid-state, quick-boot disk. Dell also is touting the XPS 13 as having longest battery life of any 13-inch laptop, with almost 20 hours on FHD, up to 11 on UHD (Mobile Mark 14).
Voice, Touch, Facial Recognition-Activated
Securitywise, the XPS 13 can be activated by voice, touch or facial recognition, due to access provided through a triad of biometric doorways, Azor said. users can log in with a look or a touch with the infrared camera and optional fingerprint reader in the power button for Windows Hello, or they can talk to the device from across the room, with four integrated digital microphones and Microsoft’s Cortana voice recognition capabilities.
The new XPS 13 is available globally for $999.99 beginning Jan. 4 on Dell.com, Microsoft.com or at Microsoft Stores. It will be on display at CES.


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Food expenses hold to boom in China because of the continued alternate dispute with the US and difficulties within its home agricultural sector. President Xi Jinping has requested the Chinese human beings to start a modern-day “lengthy march,” a connection with the exhausting one-12 month’s journey taken via Communist Party forces in 1934. Increasing food charges are likely to be, as a minimum, one of the hardships that Chinese human beings might be asked to bear.
China is the sector’s largest wheat, rice, and red meat manufacturer and the most important consumer of wheat, rice, sorghum, soybeans, and red meat. It cannot provide enough of these products to fulfill domestic demand but is predicated on worldwide markets to make up for the shortfall. As a result, it’s far the sector’s biggest importer of rice, sorghum, and soybeans; the latter commodities particularly used as feedstock for u . S .’s animal herds.
Inflation has increased food costs with the aid of 6.1% over the past yr. Inflation has increased food costs with the aid of 6.1% over the past yr. Media reviews awareness at the improved charges of beef (which prices 14 in step with cent extra than one year ago), fruit and vegetables. T is probably that, given the continuation of price lists on grain imports, the fee of different commodities will even rise in the coming months.
China imposed price lists on US grains in 2018, which brought about a major decline in grain imported from the USA. Since the imposition of those tariffs but, two different challenges have emerged within the Chinese agricultural zone.
An outbreak of fall armyworm (which is likewise referred to as American armyworm) became detected in August 2018, and the pest has considering that spread throughout the southern provinces. African Swine Fever, a sickness that afflicts pigs but isn’t always transferable to people, has also swept throughout the u . S. There is no known remedy, and the handiest solution is to cull infected animals and impose quarantines on affected farms.
According to respectable information, pig stocks are down by way of more than 20, consistent with cent. Still, impartial analysts recommend that delivery be more than 40, consistent with a cent decrease than normal. Rabobank, a multinational banking company, focusing on agriculture, estimates that annual beef manufacturing can be 30, consistent with a cent decrease in 2019. Such a loss is equal to Europe’s annual pork supply and is 30% larger than annual production inside the US. The Chinese Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs estimates that the rate of beef could grow by 70 percent with the aid of the cease of 2019.
Agricultural analysts argue that a discount on the availability of beef will increase the call for other protein resources. It is possible that the charges of red meat, bird, and eggs, for instance, may also upward push. Rabobank believes that ‘this can bring about a net supply hole of virtually 10 million metric lots within the overall 2019 animal protein supply.’ If that takes place, the prices of different proteins will also rise, setting stress on Chinese consumers. Global meat charges are also anticipated to grow as China imports more protein from the global market.
The home grain supply is likewise beneath risk from the spread of fall armyworm, an invasive caterpillar that influences almost one hundred plant species. Fall armyworms reason the maximum destruction to cereal plants, such as wheat, barley, and corn. The pest has been detected in all of China’s southern provinces and is expected to have a detrimental effect on corn manufacturing.
China is the world’s second-biggest manufacturer and customer of corn specially used for animal feed and ethanol production. Corn manufacturing is normally enough to satisfy the home call for, but in 2018, it fell quickly for the primary time in seven years. It may want to replace corn for Australian barley to maintain animal feedstocks because it has been executed in the past. However, its anti-dumping investigation into Australian barley will be a barrier to that alternative. The predicted result is an increase in corn imports over the following decade because the domestic delivery fails to preserve demand. While it can boom imports from the USA, price lists as excessive as 90 in keeping with cent on American grains and decreasing regular plantings in most US agricultural areas could force China to search for different alternatives. Brazil and Argentina are likely alternatives, but they may not be going to be in a role to satisfy all of China’s demand. Consequently, it’s miles probably to be left with few options other than importing from the USA.
All warning signs propose that Chinese meals prices will hold to rise, with low- and center-magnificence customers predicted to shoulder maximum of the weight. While that could cause increased tension amongst residents and further encourage them to impeach the potential of the Communist Party to manage the economy, it’s far not going to cause huge complaints of the regime or its method to the change dispute with the US.


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NVIDIA kept quiet about $1 billion crypto mining biz, lawsuit claims
NVIDIA, the graphics chip manufacturer, faces a costly lawsuit from disgruntled investors over its connections to the cryptocurrency mining businesses.
Investors have, since the start of 2019, alleged that NVIDIA violated the Securities Exchange Act for failing to disclose its reliance on crypto miners. Their chips are a popular choice for mining rigs, immensely powerful computers that validate transactions on blockchains in return for newly minted crypto.
But a new complaint from investors, who could number in the hundreds of thousands according to court documents filed Wednesday in a California federal court, alleges that NVIDIA understated its reliance on crypto mining by more than $1 billion between May 2017 and November 2018, the date NVIDIA’s stock price crashed.
Business picked up for NVIDIA following the 2017 crypto boom, but the investors claim that NVIDIA never told them the extent of this. The 2018 crypto market crash hurt Nvidia’s profits, and the stock price collapsed when Nvidia forecasted a decline in revenue.
The investors claim NVIDIA misled them into buying up stock because they lied to them about how the company made its money.
Three months ago, a California federal judge said that the investors hadn’t proved this. But in an amended complaint letter, filed this week, the investors cited studies to back their claims.
They wrote: “Prysm Group economists determined that NVIDIA had earned at least $1.728 billion from sales to miners from May 2017 through July 2018—meaning that defendants understated NVIDIA’s crypto-related GPU sales by $1.126 billion during the Class Period, all of which was contained in the Company’s Gaming segment.”
The lawsuit also claimed that NVIDIA estimated that it held over 70% of the Chinese crypto-mining GPU market.
According to the disgruntled investors, NVIDIA “falsely claimed, quarter after quarter, that the gaming segment’s sales growth resulted from strong organic demand from gamers while misleading the market into believing that NVIDIA’s dependence on cryptocurrency-related revenues was ‘small.’”
Author: Decrypt / Robert Stevens
- APA ots news: After a successful start: family doctor app "drd" also in May thanks to …
- Market Wrap: Bitcoin Dips as Stock Markets Close Lower on the Week
- Visa likely to launch digital currency with Ethereum blockchain
- JPMorgan’s Gemini, Coinbase play is a crypto industry ‘roadmap,’ analyst says
- Reddit Launching a Cryptocurrency to Reward Users for Engagement
APA ots news: After a successful start: family doctor app "drd" also in May thanks to …
APA ots news: After a successful start: General practitioner app "drd" also free in May thanks to Generali and Drei. – PICTURE
Vienna (APA-ots) –
* Strong support for Austria's first full-fledged,
telemedical service "drd".
* Interim balance: short waiting times, immediate transfers,
especially popular with older patients.
* Drei and Generali continue to cover diagnostic costs in May.
Austria's first telemedical family doctor service "drd"
(doctors recommended by doctors) has been coming since the beginning of April
excellent for patients and participating doctors. After the
For the first five weeks, the drd app ranks with a few thousand downloads
already number 2 in the medical apps in the Google Play Store and number 4
in the Apple App Store. In order to reduce the risk of infection in waiting rooms also in the
May be kept as low as possible, the drd partners Generali
and three the cost of 49 euros per consultation or alternatively 10
Take over euros / month in the subscription model for another month. In order to
is available to all people in Austria until the end of May 2020
free of charge. An internet or cell phone contract at Drei is
not necessary for this, nor an insurance policy with
First balance after the first month of telemedicine in Austria.
"Worldwide, the demand for telemedicine is in the corona crisis
increased by up to 670%. Since we are in Austria with "drd"
Pioneering work, there are still no comparative values. Thanks drd
50% to 70% of all general medical consultations are completely without
physical contact possible, "said Dr. Clemens Billek, founder and CEO
from drd. "An initial consultation via the app becomes a matter of course
become our everyday life, "Billek predicts." The focus of the app
is about privacy, trust and ease of use. the goal is
that the 90-year-old grandmother can use our app and
Short waiting times, immediate transfers and recipes.
The new telemedical service was launched in the first five weeks
used since the start in the country and in the city equally and positively
accepted. "Our experience from the first month shows that around
90% of all incoming calls could be handled. Needed
Recipes are sent directly to the app or, if desired
Submitted pharmacy of choice. The waiting time before talking to the
In 95% of the cases, the doctor was under five minutes, "comments Billek.
Zwtl .: General practitioner contact by mobile phone, tablet or computer.
The experienced general practitioners at drd are from Monday to Friday
available from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. for video communication. App users
recalled as soon as this time for a new patient treatment
Has. Lengthy telephone waiting loops fall for the users of the app
completely gone with it. General practitioners provide medical information
and immediately create a recipe, transfer or if necessary
also a sick report, if this is medically justifiable. doctor
and patient can view documents such as reports, referrals and
Exchange private recipes safely. One suits the patient
encrypted digital health records are available with which they
Your confidential medical documents always on your cell phone
"The digital doctor-patient consultation has been going on since
Corona crisis experienced an enormous response. The need of
Population without medical risk quickly and easily medical
Clarifying questions is great and confirms our initiatives at
Digital Health division ", explains Dr. Martin Sturzlbaum, Chief
Generali Insurance Life / Sick Insurance Officer.
"With drd we contribute to the fact that people in Austria
new telemedical service available at the right time
stands. The great encouragement for us is the incentive in the area
To expand e-health in Austria, "said Rudolf
Schrefl, chief commercial officer of three.
The app is available in the Apple and Google app stores or via
Website [www.drd.at] (http://www.drd.at/) also on the computer
Photo 1: drd consultation with Mag. Dr. Iris Weinberger. Copyright:
Photo 2: drd consultation with Dr. Alexandra Lang-Adolph. Copyright:
Twice: over three.
Hutchison Drei Austria GmbH is a 100% subsidiary
by CK Hutchison Holdings Limited (Hong Kong) and member of 3Group
Europe. Drei achieved sales of 867 million in the business year 2019
Euros and has around 3.9 million customers. As a leader
The company offers telecommunications providers in Austria
Mobile telephony, internet, landline, television and business solutions
from a single source. In addition to the largest shop network of all Austrian
Telecom operator and a comprehensive customer service for private and
Business customers have three with a population coverage of 98
Percent also via the most powerful LTE network in the country. In June
In 2019 Drei launched the first real, connected 5G network
Austria in Linz.
Second: About Generali.
Generali Versicherung is the third largest
Insurance company in Austria and part of the Generali Group.
Generali is one of the largest global insurance groups and
Asset manager. It was founded in 1831 and is in 50 countries
with premium income totaling more than 69.7 billion in 2019
represented. With around 72,000 employees, the 61 million customers
the group has a leading position in Europe and one
growing presence in Asia and Latin America. The goal of the Generali
is to be a lifetime partner for their customers, thanks to a
unsurpassed sales network innovative and individual solutions
offers. It is in Austria, Central and Eastern Europe and Russia
Generali Group about Austria, CEE & Russia Regional Office
(Prague) active in thirteen countries and one of the three largest
Insurers in the region.
Meanwhile: about drd.
drd GmbH is a healthcare start-up that was founded in 2017.
drd – doctors recommended by doctors enabled with the drd service
Center largely digitizes doctor visits. The drd GmbH
is committed to the highest ethical standards. 10% of
Net income from drd will go to charitable projects with medical
You can find pictures of this broadcast in the AOM / original picture service
as well as in the OTS picture archive at http://bild.ots.at
Hutchison Drei Austria GmbH
Tel .: +43 0 660 66033701
Email: [email protected]
Generali Versicherung AG
Tel .: +43 1 53401 12443
Email: [email protected]
Dr. Clemens Billek
Tel .: +43 664 500 88 93
Email: [email protected]
Digital press kit: http://www.ots.at/pressemappe/317/aom
*** OTS ORIGINAL TEXT PRESS RELEASE UNDER EXCLUSIVE
CONTENT RESPONSIBILITY OF THE OUTSURER – WWW.OTS.AT ***
OTS0102 2020-05-07 / 11:32
Market Wrap: Bitcoin Dips as Stock Markets Close Lower on the Week
May 15, 2020 at 20:57 UTC
Bitcoin’s steady price gains over the past few days ended Friday. With the halving in the rearview mirror, cryptocurrency traders could consider the impact of a continued global economic slowdown after new data showed retail sales dropped to record lows and unemployment numbers continue to worsen.
The world’s first cryptocurrency is trading below its 10-day and 50-day moving averages, a bearish technical indicator. At press time, BTC was trading down 3.4% over 24 hours at $9,340 00:00 UTC Friday (4 p.m. ET). Bitcoin had experienced steady gains since May 13, yet stumbled in early trading at 02:00 UTC Friday, quickly dropping 5%. Since then, bitcoin clawed back some gains but continues to trend downward.
“Outside events are much more likely to impact bitcoin’s price, like a possible crash of the economy” because of COVID-19, said Alessandro Andreotti, an Italian over-the-counter cryptocurrency trader.
Uncertainty still exists in equities amid the coronavirus pandemic, and stock markets have performed poorly this week on the murky economic outlook. Data confirmed that: a drop in retail sales by 16.4% in April, the worst since 1992, and U.S. unemployment claims up over 36 million in the same period.
The S&P 500 U.S. stock index closed down 2.2% for the week, its worst performance since late March. In Europe, the FTSE 100 index of largest publicly traded companies ended trading down for the week 2%. For Asia, the Nikkei 225 of Japan’s largest companies ended the week down overall for the first time since April.
However, not all traditional assets are performing poorly. “Gold and silver are looking strong,” said Rupert Douglas, head of institutional sales at crypto asset manager Koine. Gold is up 2.8% for the week.
“I think bitcoin will be strong, too,” Douglas added. While losing some steam Friday, there is confidence among stakeholders bitcoin can turn things around and its price rise steadily.
One trader points to less leverage in the derivatives market as a sign of that. “The number of open leveraged positions are down between 25%-50% across major exchanges since March,” said Nicholas Pelecanos, head of trading at crypto fund NEM Ventures.
On Seychelles-based derivatives exchange BitMEX, open interest hit as high as $1.1 billion back on February 9. Since March 12’s bitcoin price crash caused $700 million in automatic liquidations on BitMEX, daily open interest has dropped significantly. On Friday it was at $596 million.
To be sure, it appears derivatives traders have less of an appetite for leverage positions specifically on BitMEX, where directional bets can be levered up to 100 times collateral.
”This gives us a good indication that if a sell-off begins to materialize, it will be of smaller magnitude than what we saw in March,” Pelecanos added.
The $10,000 level is a key price range to pique the interest of traders wanting to hit the buy button, according to Katie Stockton, an analyst at Fairfield Strategies. “A breakout above $10,000 level would likely give way to improved short-term momentum,” Stockton noted.
Losers in 24-hour trading include bitcoin sv (BSV) in the red 4%, iota (IOTA) lower by 3.7% and zcash (ZEC) slipping 3.5%. Ethereum classic (ETC) was the lone winner, up 3.5%. All price changes were as of 20:00 UTC (4:00 p.m. ET) Friday.
Oil was trading rose Friday by 5.8%, ending the week up 20% because crude supply adjustments have been positive news. “As major oil-producing countries have inherited the promise to reduce production, the International Energy Agency predicts that the tight supply of crude oil in the second half of this year will support oil prices,” said Nemo Qin, senior analyst for multi-asset brokerage eToro.
U.S. Treasury bonds were mixed Friday. Yields, which move in the opposite direction as price, were up most on the 10-year, in the green 3%.
Author: Daniel Cawrey
Visa likely to launch digital currency with Ethereum blockchain
Visa has reportedly filed a patent application that will see it develop a digital currency possibly using the Ethereum blockchain. The American company that has presence across the world filed the patent with the United States and Trademark office.
As per the record of the filing, the application was made on February 14. However, it had been filed in November 2018. The application seeks a patent for a digital currency that would execute on a blockchain. Interestingly, the digital currency would be under the control of a central entity computer.
The application mentioned Ethereum as the blockchain that could be used to run the digital currency. In detail, the project will have two records: The first record would show “the digital currency for an amount associated with the denomination has been created for a public key associated with a digital wallet”. The second record refers to the “removal of the physical currency from circulation in a fiat currency system.” In order to ensure that the stablecoin value is stabilized:
“….every time a dollar worth of digital fiat currency is generated, the central entity ensures that a corresponding physical dollar bill is removed from circulation, in order to regulate the value of the digital fiat currency.”
Although the application mentions the US dollar as the currency that will be used in the project, another article by Forbes says that the same mechanism could be applied to other sovereign currencies such as the euro and the pound.
Also read: Ethereum Price Analysis: ETH/USD flat out at $200 after rejection from 100 SMA
JPMorgan’s Gemini, Coinbase play is a crypto industry ‘roadmap,’ analyst says
JPMorgan Chase’s decision to extend banking services to two bitcoin exchanges could pave the way for other cryptocurrency firms to secure their own banking partners, a Capco analyst told Banking Dive.
The nation’s largest bank approved accounts for Coinbase and Gemini last month, The Wall Street Journal reported this week, and transaction processing is just beginning, sources told the publication.
“What we are seeing right now with Gemini and Coinbase is a roadmap on how to partner and succeed with the mainstream financial services industry,” Robert Norris, a managing principal at consultancy firm Capco, told Banking Dive.
It’s a surprising development for JPMorgan, whose CEO has been known to disparage bitcoin in the past.
During the Delivering Alpha conference in 2017, the bank’s chief executive, Jamie Dimon, called bitcoin “a fraud” and said he would fire “in a second” anyone at JPMorgan found to be trading in bitcoin.
“It’s not a real thing, eventually it will be closed,” Dimon said.
The bank, however, has invested in blockchain technology, upon which bitcoin is built. JPMorgan last year created its own U.S.dollar-backed token, JPM Coin, to speed up payments. The bank plans to use its blockchain unit Quorum to issue JPM Coin to settle interbank transfers.
Whether or not Dimon has changed his stance on bitcoin, the decision to bank two bitcoin exchanges is a solid play for JPMorgan Chase, which is often seen as an innovator and industry leader among its peers, Norris said.
“JPMorgan is looking at this as a growing market,” said Norris, who added that about 25 million people in the U.S. own some form of cryptocurrency. “This does not mean that JPMorgan is going all out on crypto. This is a commercial decision. And I think this recognizes that they are fast becoming established businesses, and the regulatory risk has been vastly reduced over a period of time.”
Although concerns over fraud and money laundering have made banks hesitant to link up with crypto firms, the gains Gemini and Coinbase have made on the regulatory front could signal those risks are diminishing.
“We’ve seen both firms adopt a proactive regulatory approach, and we’re starting to see the benefits of that come to the surface right now,” Norris said.
Gemini obtained a trust charter from New York’s Department of Financial Services (NYDFS) in 2015, and Coinbase is registered as a money services business with the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN).
Both exchanges have gone through the rigors to operate under NYDFS’s BitLicense framework and are licensed money transmitters in multiple states.
A JPMorgan spokesperson declined a Banking Dive request to comment on the Journal’s report, but said the bank is supportive of cryptocurrencies as long as they are properly controlled and regulated.
With JPMorgan now reportedly serving the space, other banks could see this as the right time to follow suit, Norris said.
“It’s a major signal of credibility to the [crypto] industry,” he said. “Other banks are going to be looking at this very carefully.”
JPMorgan’s partnerships with Gemini and Coinbase position the bank as a strategic partner in the cryptocurrency space and could lead to further opportunities as a banking provider from an initial price offering or business growth perspective, Norris said.
Opportunities aside, there is still reputational risk that comes with taking on clients in the cryptocurrency space, he said.
“The [know-your-customer] and [anti-money laundering] procedures that JPMorgan would have gone through to accept these clients, they would have looked at those very rigorously, and they are making sure they have the ongoing monitoring procedures in place to successfully support their regulatory obligations to the regulators, as well,” Norris said.
JPMorgan likely will face questions from regulators because of the nature of the new clients, Norris said. “I’m sure it will be a topic of discussion,” he said.
Reddit Launching a Cryptocurrency to Reward Users for Engagement
Photographer: Rafael Henrique/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images
Photographer: Rafael Henrique/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images
Reddit Inc., the often controversial website and discussion platform that is a favorite of many cryptocurrency enthusiasts, is launching its own digital token.
Through the summer, users of two Reddit subgroups familiar with digital coins, including the 1 million-member r/CryptoCurrency, will be able to earn tokens for things like posting a comment. The currency can be used to buy exclusive badges, to use animated emojis and to reply to Reddit comments using gifs.
Reddit’s effort is different from in-game cash or rewards for video gamers that are now available, in that the site is creating an actual cryptocurrency running on the Ethereum network.
In jumping into crypto, Reddit, which has more than 430 million monthly active users, is seeking to pull ahead of Facebook Inc. and Telegram Messenger LLP. Following clashes with regulators and courts, Telegram scrapped plans to issue a token for use on its network. Facebook, which created a coalition of organizations to develop a token for use on the social network, is pressing ahead, but its Libra coins may not see the light of day for months.
One “possibility is the plan is to introduce the currency and get people used to it, and then gradually build it into a valuable general exchange currency,” said Aaron Brown, a crypto investor who writes for Bloomberg Prophets. The tokens — dubbed Community Points — could be used for purchases of goods, content and subscriptions on the site — and beyond. They could also be traded.
Much still needs to be done for that to happen, though. Crypto exchanges would have to list the token, named differently by each Reddit subgroup. Users can set up a digital wallet for the points using an iPhone or Android Reddit mobile app.
Reddit, which is majority owned by Advanced Publications Inc., says the cryptocurrency is just a test. The other subreddit running the test is FortNiteBR, for people playing Fortnite: Battle Royale. The online gamers are already familiar with the token-like concept called V-Bucks, which they can purchase or earn within the game.
“We continuously run experiments to explore features that engage our users and communities,” a spokesperson for San Francisco-based Reddit said in a statement. “With Community Points, we’re working exclusively with two communities to test this feature and gather feedback from our users.” Fortnite maker Epic is not associated with the Reddit effort.
Analysts who follow crypto do have some worries about the effort. Awards of Community Points will be correlated to “karma” that Reddit users earn from others for, say, posting a smart comment. Reddit will have to be vigilant to make sure the system is not gamed, said Will Price, a data scientist at researcher Flipside Crypto. Reddit is also giving itself 20% of the tokens being distributed, and users may not think it’s a fair trade, he said.
“That being said, if all goes well, this could be the first step towards a more engaged and invested Reddit community, raising the bar for quality content creation and curation,” Price said.
— With assistance by Vildana Hajric


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Infinix Note 11S is all set to make its debut in the Indian market soon. The company’s India CEO has teased the launch of the budget smartphone. The handset was initially launched in Thailand and runs on MediaTek Helio G96 SoC. It comes in three RAM and storage configurations and offers a triple rear camera system, which consists of a 50-megapixel main camera. Separately, the company is reportedly gearing up to unveil its first 5G smartphone, the Infinix Zero 5G. Ahead of an official announcement, a tipster has shared renders of the smartphone online, offering a glimpse of the design and some specifications.
Anish Kapoor, CEO of Infinix India teased, Indian launch of infinix note 11s via a tweet. Posting a picture showing the retail boxes of Infinix Note 11 and Infinix Note 11S, Kapoor wrote in the caption, “Get ready for all the gamers in the house because something special is coming soon.” The company presents the Infinix Note 11S as a gaming smartphone and has a monster game kit.
Infinix Note 11S was launched in November and it runs on Android 11. The smartphone flaunts a 6.95-inch full-HD+ (1,080×2,460 pixels) IPS LCD display with 120Hz refresh rate. The phone is powered by MediaTek Helio G96 SoC, paired with 8GB of RAM. It has 128GB of onboard storage, which is expandable via microSD card (up to 2TB).
As for optics, the handset sports a triple rear camera system, consisting of a single 50-megapixel main sensor and two 2-megapixel snappers. For selfies, the handset sports a 16-megapixel camera at the front. Infinix Note 11S has dual speakers with DTS surround sound. The Infinix Note 11S has face unlock and a side-mounted fingerprint reader. The smartphone packs a 5,000mAh battery that supports 33W SuperCharge fast charging.
Separately, a well-known tipster known as Tech Arena24 on YouTube shared details about the arrival of Infinix’s first 5G capable smartphone. Video, According to the tipster, the model number of the smartphone is X6815 and it will be called Infinix Zero 5G. The render of the Infinix Zero 5G shared by the tipster shows a selfie shooter with two LED flash units and a hole-punch display to house the three cameras at the back. The smartphone is said to feature a Super AMOLED display with 120Hz refresh rate. The Infinix Zero 5G MediaTek Dimensity 900 chipset is also said to pack under the hood.
Infinix As of now, no details have been officially shared regarding the launch of Infinix Zero 5G. So, these details should be considered with a pinch of salt.


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OpenSea head of product Nate Chastain, who was recently accused of a form of NFT insider trading, appears to no longer be working for the company. His Twitter bio now includes the phrase “Past: @opensea.” OpenSea has not publicly named the employee involved in the incident, but CEO Devin Finzer says the NFT trading platform asked for and received their resignation.
Yesterday, Finzer put up a blog post saying an employee used knowledge gained from working at the company to purchase NFTs that were about to be posted to the popular trading site’s homepage (and would thus likely go up in value). While an investigation is apparently still ongoing, OpenSea does say that it’s implemented clearer rules to prevent employees from doing this kind of thing in the future.
The incident came to light after the NFT community began digging into transactions in Chastain’s public wallet. Community members, taking advantage of the blockchain’s openness and semi-transparency, were able to find transactions that seemed to indicate that he was secretly flipping NFTs. The community members also say that the transactions show that this flipping earned the employee thousands of dollars or more — you can read more about the investigations and accusations here.
Chastain has yet to make a public statement or acknowledge the situation in any way. However, his Twitter profile, and OpenSea’s blog post, would seem to indicate that his time at the company is over.


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NEGOTIATIONS ON FISHERIES SUBSIDIES
DG Okonjo-Iweala said: “I warmly welcome Hong Kong, China's formal acceptance of the Agreement on Fisheries Subsidies. Hong Kong, China is a marine capture producer and a major trader and consumer of fish products. Like all members, it has an important interest in ensuring the sustainability of global fisheries and a healthy ocean ecology. Hong Kong, China thus has much to gain from the entry into force of this historic WTO agreement. I hope that Hong Kong, China's leadership in accepting the Agreement will encourage more WTO members, in Asia and around the globe, to follow suit quickly.”
Ms Lai said: “The conclusion of the Agreement on Fisheries Subsidies was a milestone achievement at MC12 as WTO members reinvigorated multilateralism and worked collaboratively to deliver on issues of global importance. Now an international financial and trade centre, Hong Kong, China in fact developed from a small fishing village, so fisheries and fishery resources always hold a special place in our heart. As a long-standing, staunch supporter of the multilateral trading system, we are pleased to deposit our Instrument of Acceptance today and join the global efforts to operationalise the Agreement, so that it can deliver global benefits for trade, development and the environment.”
With Hong Kong, China's instrument of formal acceptance — the 16th instrument received by the WTO — nearly 40% of the acceptances needed for the Agreement to enter into force are now in hand. Acceptances from two-thirds of WTO members are needed for the Agreement to come into effect.
Adopted by consensus at the WTO's 12th Ministerial Conference (MC12) held in Geneva on 12-17 June 2022, the Agreement on Fisheries Subsidies sets new binding, multilateral rules to curb harmful subsidies, which are a key factor in the widespread depletion of the world's fish stocks. In addition, the Agreement recognizes the needs of developing and least-developed countries (LDCs) and establishes a fund to provide technical assistance and capacity building to help them implement the obligations.
The Agreement prohibits support for illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing, bans support for fishing overfished stocks, and ends subsidies for fishing on the unregulated high seas.
Members also agreed at MC12 to continue negotiations on outstanding issues, with a view to making recommendations by MC13, to be held in February 2024 in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, for additional provisions that would further enhance the disciplines of the Agreement.
The full text of the Agreement can be accessed here. The list of members that have deposited their instruments of acceptance of the Agreement is available here. Information for members on how to accept the Protocol of Amendment is available here.


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Ukraine’s export and import will not be affected by the coronavirus epidemic in China.
“Agro-Center” tells more about it.
Commentary: “We have some export and sell goods to China. But most of the goods such as butter and other foods will not be affected,” said Timofey Milovanov.
Details: The Ministry of Economy does not see any negative consequences of the coronavirus epidemic for Ukrainian economy.
Export of goods from Ukraine to China is still on, despite the epidemic.
Milovanov also notes that importing goods from China is not dangerous. He believes that this is an opportunity for the development of Ukrainian business.


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It was a noisy week of Fedspeak and data as market watchers tuned into two full days of testimony from Fed Chairman Jerome Powell in addition to thumbing through GDP and consumer spending data releases.
On Thursday, the Bureau of Economic Analysis released its initial reading of U.S. GDP growth for the fourth quarter of 2018, weeks after its original publication date due to shutdown-related delays. On an annualized basis, Q4 GDP came in at 2.6%.
The fourth-quarter GDP numbers were in line with White House promises of GDP growth of 3%. Real GDP growth for the full-year 2018 was 2.9% but when measuring GDP from Q4 2017 to Q4 2018, that figure is actually slightly above President Donald Trump’s goal: 3.1%.
But many economists expect slower growth in 2019, raising the question: was the fourth quarter the best performance we’ll see in a while?
The Fed has already acknowledged “crosscurrents and conflicting signals” that could turn the tide on otherwise “healthy” current U.S. economic conditions.
Yahoo Finance was on the ground at the National Association for Business Economics conference in Washington, D.C. and talked to experts about their dampened expectations for growth this year.
Tax reform wearing off?
Most NABE attendees said the impressive growth in 2018 reflected the impact of tax cuts enacted in 2017.
But most NABE economists expect that effect to wear off in 2019. Two-thirds of surveyed NABE members expect a boost of only up to 0.5% to GDP in 2019 as a result of the tax cuts. That would provide a modest bump to an already gloomy baseline near-term outlook; 10 percent of NABE survey respondents think the U.S. is headed for recession this year and 42 percent of respondents think the U.S. will dip into recession by the end of 2020.
Weaker economic data is already showing some signs of wear and tear. Data released Friday morning revealed consumer spending falling 0.5% in December, the worst decline in nine years. Diane Swonk, chief economist at GrantThornton, told Yahoo Finance in an interview that those figures align with “ugly” retail numbers from December and a “little weakness” in recent manufacturing readings.
“We’re going to start the year on a weak note,” Swonk said, adding that “we’re not going to get 3% this year.”
The White House doesn’t agree.
Kevin Hassett, head of the White House’s Council of Economic Advisers, told Yahoo Finance Thursday that the stimulus should continue and projects 3.2% GDP growth for 2019. Hassett said his CEA models predicted 3.1% GDP growth for 2018.
“The reason why we’re looking ahead to a good 2019: the model that told us 3.1% told us 3.2% this year,” Hassett said.
An unclear picture on President Donald Trump’s trade policies is also expected to weigh down on the economy.
Susan Lund, a partner at the McKinsey Global Institute, told Yahoo Finance that a lack of clarity on the U.S.-China trade talks and on potential auto tariffs have companies sidelined as they also reconsider their global supply chains. Lund pointed to McKinsey research showing that companies are increasingly looking beyond cost of labor when looking where to place their investments - adding that the trade wars are further complicating those decisions.
Talks between the two largest economies in the world are still ongoing. Shortly after President Donald Trump pushed back the original deadline of March 1, U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer told Congress that there is still work to be done on getting a deal done with China, particularly on the protection of intellectual property rights.
Senator Mark Warner, a Democrat from Virginia, told Yahoo Finance that forced technology transfer is also complicating talks. Warner, who was a telecommunications executive before his life in Congress, said he is not optimistic that the Trump administration will be able to get concessions out of the Chinese.
“My fear is when the administration got tough on a company like ZTE, once they got the first pushback from China, they buckled,” Warner said, referring to Trump’s deal with ZTE despite the company’s violation of U.S. sanctions. And my fear is they’ll buckle particularly around the technological transfers.”
President Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping are in talks for a meeting in Mar-a-Lago.
Brian Cheung is a reporter covering the banking industry and the intersection of finance and policy for Yahoo Finance. You can follow him on Twitter @bcheungz.


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MOSCOW — When the going gets tough, Russians go luxury shopping — and right now there are just a handful of major retailers snapping up all the brands.
“During the big financial crash a few years ago when banks were collapsing, Russians took their cash and bought big luxury items. Sure, we are worried about terrorism right now,” acknowledged Evelina Khromchenko, editor in chief of the Russian edition of L’Officiel, referring to the hostage-taking early last month that killed more than 300 people, many of them school children, in southern Russia. “But that is what we do when there’s a crisis: shop.”
The expectation that Muscovites with means respond to political and economic uncertainty by investing in brand-name consumer goods is one of the forces behind a wave of massive real estate expansion by a handful of Russia’s luxury megacompanies. In the last few years, the Crocus International group has built Crocus City, a mammoth 656,598-square-foot upscale mall with 180 boutiques ranging from Lanvin to Celine that is located on the outskirts of Moscow. A stone’s throw from the Kremlin, the Mercury group has erected its own 107,639-square-foot luxury shopping street and opened Armani, Gucci and Prada boutiques there. Not to be outdone, Bosco di Ciliegi bought a 50.25 percent stake in GUM, the historic 753,473-square-foot retail property on Red Square, where it recently opened Corneliani and Moschino boutiques.
“What’s happened is that all the accidental players fell out of the luxury apparel market and now a few major groups have become professional retailers who hold all the brands,” related Mikhail Kusnirovich, president of Bosco di Ciliegi. His company owns 40 boutiques across Russia ranging from Max Mara to Givenchy, as well as its own Bosco brand multibrand department stores
“We started out wanting only to sell clothes and did not plan to diversify into real estate. But the top few retailers have evolved into powerhouses and, as our companies’ boutiques have become shopping destinations, we have all realized that real estate is an important branding symbol,” Kusnirovich said.
In uncertain times, diversifying into real estate also may serve as a hedge strategy for Moscow retailers. In the wake of a month-long series of terrorist incidents in Russia — which included, in addition to the school attack in Beslan, two airplane bombings and a Moscow subway and bus bombing — retail turnover initially stalled, just as it did in America following 9/11. Stunned citizens were reeling from the violence and from President Vladimir Putin’s announcement that he plans to curb the democratic electoral process.
This story first appeared in the October 4, 2004 issue of WWD. Subscribe Today.
But within weeks the country had rebounded and Muscovites seemed to have returned to their regular retail routines. At Galleria, the trendy restaurant with the toughest scrutiny in Moscow, diners in D&G jeans, Hermès H belts and corduroy Etro jackets lounged on the patio, their Louis Vuitton satchels and cashmere scarves strewn across banquettes — and that was just the men. Across town at the tony, 12-table Vogue Café, the knee-high wooden purse stands were laden with Balenciaga saddlebags, Chanel totes and a sea of Kelly bags accessorized with Prada robot charms. The fact that, in mid-September, Russian police nabbed a would-be terrorist who had parked a car full of dynamite and grenades outside a popular Moscow museum was not keeping people at home.
“The government has warned people to avoid crowded places. But people are still going to work, doing business, going out and going shopping. We have to live,” pointed out L’Officiel’s Khromchenko.
In fact, in the midst of all the gloom, Russia’s second-largest oil company last month announced a fivefold increase in its estimated oil reserves — making the country potentially the world’s second-largest oil producer after Saudi Arabia. With oil, the mainstay of the Russian Gross National Product, continuing to command high prices, the economy is booming. But because of that oil and gas dependence, international credit-rating agency Standard & Poors warned last month that Russia has one of the world’s riskiest banking systems.
For retailers, it’s a complicated situation. On the one hand, the Russian minimum wage is about $20 a month and, as of this summer, wage arrears stood at $820 million. On the other hand, according to statistics from the Russian government agency Goskomstat, Russian retail turnover rose to $146 billion in 2003 from $121 billion in 2002. Meanwhile, a U.S. government report in June put the unofficial figure for last year’s Russian consumer spending closer to $270 billion. Of that figure, industry experts suggest Russians may spend between $2 billion to $3 billion annually on luxury retail. And consumer demand shows no sign of abating. Retail space in Moscow, most of it large shopping centers, grew by about 645,834 square feet in 2002 and 10.7 million square feet in 2003.
A few years ago, when the vice president and retail director of Mercury, Alla Verber, met Americans, she would tell them her goal for the brands (such as Jil Sander and Alberta Ferretti) she imported was to “build Madison Avenue along Kutuzovsky,” the eight-lane thoroughfare that is a 10-minute drive from the Kremlin where the company had a two-story flagship emporium called Moscow Trading House.
How time flies. Now Mercury has reconstructed a 19th-century arcade, called Tretyakovsky Proyezd, and transformed it into its own 107,639-square-foot luxury shopping lane a five-minute walk from the Kremlin. Here, housed inside the classical lemon yellow and white facades of historic Moscow, there is a seemingly endless array of perfectly appointed stand-alone stores, including a three-story Armani palace with its own VIP dressing area; a Graff diamond boutique with gilded Empire chairs, and a two-story Dolce & Gabbana store complete with zebra rugs and gilded mirrors.
In the apparel and accessories category, there are also stand-alone Prada, Gucci, Roberto Cavalli, Yves Saint Laurent Rive Gauche, Brioni, Tod’s, Zegna, Bulgari and Tiffany & Co stores. Because Muscovites are developing an interiors obsession, Mercury has also opened separate Frette, Baccarat and Armani Casa boutiques. Meanwhile its Ferrari, Maserati and Bentley dealerships, opened last year, already have become the stuff of legend.
“I heard Mercury sold 12 Bentleys the first week they opened in Moscow,” British designer Paul Smith reported this summer. Smith, whose apparel already sells in multiple brand stores in Moscow and St. Petersburg, said he is impressed by how “the Russians and the Chinese are the world’s new big spenders. Moscow has 33 billionaires, more than any other city in the world.”
And, naturally, some of those billionaires frequent Mercury’s exclusive arcade. By day, Tretyakovsky Proyezd’s cobblestone thoroughfare is crammed with Mercedes SUVs disgorging shoppers hungry for Chaumet bobbles and Gucci handbags. By night, the place is thronged with partygoers decked out head-to-toe in Roberto Cavalli who come for dinner at Mercury’s stratospherically priced haute cuisine French restaurant called T-R-E-T-Y-A-K-O-V, or for parties the company throws to honor a visiting celeb, be it Giorgio Armani or Cavalli. The Cavalli party earlier this summer was announced by 30-foot advertising billboards posted around Moscow that said, in English: “Congratulations Roberto Cavalli on the opening of your new store!”
And along with the Class A real estate and A-list parties, Verber, of course, has upgraded her ambitions. Forget Madison Avenue. Verber’s sights are set on Italy, the Alps and the Hamptons.
“We are building Via Montenapoleone, like in Milan,” she explained as she walked into Vogue Café dressed in her signature Chanel black, deposited a vast quilted Chanel tote on a table and acknowledged various logoed diners in the room, most of them regular Mercury clients.
Asked to distinguish Mercury from Moscow’s other retail conglomerates such as Crocus and Bosco, she said immediately: “We deal only in luxury, luxury, luxury. That means luxury cars, luxury fashion, luxury jewelry, luxury food and luxury home products. We are a luxury empire.”
And that empire, she explained, has a manifest destiny to expand by acquiring more prime real estate in and around Moscow. To that end, two years ago the company bought TSUM, the rundown old Soviet department store next to the Bolshoi Theater that is across the street from Mercury’s luxury shopping street. The five-story, 387,500-square-foot behemoth has 150,694 square feet of retail space that Mercury plans to double in the next few years, as well as adding an underground parking garage. The ground floor, where instant photo developers and porcelain tchotchke booths once stood, now has various cosmetics counters along with Prada, Gucci and Bottega Veneta accessories corners. The third floor has sections devoted to an eclectic range of brands, including Diane von Furstenberg, St. John, Juicy Couture, Ellen Tracy, Ya Ya, Miu Miu, Polo Ralph Lauren, Laundry by Shelli Segal, Dana Buchman and Earl Jean. With TSUM, Verber says she is aiming to replicate Saks Fifth Avenue in terms of both brand variety and prestige. On the one hand, she hopes to create an entry point for middle-class Muscovites who might find the Gucci boutique intimidating. On the other hand, she wants to give Mercury’s upscale client base “a place to buy casualwear, a place to shop with their daughters, another place to buy a great bag.”
Indeed, the key to the new Moscow retail diversification is location. The more locations Russian retailers open — whether the doors be clothing boutiques, restaurants, bars or spas — the more time and money their clients spend in those environments. Perhaps the apex of this strategy is Mercury’s gigantic new project: a six-kilometer-long shopping development in Zhukovka, the pastoral summer destination an hour’s drive outside Moscow likened to the Hamptons, where Russia’s new rich have been competing to erect McMansions. Mercury is building a luxury hotel there with an entertainment complex, restaurants and a dozen stores ranging from Armani Casa to Prada so that, Verber said, “in the winter everyone who used to go to St. Moritz can enjoy the snow here at home.”
To translate the Mercury scenario to American terms, it would be as if Bergdorf Goodman’s success might hinge, in addition to its flagship, on also building and owning Rockefeller Center, Spice Market and Nobu, the Marquis Club and the Maidstone Club. Welcome to Moscow.
But Mercury isn’t alone in its diversification strategy. Crocus International made its first major foray into Russian retailing in 2001 when it built and opened Tvoi Dom (Your House), a 538,195-square-foot home supply store that seems like a combination of Home Depot and Kmart. A 484,375-square-foot Expo Center soon followed. But the jewel in the company’s crown is Crocus City, a 688,889-square-foot mall opened in 2002 that echoes Miami’s Bal Harbour with its water decor and lush greenery. The upscale mall, 30 minutes’ drive from downtown Moscow, contains 180 boutiques — including Versace, Emilio Pucci, Stephane Kelian, Cerruti, Les Copains and Bruno Magli. Crocus International owns and operates 60 of the units, among them the first JLo store in the world, which opened this summer.
“Before we designed Crocus City, we went to Bal Harbour and Short Hills, [N.J.] and we visited luxury malls across Europe. Then we combined everything we liked together in one vision,” said Crocus International’s co-owner and commercial director Emin Agalarov.
“Crocus City is a place where you can walk in on a cold day and find yourself in a tropical paradise where you can shop, relax and be entertained,” he added. “There’s a huge swimming pool with professional synchronized swimmers who do shows every three hours. There’s a river that streams down the limestone hallways.”
When Crocus International announced in 2001 that it was planning to build the gargantuan mall with 4.5 miles of aisles, its competitors were skeptical. At the time there were about 150 single-brand freestanding designer stores in Moscow and the idea that Crocus City would double the number of Moscow’s luxury stores in one fell swoop seemed ludicrous. Crocus’ downtown competitors were also skeptical of the mall’s suburban location lacking a subway stop.
Three years later, foot traffic is indeed limited. But Agalarov reported that his dedicated clients are big spenders.
“We don’t get that many visitors,” he agreed, “maybe 4,000 to 5,000 people per day. But when they each spend $500 to $600 — the price of Crocus City’s average sale’s ticket — that adds up over the course of a year.”
In terms of retail significance, Moscow is like Milan, Agalarov suggested, “a shopping mecca where people come from all over Russia to buy luxury brands as well as from neighboring countries like Kazakhstan and Ukraine.”
To capture those diverse audiences and keep them busy with entertainment options, Crocus International is in the midst of a building boom. It is planning to build another 1.1 million square feet of retail space to add 120 boutiques to Crocus City Mall in the next few years. In addition to prestige labels, Agalarov said he hopes to entice midpriced brands such as Banana Republic and Victoria’s Secret.
Also, the company is tripling its adjacent Expo space to 1.6 million square feet and planning to build a 1,000-room hotel that Agalarov likens to “the Venetian or the Bellagio, with Russia’s biggest casino, and then we’re also planning to build Russia’s biggest movie theater with 20 to 25 screens.”
When Crocus International’s grand plan is finished, its “city within a city” should total more than 10.8 million square feet of real estate, which the company hopes to have completed by 2010. The Crocus City subway station should be open by then as well.
In the meantime, when the upscale mall’s shoppers tire of the designer catwalk shows and the synchronized swimming, they can repair for cocktails nearby at the company’s exclusive Shore House yacht club, which opened this summer. The club has already hosted shows by elite yacht companies such as Pershing and Ferretti. And for those luxury shopping mavens who must avoid Moscow’s rush-hour bottlenecks at all costs, the yacht club conveniently has a helipad.
Crocus City may have a helipad, but Bosco di Ciliegi has GUM, the historic 753,473-square-foot galleria parallel to the Kremlin on Red Square that has been Russia’s most famous shopping address since its construction in 1893. Even before that, in the 18th century, the site housed 1,200 small wooden trading stalls under one roof until the place burned down in 1825. In the Communist era, millions of shoppers, both Muscovites and visitors from neighboring Soviet Republics, strolled down its marbled halls under the Victorian glass ceilings in search of government-issue shoes, suits and ice cream. In the last decade, GUM has become a big attraction for brands such as Reebok, Benetton and Estée Lauder that responded to the siren call of Russia’s highest foot traffic.
“GUM is a national symbol that, in significance, could be compared to Galeries Lafayette or to Harrods in terms of a shopping destination. But then you have to factor in the country’s most famous address —3 Red Square — across from the Kremlin,” noted Timur Guguberidze, the new commercial director of GUM. “So GUM is like Harrrods if Harrods happened to share a courtyard with Buckingham Palace. From a Russian retail standpoint, that makes GUM more important than Harrods.”
When earlier this year the Bosco group, which already owned the Max Mara, Hugo Boss and La Perla boutiques and its own Bosco brand multibrand specialty store in GUM, purchased a controlling stake in the building, the company also gained control of satellite retail properties that GUM owned throughout Moscow.
“You can’t imagine how much real estate we ended up with in this deal. GUM has 24 separate addresses in total that, apart from GUM, add up to 1.6 million square feet valued at $200 million,” related Bosco president Kusnirovich. Bosco plans to sell some of GUM’s Moscow properties and rent out others. Next year, Kusnirovich said, Zara will be opening big boutiques both in GUM on Red Square and in the GUM satellite store on Tverskaya, Moscow’s main shopping street.
But the company’s real priority is restoring GUM to its original grandeur. Before Bosco took over the entire three-story colossus, it had already renovated an entire row of ground-floor shops by opening Max Mara, Marina Rinaldi, Max & Co, Kenz and Iceberg boutiques there. It also opened its own high-end perfumery, called Articoli, its own multibrand Bosco department store with women’s fashion, men’s wear and children’s clothes, and Bosco Café, an Italian eatery with views of the Kremlin. This summer, Bosco opened Moschino and Corneliani stores in GUM, along with Bosco Bar, a stylish retro futuristic locale with clear plastic bubble chairs hanging from the ceiling. This summer, Louis Vuitton also opened its own store in the same row.
Like its luxury competitors, the theme for this Moscow retail conglomerate is geographic and entertainment diversification. In GUM, Bosco also owns a Dior cosmetics boutique with two treatment rooms, and in Petrovsky Passage, a historic mall not far from GUM, Bosco runs a restaurant, a cafe, an old-fashioned apothecary and a clinic that is home to Russia’s top cosmetic dentist. In addition, it owns freestanding Etro, Givenchy, Nina Ricci, Alberta Ferretti, Ermanno Scervino and Pomellato boutiques in Petrovsky Passage.
“The majority of Russian capital is concentrated in Moscow and people have to spend it somewhere, whether it’s at boutiques or at restaurants or both, because you need to buy new clothes to go out to restaurants,” theorized Guguberidze of GUM. “So the more a retailer throws promotions, parties and events, the more you help create a society that needs to dress up. And the more diverse events you stage — and why not, by the way, hold them in the retailer’s own restaurants? — the more you can diversify into formalwear, eveningwear, casualwear, outerwear, jewelry and sportswear.”
In fact, Bosco has a somewhat different diversification strategy than most of its competitors. For one thing, it has ventured outside of Moscow to open Max Mara and Kenzo boutiques in St. Petersburg, as well as introducing freestanding Max Mara stores to cities including Samara and Novosibirsk in far-flung Siberia. For another, apart from the single brand designer stores, Bosco has built itself into its own luxury brand, known for multibrand department stores with an eclectic mix of Italian and French labels. Each season, Bosco creates its own branded advertising campaigns that appear in Russian magazines and on Moscow billboards, and the company also launched Bosco Sport, with a red-and-white logo that appeared in Athens on every Russian Olympian’s tracksuit. Taking a page from the Canadian company Roots, Bosco sponsors the Russian Olympic team and sells similar sportswear and merchandise to Muscovites in its Bosco Sport store in GUM.
“I think one of the reasons for the real estate acquisitions is that the future of retail in Russia is no longer just about rich clients. It’s about customers who not only want a wide choice of high-quality fashion, but who also care a lot about where they are shopping,” said Kusnirovich. “Therefore, luxury retailers are no longer only product- and brand-oriented, we are environment-oriented. I want our clients to walk in and know immediately that they are in a sophisticated, refined, stylish environment. I want them to know immediately that they are in Bosco.”
If Kusnirovich is right, the massive expansions by Russia’s luxury retailers are only in their initial stages. Years from now, Moscow retailers will look back on the turn of the century as their Early Russian Empire period.
Editor’s Note: This is the second in a series examining the growing market in Russia for fashion and luxury goods.


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NIO (NYSE:NIO) shares are currently down 53% over the past 12 months. The Chinese electric vehicle (EV) firm’s share price collapsed along with many other growth stocks in late 2021 and early 2022. But after a three-month bull run, the stock is falling again.
Now at $18, I’m seeing this as an opportunity to buy more NIO stock. Here’s why.
NIO is yet to make a profit and is unlikely to do so until 2024. In fact, Tesla is only EV company to be truly profit-making. However, the Shanghai-based company has demonstrated its ability to continually grow revenue. The firm doubled revenue in each of the years between 2018 and 2021, but 2022 might be different.
There’s also a possibility that profitability might be pushed back by the lockdowns and zero-tolerance to Covid-19 that we’re seeing in China this year.
The firm currently has a price-to-sales (P/S) ratio of five. To me, that looks remarkably cheap. By comparison, Tesla has a P/S ratio of around 15.
But that’s nothing compared to the other American peers. Lucid has a P/S ratio of 153 while Rivian has a P/S ratio of 45.
I actually believe NIO’s EVs are market-leading. The issue is they’re not produced or sold as widely as Tesla. But that’s something the company is looking to remedy. A second factory is opening in China this year and NIOs are now been sold in Germany, the Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden and Norway.
Unfortunately, I haven’t driven a NIO, but numerous car review videos have led me to believe it can rival Tesla outside of China. For one, the long-range version of its new ET7 can go as far as 1,000km on a single charge, putting it some distance ahead of its Tesla equivalent.
NIO’s vehicles also possess unique battery-swapping capabilities. This allows drivers to pull up at a NIO garage and swap their empty battery for a full one in a matter of minutes — far quicker than conventional charging.
And compared to Chinese peers XPeng and Li Auto, NIO has an impressive range of vehicles and this is key to growth. Li has only just launched its second vehicle — albeit a very impressive one.
While NIO certainly has some impressive credentials there are, of course, risks, some of which are geopolitical.
For one, China’s economy appears to be entering a period of slower growth. In fact, there are some big concerns around liquidity and debt amid ongoing lockdowns, power shortages and a housing crisis. A slower economy is unlikely to be good for indigenous consumption.
But it is also worth considering the impact of Western sanctions on China. We saw these develop with the US under Trump. NIO naturally has a sizeable audience in China, but the biggest markets still lie in Europe and the US.
Despite this, I’d still buy more shares at $18. I think the future is bright for this nascent EV firm.
The post NIO shares dip again! Is this a buying opportunity? appeared first on The Motley Fool UK.
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- NIO shares are falling: is it time to buy at $19?
- Is now the time to buy NIO stock?
- As NIO stock continues to fall, should I buy the dip?
- Is now a good time to buy Chinese EV stocks as economic growth slows?
- NIO stock is above $20. Where will it go next?
James Fox owns shares in NIO. The Motley Fool UK has recommended Tesla. Views expressed on the companies mentioned in this article are those of the writer and therefore may differ from the official recommendations we make in our subscription services such as Share Advisor, Hidden Winners and Pro. Here at The Motley Fool we believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors.


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Retail stores have been hit hard by coronavirus restrictions, while Brexit uncertainty threatens to disrupt the flow of goods through UK
British fashion retailer Ted Baker cut 953 jobs as coronavirus lockdowns sent first-half losses soaring, it said on Monday, warning of the potential for further pain from a no-deal Brexit as the European Union divorce deadline looms.
Retail stores have been hit hard by coronavirus restrictions and closures, with job losses running in the thousands, while the looming end to Britain’s Brexit transition period threatens to disrupt the flow of goods through UK ports unless a new trade deal can be agreed before the end of the month.
Philip Green’s Arcadia retail group last month became the biggest corporate casualty of the pandemic so far and Debenhams is set to shut up shop after 242 years.
Even with some of our legacy issues being amplified by COVID-19, our balance sheet is materially stronger than we had envisaged this early in the plan and operational cash flow will be positive for the full-year, said Ted Baker Chief Executive Rachel Osborne.
The coronavirus crisis compounded difficulties for the company, which has been hit by profit warnings, management changes and an accounting scandal since founder Ray Kelvin stepped down as CEO in 2019 after misconduct allegations, which he denies.
Ted Baker has overhauled its management team this year and raised about 95 million pounds ($126 million) in equity to bolster its pandemic-hit finances.
Its three-year turnaround plan is expected to deliver 31 million pounds in annual savings, up from the previously targeted 27 million pounds, the company said on Monday.
With Britain’s full exit from the European Union only weeks away and a trade deal still hanging in the balance, Ted Baker warned that, in a worst-case scenario, full-year profit could take a 16.1 million pound hit.
Ted Baker, known for suits, shirts and dresses with quirky details, said its pretax loss widened to 39 million pounds in the six months to Aug. 8, against 2.7 million pounds a year earlier.


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Rogue fuel 'cover up' could cost stores up to £10m
by RAY MASSEY
Last updated at 00:28 03 March 2007
Tesco and Morrisons are facing compensation claims of up to £10 million from thousands of motorists whose cars were brought to a halt by contaminated fuel.
Yesterday, garages said they warned Tesco about the issue as early as February 12, more than a fortnight before the news was made public on Wednesday.
Ray Holloway, of the Petrol Retailers' Association, said: 'Why did it wait so long when motorists risked having their cars damaged? Questions will have to be asked.
"When did it first know there was a problem and why didn't it warn motorists straight away?"
Tests by trading standards have found traces of silicon, in its liquid silicone form, in the petrol tanks of stricken cars.
The substance has been blamed for knocking out the oxygen filters in thousands of vehicles.
Yesterday, Morrisons suspended sales of unleaded at 41 sites in the South-East which received fuel from the terminal at the centre of investigations.
The supermarket said it was a 'precautionary measure', and denied any cover-up.
A Tesco spokesman also denied a cover-up, but admitted there had been 'sporadic' reports of contamination a few days before the weekend of February 24.
"There's no big conspiracy. We received isolated reports but did not know the extent of the problem until this Wednesday," he said.
The terminal under investigation, Vopack, refines and stores fuel for the oil company Greenergy, which supplies Tesco and Morrisons. Tesco has a 25 per cent stake in Greenergy.
Vopack, on the Thames, also stores fuel for Harvest Energy, which supplies Asda. Asda fuel has also been involved in the contamination scare.
The Daily Mail has already revealed that oil companies knew about the problem ten days ago.
Concerned staff at the Haddock's car dealership in Colchester had raised concerns with Greenergy about a rise in the number of burned-out oxygen filters in their cars. Silicon leaves a tell-tale residue in the tanks of stricken cars, which is effectively sand.
The substance is commonly used in diesel to prevent the fuel frothing up when drivers fill their tanks.
One possibility for the contamination is that the silicon was put mistakenly into a batch of unleaded fuel.
Another line of inquiry is whether traces of silicon from a batch of diesel may have remained in one of the storage tanks and mixed with unleaded.
Professor Malcolm Fox, of the University of Leeds, said: "You only need a few parts per million to cause a problem to the oxygen filters - say a coke-can full in a 35,000-litre fuel tanker, or a six-pack in a storage tank."
Trading standards officials expect the supermarkets to compensate motorists in full if there is evidence directly linking their fuel to the problem.
It says there are around 2,000 confirmed cases of affected cars, with the BBC reporting up to 4,000 emails from people who believe they have been affected.
One batch of oil is 12 million litres - meaning there could be enough of the contaminated fuel to fill around 400,000 cars.
Senior tax manager for accountants Grant Thornton, Maurice Fitzpatrick, said: "With between 4,000 and 10,000 cars affected - and repairs costing up to £1,000 - it would not be unreasonable to expect claims to whoever is responsible to be between £5 million and £10 million.
"But that is purely for the repair of the vehicles and does not get into the issue of lost time, effort and inconvenience."
Supermarkets are almost certain to seek redress from their Thameside fuel suppliers.
Meanwhile, motorists are having to wait up to ten days for repairs because of a shortage of the spare parts.
Renault, Peugeot, Mercedes Benz and Citroen have made special orders for more oxygen sensors to replace those apparently damaged by the fuel.
Ford and Volkswagen vehicles, which include Audi and Seat models, have largely escaped the problems. Honda and Porsche also reported little extra demand for the part.
Oil companies have also been accused of 'profiteering', by pushing up forecourt prices as drivers shun the supermarkets.
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This morning, in California, Cree will unveil the TW series, a high performance LED bulb designed for compliance with strict voluntary guidelines set forth by the California Energy Commission. This is a follow-up to Cree’s super popular LED bulb that stands alone in the industry, delivering 93 CRI for just $20… and the price is about to drop.
How did this team of three use $273,278 to produce a bulb that — on paper — could wipe the floor with Philips’ long-awaited 100W-equivalent LED? As you probably guessed, once the product left the paper and arrived in people’s homes, things weren’t so simple.
Philips has just unveiled their 100W-equivalent LED bulb, the AmbientLED 23W. It won’t be available until Fall 2012, and pricing has yet to be announced, but it’s a big release for the company and one of the first 100W LED bulb to be available to consumers.
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New Delhi, (IANS) Global Web-hosting company GoDaddy on Wednesday launched a new mobile-friendly "Website Builder" in India to help small businesses and entrepreneurs grow their ventures.
The "Website Builder" features an integrated suite of online tools to help small businesses and entrepreneurs create an audience for their businesses and drive traffic to their website.
"India is our largest market outside of the US and we at GoDaddy have made big investments here. We have over 7,50,000 customers in India," Andrew Low Ah Kee, Executive Vice President, GoDaddy International, told IANS.
"In India, over 34 million small businesses are still offline. GoDaddy's new ‘Website Builder' is designed to help small businesses across country to create a professional online identity with ease, helping to grow their business online," he added.
‘Website Builder' with integrated marketing features enables small businesses to quickly improve their Google search rankings and help jumpstart email marketing campaigns.
The company also launched a new integrated marketing campaign focused on educating Indian small businesses on the value of going beyond traditional marketing and the importance of being visible on the Internet.
"The campaign reinforces that with a strong digital presence, small business owners have an opportunity to be more visible and potentially grow their business," added Nidhi Hola, Senior Director, Marketing, GoDaddy India.
Powered by smart algorithms and machine learning, the website builder helps customers with continuous activity updates and ways to improve results and evolve their businesses throughout their lifecycles
The new Website Builder is available in four different pricing options following a one month free trial: Personal (Rs99/month), Business (Rs 479/month), Business Plus (Rs 679/month) and Online Store (Rs 999/month).
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Christopher Ward is in the midst of a spot of soul-searching as it seeks to define its own identity for the first time
By Robin Swithinbank
Mike France is peeved. “I still don’t think people have given us credit for bringing that movement to market,” says the Christopher Ward co-founder of Calibre SH21 which the company introduced two years ago. “I don’t think many really understand how difficult it is to create a new movement. We’re still waiting for any other British brand to come out with a movement.”
For much of the 11 years since it released its first watch, Christopher Ward did not occupy many column inches in this magazine. While it came to market with an innovative direct sales strategy (it was an online pioneer, with no wholesale; see our Special Report for much, much more on that side of things) and a collection of affordable Swiss Made watches, it also had an injured tone and a raft of derivative designs that irked seasoned watch enthusiasts.
It was irritating to be shown a watch that looked like a budget IWC Portuguese, and then to be told that it was just as good as an IWC, but available to good, honest folk at a fraction of the price. The indignation was made worse because the model and the message seemed to be working – thriftier, often younger, less knowledgable customers bought into it, and the company grew.
But as Christopher Ward moves from childhood into adolescence, there are signs it might be growing up and, more importantly, discovering its own identity. In May this year, after a year-long project that began in the aftermath of its merger with the Swiss firm behind SH21, Synergies Horlogères, it unveiled all-new branding.
Out went the clunky, dated “Chr.Ward” logo of 2011, to be replaced by the company name spelt out in full in a far more contemporary sans-serif typeface based, according to France, on Edward Johnston’s eponymous London Underground font.
Backing this were sweeping new brand guidelines that were quickly rolled out across the company website and into its advertising campaign (the pseudo-Rolex ads have gone). The signature motif is a twin-flag device, which uses positive and negative impressions of the same cross shape simultaneously to form both the Swiss and English flags. All mentions of London have gone.
“The rebranding was about bringing the two parts of the business together,” says France. “It was about adding in new core values and beliefs, particularly around movement design and manufacturing.”
Over the summer, a fleet of products showcasing the company’s new identity followed with extraordinary swiftness. But rather than being rebranded versions of old models, they were original designs, created to signal a change in direction for the company. “Eleven years ago we weren’t really thinking about a Christopher Ward look,” says France. “Now we’re trying to create more of a signature look to our case designs. That’s a sign of how we’re moving forward.”
Leading that direction is the company’s senior designer, Adrian Buchmann, who joined Christopher Ward in June 2015 after a 10-year career working in watch design for agencies such as Le Locle-based Neo Desis, chiefly on confidential projects for third parties. “Through Adrian, we’re looking at a level of detail we wouldn’t have looked at before. The facets of indexes, for example. This is a new phase of watch design for us.”
Detractors of the previous homage-driven approach to design may take some convincing, but France is adamant his company’s transparency excused that approach. “Every diver’s watch is influenced by the Submariner,” he says. “The difference between us and them is that we tell people that. The watch industry can be very up itself about these things. We try and sell it as it is.”
For the moment, the dramatically different look of the rebrand has to sit alongside the many remnants of what went before. Christopher Ward finds itself in an awkward transitional phase, running ads with new artwork and imagery of watches carrying the old logo. “We’re managing it the only way we can,” says France. “It’s a condition of watchmaking – we’re not making T-shirts. Ninety per cent of the collection will have the new branding by next autumn.”
France acknowledges this will devalue the existing collection, despite the promising sales of the new models. He says demand is outstripping supply, particularly for the 44mm, black DLC-coated C8 Power Reserve Chronometer.
The C8 is one of six models launched since May, including a world timer (above), two very similar-looking models inspired by the Aston Martin DB4 Zagato and the Jaguar D-Type (both carry parts of the cars), and the C65 Trident Vintage (below), which at 38mm and £539 is by far the pick of the new breed, despite being sold with the painful line, “In the 1960s and ’70s, the cool guys wore black polo-neck jumpers, drove sports cars (or at least Ford Capris) and charmed women with a twitch of their eyebrows.”
At SalonQP Christopher Ward released its new flagship dress watch, the C1 Grand Malvern Power Reserve, a watch with a new case shape that will give us the strongest idea yet of what that signature Christopher Ward look will feel like. “We wanted a case for a premium dress collection that reflected our Englishness,” says France of the C1. “It’s inspired by the rolling hills of the Malverns, rather than the angular topography of Switzerland. We wanted something a bit smaller, something that would work at both 40mm and 42mm.” The new model measures 40.5mm in diameter.
Inside it is the first automatic version of the five-day SH21 in-house calibre with a power reserve indicator, bringing the number of Synergies Horlogères calibres to four. Confusingly, all of them are called SH21, loosely suffixed with their individual characteristics, where appropriate – the original automatic, a hand-wound version with small seconds, another hand-wound with a power reserve indicator, and now an automatic with a power reserve indicator.
The growing portfolio of in-house calibres won’t unseat what have become known as the “JJ Calibres”, namely those with modules developed by Johannes Jahnke, Synergies Horlogères’s pupating watchmaker who is now Christopher Ward’s technical director. “They’ll continue,” says France, “provided we can find interesting routes to go down.”
France sees the bigger challenge as creating something not seen in watchmaking before. “We decided not to bring out a tourbillon,” he says. “We have the capacity, but tourbillons are two a penny, and they don’t fulfil Johannes’s ambition to move the science of horology forward. What would be of more interest to us is to ask what we can do with constant force.”
While Christopher Ward remains based in Maidenhead, Synergies Horlogères has stayed in Biel, Switzerland. The two entities now operate under a holding company, and also supply movements and watches to MeisterSinger. France is keen to point out how seamlessly the two work together. “Christopher Ward and Johannes Jahnke share the same value – to bring the art of horology to as many people as possible.’
It’s a noble mission. This next phase will prove critical if they are to deliver it.


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Innocent gives away Olympic tickets in 'tweet for a seat' campaign
Innocent, the official smoothie and juice of the London 2012 Games, is giving away tickets to different Olympic events as part of a two-week Twitter campaign called 'Tweet For A Seat'.
The campaign launches on Monday (2 July) and will run for two weeks through the brand's @innocentdrinks Twitter handle.
Followers can win a pair of tickets to a number of Olympic events, which have not yet been named, by telling Innocent who they would like to take to the Olympics and why, including the hashtag #tweetforaseat.
Rich Duff-Tytler, head of digital communications, said: "Twitter is a hugely important way for us to chat to and reward our customers directly, and in the past we have used it as a really popular competition mechanic with our 'Tweet And Eat' campaign.
"Being the official smoothie and juice of the London 2012 Olympic Games is something we're really proud of, and we're thrilled to be able to help people experience a once-in-a-lifetime event with 'Tweet For A Seat'."
The Olympic activity follows Innocent's scrapping of its plans to host a festival that aimed to promote its sponsorship of the Games, due to poor ticket sales. The brand said that an overcrowded summer schedule in the capital and bad weather had led it to pull the festival.
Follow Loulla-Mae Eleftheriou-Smith on Twitter @loullamae_es
This article was first published on campaignlive.co.uk
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