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PARIS—Once a month, Bernard Arnault gathers his children for lunch inside a private dining room at the headquarters of LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton SE, his globe-spanning luxury goods company.
The meal, which lasts exactly 90 minutes, begins with the French billionaire reading aloud discussion topics he has prepared on his iPad, according to people close to him. Mr. Arnault then goes around the table, asking each of his five adult children for advice. He’ll seek an opinion on specific managers at the company, the people said, or whether it’s time for a shake-up at one of LVMH’s myriad brands, which stretch from the Champagne vineyards of France to handbag-making workshops in Italy and Texas.
Mr. Arnault, 74, currently the world’s richest person, has spent decades grooming his children to run LVMH. He drilled them in mathematics growing up and brought them along on business trips and negotiations. Today, Mr. Arnault is tightening the family’s grip on LVMH, parachuting his children into senior roles and empowering them to one day take over the luxury empire.
In elevating his children, however, Mr. Arnault has also amplified a long-running dilemma: Who will succeed him as chief executive and chairman of the world’s biggest luxury conglomerate? Mr. Arnault built LVMH, valued at $480 billion, by hunting rival luxury firms for corporate takeovers while also nurturing generations of fashion designers. That combination of killer instinct and finesse is why his rivals call him the “wolf in cashmere.”
His eldest child, Delphine Arnault, 48, appeared to many in the fashion world to pull ahead of the pack in January when her father made her chief executive of Christian Dior, the second-largest brand in the group. Paris was also buzzing weeks earlier when her brother Antoine Arnault, 45, became CEO of the listed company that holds the family’s stake in LVMH.
Nipping at their heels are the three sons from Mr. Arnault’s second marriage. Alexandre Arnault, 30, is the executive vice president of Tiffany & Co., with a high-powered network that includes Jay-Z and Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey. Frédéric Arnault, 28, runs the Tag Heuer watch brand, while 24-year-old Jean Arnault is director of marketing and development at Louis Vuitton’s watches division. All three studied at top engineering schools, a qualification their father has called crucial to his own success.
Mr. Arnault has given no indication whom he will choose as his successor, saying only that it will be based on merit. When asked about the matter in January at a presentation of LVMH’s annual results, he drew a parallel between his recent decision to raise the retirement age of LVMH’s chairman and CEO to 80 and French President Emmanuel Macron’s contentious push to raise France’s retirement age to 64.
“As to succession, you may also have noticed that the retirement age—which is very much in vogue—has been extended,” he said.
With his children looking on from the front row, Mr. Arnault quipped that he could use some free time to hone his skills at tennis, his favourite sport. “The last time I played with Roger Federer, I think I won one point in a single set. Maybe I could do a bit better than that,” he said.
Mr. Arnault pulled ahead of Tesla CEO Elon Musk late last year as the wealthiest person on the planet, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. His wealth was $208 billion on April 19, according to the index.
For decades, Mr. Arnault has run the company with top lieutenants such as Sidney Toledano, who led Christian Dior, and Michael Burke, chief of his biggest brand, Louis Vuitton.
Mr. Burke, 66, stepped down from Louis Vuitton in January to be with his wife before she died from cancer. Mr. Toledano, 71, is expected to give up his role running a stable of the group’s fashion brands, including Celine, Loewe and Marc Jacobs, in the coming months.
Both played key roles in mentoring Mr. Arnault’s children. He tends to pair them with executives who keep an eye on their performance. He will then ask, Mr. Toledano said, “about some of their character traits, or if there’s a need for a little correction.”
Delphine Arnault worked for 12 years at Dior under Mr. Toledano. She then joined Louis Vuitton in 2013, paired with Mr. Burke, who has long worked at her father’s side. Speaking at a farewell tribute for Mr. Burke in January, according to people present, she said it was “impossible to recall precisely my first memory of you. That’s quite logical after all because I’ve known you since I was born.”
Days later, Ms. Arnault attended Dior’s fashion show in Paris as she prepared to take over as the brand’s chief executive. She has an uncanny resemblance to her father, possessing his genteel manners, high forehead and a frame that is tall and slender.
She went backstage, where she offered an assessment of the handbags that had just gone down the runway. Glossy materials, she said, were making a comeback. The collection, she said, was “very elegant. A bit romantic.”
Mr. Toledano looked on like a proud dad. “She survived the Toledano-Michael tandem,” he said. “She’s vaccinated now. She’s received the two doses.”
Mr. Arnault hardly ever speaks about succession in public. People close to him say it has been on his mind for decades.
In 2003, he made a hospital visit to his close friend and tennis partner Jean-Luc Lagardère, who had undergone a hip operation, the people said. Mr. Lagardère was one of France’s most respected businessmen, having built an empire that included missile-maker Matra and publisher Hachette.
Two days later, Mr. Lagardère slipped into a coma after developing an infection, and died shortly thereafter. The executive, who was 75, hadn’t adequately prepared his succession. In the years that followed, his son Arnaud gradually sold off or relinquished what his father had built.
Mr. Arnault recently took steps to tighten his family’s grip on LVMH and pass it on.
In December he transformed Agache, the private holding company that ultimately controls LVMH, into a commandite, a French corporate structure that resembles a limited partnership and allows its controlling shareholder to wield significant power with a relatively small holding.
He also created a second entity, Agache Commandite SAS, that is owned by his five children, each with a 20% stake, according to France’s stock market regulator. The new company is empowered to take over the running of Agache and effectively end Mr. Arnault’s leadership of the company. Major decisions, such as dissolving Agache, require unanimous approval from his children.
The new company has a rotating two-year chairmanship among the children, who can’t sell their shares in it for 30 years without unanimous board approval. Once that period lapses, only direct descendants of the elder Mr. Arnault will be able to hold the shares.
One businessman who has known Mr. Arnault for decades compared the situation to Jean-Paul Sartre’s play “No Exit,” where the main characters are locked in a room together for eternity as punishment.
Mr. Toledano said he was confident the Arnault children can work through any disagreements because their father taught them from a young age to put the interests of the company first. “For now, they all get on great,” he said.
The children all consider themselves siblings and don’t refer to one another as a half brother or half sister, according to people familiar with their relationship. They are careful not to create any appearance of rivalry or conflict, these people said, adding that the five would never discuss or joke about who was best at something like tennis or piano—their father wouldn’t stand for it.
Mr. Arnault is “above all a pragmatic man,” Mr. Toledano said. “You have to choose whoever is best at a given point in time considering the challenges. It’s what he does with his managers, his advisers, and I think it’s what he’ll do with his children.”
It isn’t a given that LVMH’s future leader will be one of Mr. Arnault’s children, according to Mr. Toledano. “At no moment did he tell me, ‘I must prepare my children for my succession,’” he said.
Bernard Arnault was born in 1949 in Roubaix, near the Belgian border. His father, Jean Arnault, was a manufacturer and owner of the civil engineering company Ferret-Savinel.
He excelled at school and earned a spot at the Ecole Polytechnique, a highly selective engineering and science school that has shaped the elite since the French Revolution. Napoleon Bonaparte turned Polytechnique into the military academy it remains to this day.
Mr. Arnault and the 312 other students in his class would wake at 7 a.m. to a bugle and a flag-raising. He learned to march wearing the bicorne hat of the Napoleonic era that students don each year as they proceed down the Champs-Élysées in the Bastille Day parade.
Mr. Arnault recalled in a book of interviews with a French journalist how his education at Polytechnique helped lay the foundations for his conquest of the fashion world. “It is above all a program that gives you a rational mindset, which allows you to analyse a situation or a problem very quickly,” he wrote, adding that LVMH makes a point of recruiting young talent from the school.
Antoine Arnault was more blunt about his father’s esteem for the school. In an interview with Le Monde, the contents of which were confirmed by a spokesman, the eldest son recalled how hard it was to tell his father he wasn’t Polytechnique material. Neither he nor his sister attended the school.
“For him, only Polytechnique counts,” he added.
Mr. Arnault had Antoine and Delphine with his first wife, Anne Dewavrin. As a young father, he took a rigorous approach to his children’s education. They recount how he would call them into his office and drill them on math exercises in between business meetings.
Mr. Arnault moved his family to New York in the early 1980s after the Socialist leader François Mitterrand was elected president of France and vowed to tax the rich heavily. He spent two years in the U.S. building the business he had taken over from his father.
Returning to France in 1984, Mr. Arnault made his first move into the luxury business, gaining control of a textile company called Boussac Saint-Frères that was near bankruptcy. Tucked within it was a jewel: Christian Dior.
Dior became the archetype of Mr. Arnault’s budding empire. The haute couture house had redefined womenswear in the mid-20th century with the “new look” dress, and Mr. Arnault aimed to emphasise that fashion pedigree through aggressive expansion.
He sent Delphine in her early 20s to work at the namesake fashion house of John Galliano, a star designer who was also creative director of Dior. Mr. Toledano then took her under his wing at Dior. The executive recalled huddling with Delphine and her father before making the pivotal decision to fire Mr. Galliano after he was filmed making antisemitic remarks.
Mr. Arnault divorced in 1990 and later that year met Hélène Mercier, a Canadian concert pianist, at a friend’s house. Driving her home, Mr. Arnault told her about his struggles learning to play a collection of études by Frédéric Chopin. When they met again, for tea at Mr. Arnault’s, she asked him to play Chopin for her.
“He was shaking all over with stage fright but seemed determined to go all the way,” she recalled in her autobiography. “I felt that Bernard was suffering, that he was doing violence to himself to move me.”
The couple married and had three boys. People close to the family say Mrs. Mercier-Arnault applied the same drive to parenting that made her a famous pianist. She pushed her boys in music and in school, waking them at dawn to rehearse and study.
Mr. Arnault also threw himself into their studies. Mr. Toledano recalled a flight he took with Mr. Arnault back to Paris after a particularly gruelling trip to Asia. Mr. Arnault, operating on just a few hours’ sleep, pulled out a mathematics textbook and began to study. One of his younger sons was about to take the entrance exam to Polytechnique.
“I need to refresh my memory,” he told Mr. Toledano.
Alexandre Arnault applied to Polytechnique for undergraduate studies but didn’t make the cut. He was later accepted at the school for a master’s-degree program.
At LVMH, he quickly established himself as someone with his father’s ear. When he suggested buying German luggage maker Rimowa, his father told him the brand’s family owners didn’t want to sell. Alexandre wrote to the Rimowa family’s patriarch and traveled to meet with him, according to LVMH executives.
LVMH bought the company in 2017, and Mr. Arnault installed Alexandre as CEO. He gave the brand a makeover by forging collaborations with streetwear-savvy designers. One collection had the Supreme logo emblazoned on luggage. Another had a clear case designed by Virgil Abloh for his Off-White brand.
Mr. Arnault then sent Alexandre to help shake up Tiffany & Co., acquired in 2021 for $15.8 billion. Known for its engagement rings, the jeweler has struggled to gain traction with younger shoppers. Alexandre spearheaded a collaboration between Tiffany and Nike Inc. to make $400 Nike Air Force 1 shoes in all-black leather with a swoosh the color of Tiffany’s classic blue jewelry boxes. Ads proclaiming the brand was “Not your mother’s Tiffany” were plastered across the U.S.
The moves ruffled fashion executives who worried he was tarnishing a prestigious luxury brand. “Why on earth would Tiffany want to move away from that to become just another streetwear brand is beyond me,” said Ana Andjelic, former chief brand officer at Banana Republic.
Mr. Arnault’s two youngest children have hewed most closely to their father’s career track. Both attended a Jesuit high school, where they took literature classes taught by Brigitte Macron before she became the first lady of France.
Frédéric Arnault trained in classical piano and excelled at tennis. He was accepted at Polytechnique, where he took the same courses as his father. He then co-founded an electronic-payments startup, which he sold 18 months later.
In 2018, the elder Mr. Arnault recruited Stéphane Bianchi, an executive who had groomed an heir of the Yves Rocher cosmetics company, to lead LVMH’s watches business. Mr. Bianchi said Mr. Arnault told him from the start to work closely with Frédéric, who at the time was driving TAG Heuer’s digital strategy. Two years later, Mr. Bianchi made him CEO of the brand.
“My father, of course, gives me advice, but he also gives me a lot of freedom,” Frédéric said in an interview. In meetings, he has his father’s tendency to let others do the talking while he studies them, according to Mr. Toledano.
“He looks at you and he absorbs you. Sometimes he lets you talk for 10 minutes while he just absorbs,” he said.
Frédéric has a close relationship with his younger brother Jean, according to people close to them, helping to cultivate the 24-year-old’s fascination with the watch world. Jean went to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to study financial mathematics. He then earned a master’s degree in mechanical engineering from Imperial College London, writing his thesis on the Tag Heuer carbon balance spring, a component of its watches.
He now works at Louis Vuitton’s watches division, spending much of his time at its factory in Switzerland. In March, he announced plans to relaunch the Gérald Genta brand with the support of the watchmaker’s widow.
In recent years, Mr. Arnault has tapped his children for advice on some of the more delicate issues facing his company. As inflation began to bite last year, fuelling public anger over wealth inequality, Mr. Arnault was worried the public outrage would ripple toward their family and LVMH, according to people close to him.
He went to his eldest son, Antoine, who had been pushing him to communicate more openly with the public about LVMH’s operations, the people said. Antoine suggested LVMH launch an ad campaign publicizing how much the company paid in French taxes last year and the number of jobs it created, the people said. His father took the advice.
This year, Mr. Macron triggered massive street protests with his plan to raise France’s retirement age. Photos of Mr. Arnault began appearing on “wanted” posters at the demonstrations, and protesters stormed into the lobby of LVMH’s headquarters, waving flares and flags. In the days that followed, Mr. Arnault began running his ad campaign in Libération and other leftist newspapers.
The luxury titan also asked his children for advice on how to handle the departure of Mr. Burke from Louis Vuitton, according to people familiar with the matter.
Mr. Burke, who remains an adviser to Mr. Arnault, built Louis Vuitton into a brand with $20 billion in annual sales while navigating personal tragedy. Virgil Abloh, the brand’s creative director for menswear, was diagnosed with cancer around the same time Mr. Burke’s wife, Brigitte, received a cancer diagnosis.
Brigitte Burke and Mr. Abloh bonded over their experience in the months leading up to the designer’s death in November 2021. The designer was a trend-setter in the fashion world. Brigitte was known for bringing employees together for meals.
“She did the cooking. I did the serving,” Mr. Burke said.
Mr. Burke needed to be at his wife’s side before she died in February. Mr. Arnault decided Pietro Beccari, who was CEO of Dior, would take over at Louis Vuitton. Delphine Arnault would become the new chief of Dior.
In late January, Louis Vuitton employees gathered at the Louvre, where the brand had just held its menswear show, for a private tribute to Mr. Burke.
“I’m very touched to be here,” Delphine Arnault told the group, according to people present, as her father and Mr. Burke looked on. One of her earliest memories, she said, was of Mr. Burke’s mustache. She showed them a photo of a young Mr. Burke in the 1980s, adding: “We’ve all learned so much by your side.”


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Irish rugby fans are being given the chance to win tickets, flights and a stay in a five-star hotel for the country's Six Nations clash with England.
The lucky winners will be flown from Ireland on Saturday, February 22, and will enjoy a culinary experience hosted by Vogue Williams and celebrity publican Jodie Kidd.
Guinness has partnered with the pair to give fans a taste of food from the English countryside for the big weekend in London.
After a meal and pints in Jodie's pub The Half Moon in Kirdford, the fans will stay at a luxury hotel nearby where they'll be treated to a full-English breakfast on the morning of the bumper game.
Guinness will treat the winners to a trip to Twickenham Stadium for the 3pm Sunday kick-off, before heading to the iconic pub The Cabbage Patch for a few drinks before heading home.
Vogue Williams said: "The friendly rivalry during the Guinness Six Nations is something I’m very familiar with seeing as I’m Irish and my other half is English!
"I’m so excited to get to know the Irish fans at Jodie’s pub and to experience the game all together - hopefully we’ll have the luck of the Irish and win!"
The experience is just one of a series of events hosted by the drinks giant throughout the tournament to celebrate the friendly rivalries across the union of rugby.
One Irish based fan plus a guest can win the prize by emailing GuinnessSixNationsExperiences@ogilvy.com with their date of birth, full name, contact details, place of travel and one reason why they believe they should be invited. The competition closes at midnight on Sunday, with the winners being chosen on Monday.

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TOKYO -- Pillow-bellied Santas roar ho-ho-ho on Ginza sidewalks. The sounds of Joy to the World and Little Town of Bethlehem waft over the crowds of shoppers. Wreaths and twinkling lights and statues of the Virgin Mary adorn the windows of shops and homes.
In this land of Shinto and Buddha, where Christians represent barely 1 percent of the population, Christmas is a much-celebrated affair.
"People are not rejoicing in Jesus' birth -- they are simply rejoicing," said Yoshitomo Sato, a sociologist. "All Japanese love a holiday, even if it is somebody else's."
Love a holiday they do; and Christmas -- which blurs into New Year's festivities -- tops the list. It is observed in Tokyo much as it is in the West, with a combination of good cheer and wide commercialism.
This year, the festivities have been somewhat restrained by the long illness of Emperor Hirohito, 87, who is thought to be near death.
Out of respect for the monarch -- who ascended to the throne on Christmas Day 1926 -- many companies have canceled the annual Christmas party, as common in Tokyo as in the United States. Additionally, sales of everything from year's-end greeting cards to Christmas tree ornaments to red wrapping paper (red is associated with long life) have slumped dramatically.
"The spirit is more subdued this year," said Masahiro Hayashi, a spokesman for the Marui chain of department stores. "But Christmas is Christmas, and people want to be happy. If the emperor doesn't die, it will still be very merry."
The mood of downtown shoppers last week seemed anything but downcast.
"When I was a child, Christmas was the most exciting time of year. Now it is the same for my children," said Yoshiko Hatoyama, 27, a housewife who was forging through the jammed streets of the Ginza shopping district with an armload of packages and two tiny daughters in tow. "They talk only of Santa Claus."
Hatoyama, who said her family worships at both Buddhist temples and Shinto shrines, said she was "of course" aware that Christmas has religious connotations. "But even in America, I do not think people are just praying and going to priests. They like the shopping and the lights and the beautiful music."
Despite the mood of "self-restraint" engendered by the emperor's illness, Tokyo's famous department stores seem determined to outdo one another in the lavishness of their displays and the ostentation of their offerings.
Looking for a little something for the missus? How about the $3,000 vicuna camisole offered by Daimaru? As for the mister, well, he might be tickled to find the stocking stuffed with business cards made of thin sheets of solid gold, a mere $5,000 for a packet of 50.
Mitsukoshi Department Store is holding a daily extravaganza featuring 100 Santa Clauses and 1,000 elves singing carols in unison. That should pack the shoppers in.
"You could say Christmas has infiltrated Japan from the outside, but it is a happy infiltration," said Naoko Matsunobu, a spokeswoman for Mitsukoshi. Real Christmas trees can be had, but they are sorry-looking specimens by U.S. standards -- sparsely branched and rarely more than four feet tall -- and cost upward of $200.
Many Tokyo residents buy artificial trees, which they throw out at the end of the season since the contrivances would otherwise take up valuable storage space in cramped apartments.
And what would Christmas be without a crackling yule log? In Japan, the roaring hearth is mostly found on television screens. A hit of this season is the fireplace video that shows flames flickering, with appropriate sound effects, for hours on end.
"You make the warmth in your mind," said a saleswomen at Wave, Tokyo's largest record and video store.


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May 24, 2022 07:19 GMT
Composite a couple of tenths higher than consensus, services a tenth lower and manufacturing 7 tenths lower. Some of the details look fairly positive, however, albeit with prices rising at a record pace. Highlights from the press release:
- "The rise in overall activity levels was almost entirely driven by services firms as goods production increased at a sluggish pace"
- "French employment levels rose at the fastest pace since March 2001, while incidences of supplier delays across the manufacturing sector were at their least widespread for almost a year-and-a-half"
- "Price pressures once again intensified in May, with rates of input cost and output price inflation accelerating to fresh record highs."
- "New business intakes rose at a strong pace, although the expansion slowed from the ten month high seen in April. As was the case with output, the increase in new orders at services companies was noticeably faster than among goods producers during May."


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LG yesterday unveiled an experimental smartphone Wing, and now working on another device of the Explorer Project.
What is known
The teaser of the novelty was shown at the end of yesterday’s presentation (1:05:37). He was noticed by CNET journalists. Judging by the video, the device will receive a side slider form factor. With this design, it will be possible to “stretch” the display. Unfortunately, the company did not provide any details about the device. Most likely, the new product, like LG Wing, will not have top-end specifications.
By the way, this is not the first time a Korean manufacturer has experimented with its smartphones. In 2016, the company introduced the flagship LG G5, which had a modular design. Prior to that, in 2014, LG showed a device called Flex. He got a 6-inch curved display.


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The McLaren 650S, hastily unveiled yesterday after an injudicious leak by The Sunday Times (something we deplore as we had a sneak preview of the 650S at McLaren’s HQ in Woking a couple of months ago and managed to keep quiet about it…), is faster, better handling, and even more beautiful than the 12C it doesn’t replace...
Long-term readers of our blog will remember that, a few months ago, Aston Martin revealed a very special concept car as part of its centenary celebrations: the achingly gorgeous, DBR1-inspired CC100 Speedster.
So seemingly awe inspiring the CC100 was, that former step-sister Jaguar thought that its new F-Type Roadster deserved the same retro, 'homage to the great endurance racers of the past' makeover.
The end result is this: the rather stunning Project 7.
It seems Aston Martin can’t get enough of launching new models and special editions this year to commemorate the marque’s 100th Anniversary.
First we had the ‘Centenary Editions’, then the CC100 Speedster was unveiled last week at the Nurburgring 24 Hour race. And now we’ve got the fastest ever “baby Aston”: the V12 Vantage S.
Though the McLaren road car division in its current incarnation has only been going for less than a decade, the company and the brand as a whole is celebrating its 50th birthday this year.
To mark the occasion, McLaren’s got quite a few things in store - among them, these 12C and 12C Spider special editions...
Earlier this year, as part of the company’s 100th anniversary, Aston Martin announced it would be unveiling an array of new, bespoke machinery in order to mark the occasion.
So far, though, all that’s materialised are a few ‘Centenary Edition’ variants of the V8 Vantage, DB9, Rapide and Vanquish models.
However, rather reassuringly, the company has revealed what could quite possibly end up being this year’s most praised concept car – the CC100 Speedster.


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Bango, the mobile payments company, provides information about a new merchant launch and an update on trading for the twelve months ended 31 December 2017.
Bango: trading update, Netflix and Strategy Day
Netflix in Mexico
Bango has partnered with Netflix to launch carrier billing for Netflix subscriptions in Mexico. Customers who sign up to Netflix, the world’s leading internet entertainment service, can now charge the monthly subscription cost to their pre or post-paid mobile phone bill. Enabled by Bango, carrier billed payment is initially available to over 12 million subscribers in Mexico on any platform, including Android, Apple and Microsoft devices.
Bango CEO Ray Anderson commented, "Carrier billing adds many new customers to merchant services. We are pleased to provide a fast, safe, easy to use alternative payment method for Netflix customers in Mexico. Netflix is a hugely popular entertainment service and Bango is delighted that the world’s major merchants are choosing to plug into the Bango Platform. After doubling the End User Spend run rate for the third consecutive year, this is a great way to start 2018."
Bango continues to focus on growing End User Spend (EUS) through the Bango Platform, to capitalize on the rapidly expanding global market for digital content, goods and services. Trading was in-line with expectations during 2017 and total EUS for 2017 was £271m compared to £132m for 2016 (+105%).
The exit EUS run rate at the end of 2017 exceeded £400m/year, once again more than doubling compared to the exit run rate at the end of 2016.
Bango had cash of £4.8m on 31 December 2017 (31 December 2016: £5.7m).
On 24 January 2018, the Bango executive team will present an update on the Bango platform strategy, including new products and market opportunities for 2018 and beyond. To register your attendance for this event please email email@example.com.
Bango will announce its Final Results for the twelve months to 31 December 2017 on Tuesday, 13 March 2018.
App developers, stores and payment providers cross the threshold into the Bango ecosystem to converge, grow and thrive.


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Latest Costa Crociere Stories
Newest ships to be delivered to Carnival Cruise Line and Holland America Line MIAMI, Dec.
MIAMI, Dec. 17, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Carnival Corporation & plc.
World's largest cruise company uses crowdsourcing to invite public to review six TV ads and vote for their favorite -- with chance to win yearly cruise for life MIAMI, Nov.
MOU with world's largest shipbuilder will explore opportunities for a potential joint venture focused on the construction of cruise ships for the Chinese market MIAMI, Nov.
World's largest cruise company releases 2013 Sustainability Report highlighting key initiatives from company and its nine brands MIAMI, Nov.
World's largest cruise company will launch multi-million dollar integrated initiative featuring online tools and content across its nine global brands; will use consumer crowdsourcing to help select
World's largest cruise company will launch multi-million dollar integrated campaign featuring online tools and content across its nine global brands; will use consumer crowdsourcing to help select
Regal Princess and Costa Diadema christened this week in two naming ceremonies over the span of three days MIAMI, Nov.
Company's innovative WiFi@Sea(TM) high-speed network will combine land-based systems and advanced satellite connectivity designed to give passengers faster, more stable and powerful internet service
- In dressmaking, straps running from the belt in front over the shoulders to the belt in the back, with more or less elaboration of trimming and outline. They usually broaden at the shoulder and narrow toward the waist.


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Chattanooga Market helps Scenic City businesses
Saturday, hundreds of Chattanooga’s helped kick off the opening weekend for the Chattanooga Market.
Many of the vendors Channel 3 spoke to say this is one of the most important times of the year for their business. This year the Chattanooga Market is hosting about 220 different local businesses.
At the Chattanooga Market, you can find fresh produce, clothing, artwork and beauty products.
Eric Latham, is one of the owners of the Southside Soap Studio. He creates his soaps from products made by another local business.
“We wanted to make beer and whiskey soap, but we wanted to use a local company because being a local company ourselves, we want to support another company if we could,” Eric Latham said.
While some of these products could be found at a chain store, Britney Evitt with Martha Southern Cottage says these locally made goods have more value.
“We want to know that it was made with love and care and I know the person who made it and I know exactly what's in it we want,” Britney Evitt said.
Mark and Melissa Gates have been participating in the Chattanooga Market for a few years. They are one of the vendors without a physical store who count on sales from the farmers market.
“This is been everything for us we started painting about three years ago and this is our storefront,” Mark Gates, M&M Painting Studio said.
Latham doesn't have a storefront either.
“We are at the Riverfront Market on Saturdays, in Collegedale on weekends, Cambridge Square in Ooltewah on Friday, Signal Mountain on Thursdays. We make the rounds,” Latham said.
Gates said these markets lead to more than just an increase in revenue. She said it's a great way to be part of the community.
"It's hard to meet your neighbor these days, and to come out and be a part of the market community, you get to meet the greater Chattanooga community it really has helped us to put roots here,” Melissa Gates said.
The Chattanooga Market will be open at the First Tennessee Pavilion every Saturday and Sunday through the Summer. For more information visit their website.


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Demand increased for calves and feeder cattle–especially after mid-week–helped along by stronger cash fed cattle prices and increasing confidence that the previous week’s Executive Order–mandating meat and processing facilities remain open–will help normalize the supply chain, eventually.
Steers and heifers sold steady to $5/cwt. higher, according to the Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS).
Feeder Cattle futures closed an average of $8.83 higher week to week on Friday.
“From a fundamental standpoint, the futures market started the year overvaluing feeder cattle. However, coronavirus resulted in a huge selloff, which then sent the market into undervaluing feeder cattle which has persisted for nearly two months,” says Andrew P. Griffith, agricultural economist at the University of Tennessee, in his weekly market comments. “It would seem the market is adjusting to the current environment and trying to bring feeder cattle values back in line with a more fundamental expectation for the year. The futures market likely still has feeder cattle undervalued to a slight degree, looking into the summer and fall contracts, but the market is much more in line with expectations.”
Griffith adds that both cash and futures prices will likely remain volatile as the market seeks equilibrium.
Cash Fed Cattle Prices Gain
Negotiated cash fed cattle trade ended the week on a decidedly higher. Live sales in the Southern Plains were at $115/cwt., which was $5 more than earlier in the week and $10-$20 higher than the previous week. Live sales in Nebraska were $19-$20 higher than the previous week at $114-$115. Live sales in the western Corn Belt were mainly $3-$10 higher than the previous week at mostly $103; dressed sales there were $20-$30 higher at mostly $180.
“This strength is most likely due to the slight increase in estimated cattle slaughter and continued strong demand for beef,” Griffith says.
According to AMS, estimated cattle slaughter under federal inspection for the week was reported at 452,000 head, still well below where it needs to be, but 27,000 head more than the previous week.
Live Cattle futures closed an average of $6.02 higher week to week on Friday ($3.50 higher at the back to $7.65 higher toward the front.
Although day-to-day gains moderated as the week wore on, the bottleneck in beef packing and processing continued to boost wholesale beef values.
Choice boxed beef cutout value was $83.43 higher week to week on Friday at $460.88/cwt. Select was $91.86 higher at $448.99.
Cattle slaughter and beef production continue vastly lower year over year, while the backlog of fed cattle continues to build.
Estimated cattle slaughter for the week ending May 2 was 425,000 head, which was 38% less year over year, according to Derrell Peel, Extension livestock marketing specialist at Oklahoma State University, in his weekly market comments. For the past four weeks (through May 2), he says total cattle slaughter averaged 26.4% less than the same weeks last year–down 689,000 head, or a little more than a week’s worth of cattle slaughter.
Similarly, Peel explains beef production was down 35% the previous week, compared to a year earlier; an average of 25% less for the past four weeks. Relative to the first 14 weeks of the year, before current COVID-19 production declines began, he says the combined 520 million lbs. of reduced beef production over the last four weeks equates to losing a week’s worth of production.
“Given when packing plant workers began to be impacted and the additional attention now focused on protecting worker health, it is likely that we are currently at or very near the worst point of packing plant disruptions,” Peel says. “However, it is unclear how fast plants will resume production levels in the coming weeks. It is likely that the effective capacity will be reduced permanently or certainly for the foreseeable future because of the safety changes needed at packing plants. The impacts on cattle markets will linger for many weeks before backlogs are cleaned up and markets are current again.”
For consumers, Peel emphasizes there is no shortage of beef in the country. Any lack of availability encountered will be temporary.
Even so, there will likely continue to be plenty of angst from the ranch gate to the retail meat case.
“Soon, U.S. consumers will begin to see in their local meat case the effects of the beef and pork plant shut downs in April, with potentially 30% less meat on shelves and prices up to 20% above last year,” according to a new report from CoBank’s Knowledge Exchange Division: Closed Meat Cases Today Mean Empty Meat Cases this Summer. “For cattle and hog producers, the bottlenecks created by the plant slowdowns and shut downs have meant they will lose billions of dollars this year and be forced to euthanize millions of pigs. In spite of President Trump’s executive order to re-open the plants, per capita COVID-19 cases around U.S. meat plants have continued to climb, raising the risk of further plant capacity disruptions.”
U.S. Beef Exports and Imports Continue to Add Value
As scarcer beef supplies spawn more retail and food service outlets to limit customer purchases, some consumers wonder why the U.S. continues to export beef. Similarly, as cattle prices sag and run opposite of wholesale beef values, some producers question why the U.S. continues to import beef.
“Closing off or limiting beef exports does not necessarily mean greater amounts of beef in U.S. retail grocery stores, nor does limiting imports mean greater cattle prices,” says Brenda Boetel, livestock economist at the University of Wisconsin-River Falls. “The reason is because beef exported is not the same as beef imported. Even with beef production down, the importance of keeping export markets (and import markets) open is vital to the long-term health of the cattle industry.”
More specifically, in the latest issue of In the Cattle Markets, Boetel explains the mix of U.S. beef exports add value to domestic cattle prices as international customers place a higher value on some beef products than U.S. consumers.
Likewise, importing beef–mostly lean trim–helps bolster U.S. ground beef demand and keep it more price competitive than using higher value parts of the domestic carcasses.
U.S. beef exports were record high for the first quarter, according to the latest data released by USDA and compiled by the U.S. Meat Export Federation (USMEF).
U.S. beef exports in March totaled 115,308 metric tons (mt), up 7% from a year earlier. Value was 4% more at $702.2 million. Japan, South Korea, Mexico, Canada and Taiwan drove export growth for the month.
First-quarter beef exports climbed 9% from a year earlier to 334,703 mt; valued at $2.06 billion, which was 8% higher.
Beef export value per head of fed slaughter was $308.21 in March, down 8% from the very high March 2019 average. For the first quarter, per-head export value increased 2% to $317.06.
Friday to Friday Change
Weekly Auction Receipts
CME Feeder Index
|CME Feeder Index*||May 7||Change|
*Thursday-to Thursday for CME Feeder Index
Cash Stocker and Feeder
|600-700 lbs.||$145.21||– $1.71|
|700-800 lbs.||$135.44||+ $1.35|
|800-900 lbs.||$121.90||– $0.63|
|500-600 lbs.||$150.62||+ $1.27|
|600-700 lbs.||$137.82||+ $1.80|
|700-800 lbs.||$126.72||+ $4.55|
|400-500 lbs.||$147.85||+ $2.60|
|500-600 lbs.||$137.60||+ $0.19|
|600-700 lbs.||$127.19||+ $1.53|
(AMS National Weekly Feeder & Stocker Cattle Summary)
Wholesale Beef Value
|Boxed Beef (p.m.)||May 8 ($/cwt)||Change|
|Ch-Se Spread||$11.89||– $8.24|
|Feeder Cattle||May 8||Change|
|Jan ’21||$137.875||+ $8.800|
|Live Cattle||May 8||Change|
|Feb ’21||$111.650||+ $6.275|
|Mar ’21||$3.490||– $0.012|
|Oil CME-WTI||May 8||Change|
|Equity Indexes||May 8||Change|
|Dow Industrial Average||24331.32||+ 607.63|
|S&P 500||2929.80||+ 99.09|
|Dollar (DXY)||99.10||+ 0.31|


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Melbourne has a great new boat show that will put the very best of sports boats and PWCs front and centre at Melbourne’s iconic Royal Exhibition Building.
The Club Marine Sports Boat & PWC Expo promises three big days – 21-23 September – of the latest in wakeboard and ski boats, PWCs, family sports boats and all the gear that goes with them.
All the big names will be there, with top-end sports boats from Nautique, Malibu and Mastercraft, ski and wake boats from Skicraft and Rolco, and family sports all-rounders from Four Winns, Bayliner and Glastron.
September is the perfect time to 'Gear up for Summer' – to order that new boat, upgrade your existing boat, or get all the best gear for summer fun on the water.
If it’s time for that PWC you’ve been promising yourself, you’ll find Kawasaki, Sea-Doo and Yamaha with models of every size and price.
Club Marine state manager for Victoria, Ross Lambrick, said it was a perfect fit for Club Marine to back a show that had such a big and growing audience.
'It’s part of our commitment of giving back to the boating community and supporting the industry wherever we can,' he said.
'We’ve seen massive growth in skiing and wakeboarding, and in families getting into sports runabouts that cater for tow sports, cruising and just generally having fun on the water.
'Especially now that our inland waterways are full again, families are really taking to this kind of boating.
'Whether they are at the high-excitement end of a tow-rope, kicking back aboard the boat or even watching from the shore, it’s unbeatable family fun.'
Admission is just $15 for adults, $10 concession, and free for children 15 and under (when accompanied by an adult) – tickets at the door or online.
The Club Marine Sports Boat & PWC Expo runs from Friday 21 to Sunday 23 September, and is open from 12 noon to 9pm Friday, 10am to 9pm Saturday, and 10am to 6pm Sunday.
More at www.theboatexpo.com.au


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Massive profits fuel mining takeovers
The blockbuster takeover battle between mining giants Rio Tinto and BHP Billiton industry comes at a time of frenzied consolidation and record metal prices.
In ten years, China has become the world's leading consumer of raw materials as its economy grows at more than 10% a year.
Last year it accounted for 45% of world iron ore consumption, nearly a quarter of copper and more than a quarter of aluminium. Its rapid industrialisation and urbanisation have led to a 'super-cycle' as metal prices have hit record highs. Few analysts are expecting values to fall soon.
Mining heavyweights are spewing out record profits and one challenge is knowing what to do with all the cash. BHP Billiton profits rose 35% last year to £6.5bn.
Takeovers are one obvious answer. Since 2005 there have been more than £100bn of takeovers in the industry, excluding BHP's proposed merger with Rio Tinto, which was unveiled yesterday and could create a company worth £174bn.
Until this year, consolidation had been led by aggressive newcomers, such as Xstrata, rather than the traditional super-league.
But Rio's £18bn purchase of Alcan triggered a step-change in the scale of activity. With costs in the industry escalating rapidly, there's pressure on big firms to cut spending by finding synergies via mergers.
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Johannesburg - The truck drivers' strike is resulting in
losses by suppliers of fresh produce and driving up prices, Agri SA said on
"Not only does it impact on essential daily provision
of products to consumers but, unlike non-perishable products, involves direct
losses," Agri SA president Johannes Möller said in a statement.
He said fresh produce could only be kept in storage for a
limited amount of time before it spoiled.
"This will not only impact negatively on the financial
position of producers, employees on farms and rural economies, but also on
urban consumers who will have to pay higher prices due to the shortages."
The strike would affect South Africa's agricultural export
market, as fresh produce suppliers could not get their products to foreign
customers before they spoiled.
"Needless to add, foreign buyers, especially of fresh
produce, will not tolerate poorer quality or inadequate provision as a result
of local strikes, especially those that impact on harbour facilities,"
The SA Transport and Allied Workers' Union (Satawu) and
Transnet had said the union would embark on a one-day strike for port and rail
workers if the dispute involving truck drivers had not ended.
Möller suggested agricultural exporters had the opportunity
to take advantage of a weakened rand if they were able to get their products
out in a timely manner.
He said trucks transporting agricultural products had been
affected by the strike. Farmers had stopped delivering sugar cane after shots
were fired at trucks at a sugar mill in Underberg.
Trucks carrying vegetables had also been targeted in the
Möller said the agriculture industry would have to consider
whether liability for its losses could be reclaimed in some way.
"It cannot simply be written off for the account of a
democratic right," Möller said.
On Tuesday three smaller unions: the Transport and Allied
Workers Union of South Africa, the Motor Transport Workers Union and the
Professional Transport Workers Union, agreed to suspend strike action and
return to work.
Fin24 on Twitter, Facebook, Google+ and Pinterest.


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In order to comply with Twitter’s 140-character limit, there are hundreds of URL shortening services out there to choose from. Dan Zarella’s Science of Retweets study shows how users can be strategic about which shorteners they use. The study revealed that Twitter shorteners bit.ly, ow.ly, and is.gd receive the most retweets out of all the other services, while the old player, tiny.url, receives the least.
Archive for the ‘Poll’ Category
In the realm of social media giants, Facebook is the champ with over 500 million users. Foursquare and Twitter are neck to neck with about 200 million each. Foursquare, upon realizing virtual badges and titles would only interest users for so long, has boosted user engagement by partnering up with big players like Domino’s and Jimmy Choo to offer tangible incentives. Although the increase of user growth in social media channels is steady, there are still arguments on whether some applications are here to stay or temporary trends.
With the diversity in content and level of quality in video today, people are consuming more video content than ever, and not just on TV. Users are watching videos from their mobile phones, to tablets like the iPad, to video streaming websites.
Hulu’s popularity led the free streaming site to launch Hulu Plus. For $10 a month, users can watch any episode from their favorite shows. YouTube announced Leanback at Google I/O – a stream of YouTube videos catered to your preferences, made for Google TV. Many websites and applications are adapting to give viewers an experience that rival watching TV. While video consumption on the web and mobile devices has increased by almost double over the past year, TV is still proving to be the leading contender.
[stats via Nielson Company Report]


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Cott Co. Declares Quarterly Dividend of C$0.06 (BCB)
Cott (TSE:BCB) announced a Quarterly dividend on Tuesday, August 26th, Analyst Ratings News reports. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, September 10th will be paid a dividend of 0.06 per share on Wednesday, September 10th. This represents a dividend yield of 3.2%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, August 26th.
Cott (TSE:BCB) opened at 8.07 on Tuesday. Cott has a one year low of $7.19 and a one year high of $9.45. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $7.71 and its 200-day moving average is $8.. The company has a market cap of $756.4 million and a P/E ratio of 53.73.
Cott Corporation (TSE:BCB) is a retailer brand beverage company.
Get Analysts' Upgrades and Downgrades via Email - Stay on top of analysts' coverage with Analyst Ratings Network's FREE daily email newsletter that provides a concise list of analysts' upgrades and downgrades. Click here to register now.


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After Apollo, a private equity firm, said it was looking into joining the fight to buy the UK supermarket chain, Morrisons shares soared 11%.
Apollo, third potential suitor, declared an interest in Morrisons on Monday. It announced to the stock exchange that it was “in preliminary stages of evaluating [a] possible offer for Morrisons”, a move that could outweigh a bid of PS6.3bn by a consortium headed by Fortress, the US investment fund.
Morrisons shares rose more than 11% to 267p Monday morning. This made it the top-rising share on the FTSE 250. It also surpassed a 254p a Share bid from Fortress over this weekend.
Morrisons’ board confirmed Saturday that it accepted the Fortress offer. However, the deal will still need to go to shareholders. They could be persuaded by generous offers as the bidding war heats.
Apollo stated that it had not yet approached Morrisons about making a bid, and did not disclose the potential value of its offer. The New York-based group stated that it would make another announcement as necessary.
The supermarket, which has 500 stores and approximately 118,000 employees in the UK, rejected a PS5.5bn buyout offer by Clayton, Dubilier & Rice (CD&R). It said it was too low. CD&R has until July 17 to make a better offer or walk away.
If it is approved, Fortress’ PS6.3bn bid will be the largest private equity deal since 2007’s Boots takeovers at PS11bn. Fortress teamed up to launch the deal with the billionaire US industrialists Koch Family and Canada Pension Plan Investment Board.
Because of its supply chain structure and property footprint, the supermarket is said to be attracting suitors. Morrisons holds the freehold of 85% of its 497 shops and is proud to boast its 19 manufacturing sites, including bakeries and abattoirs. During the Brexit pandemic, the grocer was a keystone of the UK’s food supply infrastructure.
Richard Hunter, Interactive Investor’s head of markets, stated that new bidders can still get in the game.
“Apollo Global Management confirmed that they are considering an approach after recently missing out on a deal for Asda,,” he stated. The billionaire Issa Brothers purchased the rival supermarket chain for PS6.8bnearlier in the year.
Hunter said that this could result in a three-way bidding battle. There is speculation that Amazon, following its business relationship and Morrisons, could emerge unexpectedly as an unexpected last-minute entrant.


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Come April, New Balance will return with the retro runners New Balance 990s in a reworked black colorway.
By Vincent Teoh
New Balance is set to return with the New Balance 990s in a reworked black colorway. This comes hot on the heels of its grey and navy predecessors, released one season ago to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the Made in USA 990 silhouette.
Similar to previous season’s shoes, the OG sneaker features lightweight mesh and premium suede uppers, reflective heel tabs and a throwback woven tongue tag all seated on a chunky Vibram midsole.
The New Balance 990 Black will be released in April but is now available for pre-order from END for £165 (approx. SGD311.20).


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SendSprint Launches With Agenda To Connect Africa With Diaspora
There is a new startup in town and it’s coming in big. SendSprint has joined the leagues of fintech startups as it recently launched in the united kingdom, UK. Starting out as an affiliate of one of Africa’s biggest fintech companies, Flutterwave, SendSprint is in the ecosystem to solve challenges customers face when it comes to diaspora financial transactions.
SendSprint launches with the agenda to enable its users in the UK and the United States Of America, USA, to send money to their family and friends in Africa. Its partnership with Flutterwave will enable it to process beyond border money transactions destined for Africa.
Over the years Africans sending monies to their loved ones in Africa has been although possible yet not so seamless, there are major leagues in this part of financial transactions, with regulations to comply with, yet SendSprint is coming in as an underdog willing to change the narrative.
Many startups set out with different strategies to take over the industry and SendSprint is no different. This fintech has set a timeline of eighteen (18) months for itself within which it must have acquired a total of Three hundred thousand (300,000) customers of the 1.7 million Africans in diaspora, that is USA and UK.
To make this possible, the startup already launched two(2) products.
- Send Money: This product is designed to provide users with seamless money transfer transactions to African countries.
- Sprint Connect: This product connects Africans in the diaspora with retailers in Africa for the sole purpose of purchasing items/services as gifts for their loved ones on the continent. To make this possible, SendPrint is said to be partnering with about three thousand (3,000) retail outlets in Africa, such as Jumia, Shoprite, HealthPlus, FilmHouse, and many others. Families and friends can be sent gift cards from any of these retail outlets for various purposes.
Nigeria, South Africa, and Kenya have already been chosen as the kick-off center for SendSprint. It is said that these countries were chosen due to their economic status in the continent.
Users can now send money to any of the chosen countries from the UK or the USA.
Unlike the bigwigs such as Western Union, or MoneyGram which also offers beyond border transactions at a 5% commission transactions made, SendSpirnt plans to be more affordable. This startup will send money with a transaction fee of $5 flat.
According to SendSpritnt’s Founder and CEO, Damisi Busari, “The UK launch represents a significant step for SendSprint as we look to expand and connect people across the globe to their homes in Africa. We have ambitious growth targets which will be supported by scaling up our team across both product and customer service,”
SendSprint has its headquarters in the UK and has a formal presence in Nigeria and USA.


text:
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The bookkeeping software giant has agreed to purchase the credit scoring fintech for $7 billion in cash and stock, which marks Intuit's biggest acquisition to date, according to a press release. Under the deal, Credit Karma will continue to operate as a standalone entity, but both companies are able to leverage data from one another.
Here's how the deal benefits both Intuit and Credit Karma:
- Intuit boasts a large product suite, partly due to its previous acquisitions — and this deal helps it further diversify its offering by wading deeper into consumer finance. On the business finance front, Intuit most famously developed Quickbooks, an accounting software tool that includes services for payroll and taxes. But Intuit has also been busy building out its consumer financing product suite: Intuit acquired Mint for $170 million in 2009 to help users better manage their finances, and its service Turbotax helps customers do their taxes, for example. Intuit's acquisition of Credit Karma deepens its push into consumer finance further and makes its product suite even more robust, as it's gaining access to free credit scoring services. Further, by leveraging Credit Karma's wealth of data — it has 100 million users, and claims that 1 out of 2 millennials use the platform — it can further personalize its own services to better help customers manage their finances.
- And for Credit Karma, IPO rumors have been swirling — but exiting the market in a move that avoids a stint on the public market could be a much more lucrative path for the fintech. It's been rumored that Credit Karma was a likely candidate to go public this year after already delaying an IPO at least once before, per The Street. However, WeWork's failed attempt to IPO last year has raised questions over the sustainability of tech startups and likely made investors more cautious about participating in such floats — so, exiting the market via sale may be a better bet for Credit Karma than facing potentially wary investors in the public market. Additionally, the fintech was last valued at $4 billion in 2018 after a $400 million funding round from Silver Lake — so the new deal is a significant boost of the fintech's valuation, making it an even more attractive proposition.
The news comes just days after another major acquisition in the finance space, suggesting that consolidation is intensifying as fintechs increasingly challenge the status quo of the industry. Just last week, Morgan Stanley agreed to acquire online brokerage firm E-Trade for $13 billion.
Additionally, marketplace lender Lending Club signed a deal to Radius Bank for $185 million earlier this month — making it the first fintech to buy a bank — and Visa bought open banking fintech Plaid for $5.3 billion in January. We expect to see more incumbents and established fintechs make bids to scoop up fintechs and other challengers to remain competitive with nimble startups and rebundle their products to offer consumers and businesses a one-stop shop for all their financial needs.
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text:
Japan’s Nikkei share average dropped 0.8 percent on Wednesday to mark its seventh consecutive session of losses as fresh concerns about Spanish and Italian finances and slowing global growth sapped investor appetite.
Sony Corp and Sharp Corp’s forecast of bigger annual losses and a firmer yen also weighed on Japanese electronics companies.
The Nikkei was down 79.28 points at 9,458.74, extending its worst run since July 2009.
Sony tumbled 4.5 percent after the consumer electronics company forecast a record $6.4 billion annual net loss on Tuesday, doubling an earlier forecast and marking a fourth consecutive year in the red.
Toshiyuki Kanayama, a senior market analyst at Monex Inc, said Sony’s steep losses were unlikely to continue into Thursday, but the core problem faced by the company remains.
“The issue is that they don’t have any new products to move forward with,” he said, adding that Panasonic Corp and Sharp suffer from a similar problem.
Sharp shed 3.2 percent after it raised its overall loss forecast for the year that ended March to a record net deficit of 380 billion yen ($4.70 billion), a 31 percent increase from an earlier estimate.
“Japan’s consumer electronics industry is facing defeat,” said Fujio Ando, senior managing director of Chibagin Asset Management.
A stronger yen, with the dollar last traded at 80.897 yen ,diminished investor appetite for Tokyo stocks, with major exporters sold heavily. Toyota Motor Corp, Honda Motor Co and Panasonic fell between 1.2 and 2.2 percent.
Monex’s Kanayama said the next psychologically key level would be around 9,200, edging towards its 200-day moving average at 9,093. The index has lost 6.2 percent so far in April after rising more than 19 percent in the January March period.


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Memories of Waltham's past: Readers share what they miss most about old Watch City
The residents of Waltham have borne witness to many changes in recent decades as the city and its businesses have evolved. Many changes, such as the closure of Moody Street to vehicles, were spurred by the COVID-19 pandemic.
But what are some of the things that Waltham residents miss most about "old" Waltham? What are relics of Waltham’s past that current residents still think of?
The News Tribune posed the question on social media, and here's what you told us.
Readers brought up businesses and restaurants including the Wal-Lex, sandwiches from Mimi’s Roast Beef, formerly on Carter Street, hot fudge sundaes Brigham's, shopping at Grover Cronin's department store, meals at Friendly’s, formerly located on Lexington Street, eating at Wing’s Express, formerly on Moody Street, and enjoying ice cream at Chadwick’s.
Memories of experiences of the past in Waltham were also mentioned. Readers miss skiing at Prospect Hill, eating French fries at Woolworths, shopping on Moody Street, ice skating on the Cove, movies at the Embassy Cinema—now the Landmark Embassy Theater, dances at the Waltham Boys & Girls Club, shopping at Zayre department store, swimming at the “Nickel Pool” (which cost a nickel in the 1960s), and skating at the tennis courts on High Street when ice formed on them in the winter.
Twitter users miss Izzy’s Restaurant & Sub Shop—which has a location on Harvard Street in Cambridge, Bob’s Subs, Ritcey Seafood Kitchen, DeVincent Farms, enjoying bowling and roller-skating at the Wal-Lex, and pizza at Sal’s Pizza—which is still open on 1455 Trapelo Road. Respondents also missed a Waltham without traffic.
Other memories were more recent: some missed driving down Moody Street, closed to accommodate outdoor dining since the pandemic.
There were multiple memories of walking around the city without fear, due in part to last year’s spree of 11 violent attacks in the city that left residents on edge.
Some memories yearned for a different time: driving around without sitting in traffic, a Waltham without cellphones, memories of Moody Street between Wheeler’s Square and Hall’s Corner during the holidays or Waltham parades.
What do you love about Waltham?
When readers were asked what they loved about the city, one resident, Maureen King, cited the Farmers Market, Healthy Waltham, the Waltham Land Trust, the Hardy Pond Association as well as the service of free diapers at Diaper Depot at Christ Church.
“Sometimes, at certain events, it can feel like a small town,” King said in a Facebook comment. “Also, there are a heck of a lot of people here who go out of their way to help others and the environment.”
Continue the conversation
Tell us more about what you miss about "old" Waltham and what you love about Waltham today. Visit us on Facebook and Twitter and continue the conversation.


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A heavy haul trailer, tractor and trailer tires, a poly fender and new options for a Peterbilt 382 are among the products featured.
As Chase competition intensifies, leaders become an easy target on lagging teams.
Knowing the per diem basics will help you navigate the tax labyrinth.
Careful DPF maintenance will boost both your uptime and bottom line.
Trucking jobs dip, surface trade rises in June, Shoemaker's offers electrified parking spots and other industry news items are featured.
Audit delays cross-border plan, court asked to review pilot program, hours rule due by end of month, a bridge closure, FMCSA says CSA helps compliance and other industry news items are featured.
Truck Stop Coupons has been introduced on the Android platform by Randall-Reilly Business Media and Information, publisher of Truckers News.
State’s new regs, along with nationwide fuel prices, are driving sales of trailer aero devices.
Sign up to get Overdrive's daily newsletter.
Fleet panel: "Driver image" is main recruiting problem. What's that tied directly to, some say?: Pay: http://t.co/3Fne7BuFQW


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Fertilizer and farm retailer Agrium said Feb. 19 that Chinese potash price negotiations could stretch into July, two months longer than rival Canadian fertilizer producer PotashCorp of Saskatchewan is targeting.
“I have dealt with the Chinese on other commodities. They are good at brinkmanship; they will hold right to the end. They could hold until June or July if they wish,” Mike Wilson, Agrium’s CEO, said during an industry investment forum in Whistler, B. C. “I think it would be a mistake, but they can do it.”
Wilson said key to the Chinese talks will be how Russia fares with its price talks. If Russia reaches an agreement, China will quickly follow, using the price as a guideline for its negotiations.
Wayne Brownlee, the company’s chief financial officer, told the conference that he expects the Chinese talks to wrap up by April or May.
“The negotiations will evolve over time. As everybody knows, they can be concluded very quickly or they can drag for a long period of time,” he said.
Late last year, Korea and Japan settled on increases of $200 a tonne, boosting the price to $900. Meanwhile, China’s current accepted price is about $600, so if it accepts the same increase that would boost its fertilizer price to $800 a tonne, Brownlee speculated.
PotashCorp expects the Chinese to import some seven million to nine million tonnes of potash in 2009, up from 5.1 million tonnes last year.
Fertilizer prices soared in early 2008 on surging demand, tight inventories and record grain prices. But the global credit crunch and deepening economic downturn have weighed on the agricultural sector, and grain and nutrient prices have fallen as farmers have deferred fertilizer applications.
However, fertilizer companies expect a quick turnaround in demand as farmers begin applying crop nutrients to their fields later this spring.


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Anil Dash examines Facebook's latest navigational practices, which go beyond making a walled garden of its own content and begin to attack the open Web, including websites that incorporate Facebook's technology. Dash concludes that Facebook now meets the formal definition of a "badware" site -- the sites that generate those "Warning! This site may harm your computer" interstitial pages when you visit them -- and calls on browser vendors and Google to start displaying these warnings when users visit Facebook.
Now, we've shown that Facebook promotes captive content on its network ahead of content on the web, prohibits users from bringing open content into their network, warns users not to visit web content, and places obstacles in front of visits to web sites even if they've embraced Facebook's technologies and registered in Facebook's centralized database of sites on the web...
I believe [StopBadware's malware definition] description clearly describes Facebook's behavior, and strongly urge Stop Badware partners such as Google (whose Safe Browsing service is also used by Mozilla and Apple), as well as Microsoft's similar SmartScreen filter, to warn web users when visiting Facebook. Given that Facebook is consistently misleading users about the nature of web links that they visit and placing barriers to web sites being able to be visited through ordinary web links on their network, this seems an appropriate and necessary remedy for their behavior.
Facebook is gaslighting the web. We can fix it.
(via O'Reilly Radar)
In Does The Online Card Payment Landscape Unwittingly Facilitate Fraud?, a new paper in IEEE Security & Privacy, researchers from the University of Newcastle demonstrate a technique for guessing secruity details for credit-card numbers in six seconds — attackers spread their guesses out across many websites at once, so no website gets enough bad guesses […]
Michael Geist writes, “The global music industry has spent two decades lobbying for restrictive DMCA-style restrictions on digital locks. These so-called “anti-circumvention rules” have been actively opposed by many groups, but the copyright lobby claims that they are needed to comply with the World Intellectual Property Organization’s Internet treaties. Now the head of the RIAA […]
The smirking, villainous pharma-hedge-douche-bro Martin Shkreli (previously) bought the rights to the anti-parasitic drug Daraprim — used to treat malaria, a disease that disproportionately affects the poorest people in the world — and jacked the price from $13.50/dose to $750/dose.
Loot Crate is a totally different kind of subscription service that mails subscribers monthly boxes filled with curated geek, pop culture, and gamer paraphernalia. Its cult following awaits a box every month filled with everything from bobble heads to T-shirts to special edition collectibles. But nothing gets Loot Crate fans as excited as the limited […]
The ARMOR-X Mini Flexible Phone Tripod is a smartphone tripod that is designed with flexible legs to rest on virtually any type of surface. Other tripods have proved useless unless I conveniently have a flat surface in front of me, which is why this particular tripod was appealing enough to try out. The ARMOR-X is compact and easy […]
You don’t need to get an advanced degree and take out massive loans to become a coder. This bundle of 10 courses was designed to teach anyone to code at home for less than it costs to go out for dinner. I was particularly impressed with this new 2017 bundle because it includes courses on […]


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Smelt populations have crashed in U.S., devastating fishing industry
The recent cold spell has meant ice fishing at more lakes in Michigan. Some anglers go after a tiny fish called smelt in the cold water. In the past, people went after them during spawning runs using dip nets. But smelt populations have crashed.
Bob Ruleau with Ruleau Brothers, Inc. in Stephenson, Michigan is a commercial fisher licensed to catch smelt. He says a lot of things combined to devastate the smelt fishery over the last 30 years, including predation by larger fish, zebra and quagga mussels, and the climate.
“We had colder winters and colder water. And smelt don’t like warm water. You know, they don’t care for it at all,” he said.
His company didn’t catch any smelt last year.
“The year prior we had a couple drags that was decent while we were trying to catch them,” Ruleau said.
But, he had a hard time selling the catch. With irregular smelt harvests in Lake Michigan, the Canadians gained a lot of the smelt sales contracts.
According to the Associated Press, commercial fishers used to haul in millions of pounds of smelt in the U.S., a lot of it from Lake Michigan. The last year for which there are numbers, 2018, there was a total catch of about 50,000 pounds.


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Citroën SA has unveiled examples of the award-winning C3 Pluriel. The company plans to launch two derivatives in South Africa around December this year, but how much will they cost?
Citroën SA has unveiled examples of the award-winning C3 Pluriel. The company plans to launch two derivatives in South Africa around December this year.
The model has been described as a five-in-one vehicle that “can easily be transformed from its saloon guise into a 2+2 coupé, a cabriolet, a spider, or even a spider pick-up”. It’s won a star in the 2003 Design Observer, an event organised by the French Agency for the Promotion of Industrial Design, been named L'automobile più bella del mondo in Italy and voted cabriolet of the year 2003 by 17 of Europe’s motoring journalists from 11 countries.
When the Pluriel’s material sunroof is closed, it looks like a compact three-door convertible. The driver presses the buttons controlling the roof and windows to turn it into a spider. The roof folds down on to the rear window and disappears into the false floor of the boot.
The rear seat of the Pluriel is designed to retract into the floor. The load area of each variant can be extended and the vehicle turned from a four-seater into a two-seater. The boot hatch opens downwards, extending the load floor and making it easy to transport long objects. The boot does not have to be emptied to reach the false floor. A sliding plate is provided for this purpose.
Indications are that the entry-level C3 Pluriel will be fitted with a 1,4-litre fuel-injected powerplant, which produces 54 kW and 118 N.m of torque, mated with a five-speed manual gearbox. At the current rate of exhange, the 1,4 derivative would cost R185 995.
The flagship will be powered by an 80 kW 1,6-litre 16-valve engine mated with Citroën’s SensoDrive five-speed robotised manual gearbox, with a choice of two gearchanging modes, as standard. At the current rate of exhange, the 1,6 derivative would retail for R209 995, which would undercut the R212 900 price tag of the popular Peugeot 206 CC 1,6.
The C3 Pluriel, first shown to the South African public at the Auto Africa motor show at Nasrec last year, will “be at Citroën dealers in South Africa before the end of the year”, the manufacturer said.
Original article from Car


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Loopy’s High Shores to close
CHIPPEWA FALLS, Wis. (WEAU) - Loopy’s High Shores Supper Club in Chippewa County is closing October 24. Owner Loopy Kleich announced the news Wednesday.
He said he’s closing Loopy’s High Shores because business has slowed too much during the coronavirus pandemic. He said he needs to put all his energy into keeping Loopy’s Saloon, Grill and Event Dome in Chippewa Falls, which is staying open. That business will honor all Loopy’s High Shores gift cards.
Kleich also said government-imposed health restrictions have hurt business, but he says the fear people have of going out to eat at restaurants during the pandemic has hurt even worse.
He said one of his biggest concerns is for his fellow restaurant owners throughout the Chippewa Valley, who are also really struggling.
“If something doesn’t change soon you’re going to see 50 to 60 percent of the small businesses gone, it’s inevitable,” Kleich said. “You can’t stop this. I mean, if you look around at what people are doing, you can’t operate at 25, 50 percent.”
He said he hopes to transfer most of his employees from Loopy’s High Shores, which is located on Lake Wissota, to Loopy’s Saloon, Grill and Event Dome.
Loopy’s High Shores opened about two years ago.
Copyright 2020 WEAU. All rights reserved.


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Consumers must be prepared to pay up to 50% more for their fish in order to save Britain's fishing fleets, the government body responsible for helping the industry said yesterday.
Diesel prices have doubled in a year, hitting an already shrinking industry coming to terms with environmental demands, catch quotas and tougher policing of the seas. Huge price rises for some staple fish species will be needed over the next year to 18 months if it is to survive, according to Seafish, the Sea Fish Industry Authority.
It warned that economic pressures were likely to get worse if crude oil prices rise to $150 a barrel, with "spikes" of $200, as some analysts predict. "We are now seeing a complete change in the cost of bringing the catch to market", said Phil MacMullen, Seafish's head of environment. "Consumers must be prepared for significant increases in the cost of seafood if we are to continue to have a viable catching, processing and distribution sector in the UK."
The knock-on effects of fuel price rises will vary according to the type of vessel and catch gear, but an average 23% rise is said to be necessary to make it financially worthwhile for boats to leave harbour. The warning comes as health experts encourage more people to eat fish regularly.
Mike Sharp, a beam trawler skipper in Brixham, Devon, said that three years ago the port had 70 beam trawlers; now it was 17. "We may have none in a year's time."


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Google has taken the stage at the company’s I/O developer conference to announce its next foray into the living room: Android TV. Using Android “L” as a base, the new software will run on set-top box hardware comparable to the Apple TV or the Amazon Fire TV.
The system will be powered primarily by voice, with the example of being able to say something as simple as “Breaking Bad” demoed on stage leaving users just a single tap away from watching the show via any one of the streaming services they have installed. Users can also get quick access to other queries and YouTube clips related to the original search, such as information about actors and actresses.
Various gaming capabilities will also ship with Android TV, enabling you to take your games to the big screen. You can launch a game on Android TV and play against friends in many multiplayer modes using a variety of devices to control the action. Android TV can be used like a Chromecast as well, which lets you stream all kinds of media to the TV through the new platform.
Razor and Asus have set-top boxes being released this Fall, and TV manufacturers Philips and Sony will have completely new full televisions running Android TV at some point down the line.
Follow the live stream as this post is updated with more information.
Hello TV enthusiasts:
There is an appetite for building more intelligent computing experiences in the living room. Google Cast and Android TV help developers extend their apps to this new space. Today, we officially announced that Android TV is a new part of the Android platform for televisions, OTT boxes and set top boxes.
Here are the 3 key takeaway messages from today’s announcement:
Android TV is a part of the Android platform that is available today for developers.
Between now and L-release, Android TV is primarily for developers using the preview SDK and developer kit. There’s more to come; we’re just getting started.
Developers can use the SDK and developer kit to start build compelling experiences across every facet of TV including content, apps and games
Google is serious about Android for TV.
All of the infrastructure to support Android TV is being built directly into Android
We’re working with hardware partners to integrate Android TV into televisions, set top boxes and micro-consoles
Android TV is Android adapted for content consumption and discovery.
We’ve adapted Android for rich immersive experiences on TV, including voice search and recommendations to make it easy to quickly find great content
Developers can easily plug into voice search and recommendations, and use simple templates to quickly adapt their work to Android TV
So, as you heard today, Android TV is an open platform available for developers to create apps focused on the living room experience. The interface is content-first, cinematic, fun, fluid and fast. Right now, we’re asking developers to build simple TV apps — such as movies, shows and games.
We’re giving away the ADT-1, an OTT box featuring the platform demonstrated at I/O today, to interested developers at developer.android.com/tv. The SDK preview will be available there starting tomorrow.
FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.


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South Florida startups offer solutions for saving, cloud computing
- Susan Amat, Florida Startup Scene
Here’s a roundup of what’s happening with Florida’s startup companies, beginning with those in South Florida:
- CloudShopper is growing by leaps and bounds. CloudShopper helps e-commerce merchants decrease merchandise abandonment by automatically offering customers incentives or other options based on consumer behavior and key event interactions. Since last quarter, the Miami-based company has seen 400 percent growth in clicks and 150 percent growth in active user engagement.
- Family-owned and -operated RawONE Food manufactures raw, organic, gluten-free snacks, including biscotti, granola and flaxseed crackers. The Hollywood-based firm has signed on with Ecoamx and UNFI-Canada, expanding its distribution to Canadian Whole Foods Markets, and throughout the southeastern U.S. RawONE Food products can be purchased at Whole Foods, your local health food store, Amazon.com and www.rawonefood.com.
- Miami-based GradSave provides clear, simple ways to donate to a child’s 529 college savings plan, a tax-free savings vehicle. When a registry is opened, parents, friends, and family can easily contribute directly to a child’s college savings plan in lieu of gifts at birthdays, baby showers and other events. GradSave recently acquired Freshman Fund, a pioneer in 529 college savings registries, making it one of the nation’s most comprehensive go-to sites in the market.
- Orgata Travel Assist allows international travel insurance companies to dispatch and manage medical cases through a secure web portal. The Miami-based firm is quickly becoming a leader in the space. With the addition of new client Coris-April International, three of the top seven travel medical insurance companies in the world now use their product.
- World Property Channel is now ranked as the top international real estate news site by Google. The Miami-based digital media Internet company has plans to open regional news hubs next year in New York, Rio de Janeiro, London, Dubai and Hong Kong.
- Miami’s CareCloud was featured for its innovative approach and platform in the June issue of Forbes magazine, which asked: “Can Cloud-Computing Take On The Health Care Establishment?” AlwaysOn recently listed it as one of the 50 private U.S. technology companies to watch in 2012.
- Femfessionals is a networking and support group for ambitious women. Beginning with Miami, more than 38 Femfessionals communities have started in the last year, with over 1,500 members nationwide. An additional 40 communities will start activities in 2012.
- Vaultbox.me’s cloud-based inventory solution was featured in USA Today’s “Gear to Product Your Gadgets from ‘Techmageddon.’” The Miami-Beach firm’s solution stores relevant information about the items inside your home, including make, model, serial number and photos. If disaster ever strikes, a detailed report to give to the police and insurance agents can easily be retrieved on your phone or any computer.
- Fort Lauderdale-based Bimotics is a business intelligence startup aimed to help companies maintain a pulse on their operations and performance, achieved by providing integrated real-time access to system application information through a user-friendly graphical interface. The company is looking for regional small and medium-size businesses to test its beta solution. Visit www.bimotics.com for more information.
- GeevaTech in Coral Springs has developed a USB stick-size pocket PC called PuckPC. Plugging the PuckPC into your TV’s HDMI port turns your TV into a computer. GeevaTech will soon release a Windows-based platform to enable anyone to have easy, ready access to their PC around with them, in their pocket and plug into their existing VGA monitor.
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Consumer watchdog DECO has sounded the alert over Portugal’s used-tyre market – warning that it pays no attention to quality or safety, and leaves customers totally unprotected.
“The possibility of acquiring a product that respects safety criteria appears to be a question of luck,” explains the association in a report published today.
DECO’s alert centres on the need for new laws “like those that exist in other countries”, writes Expresso.
Sellers should be made responsible for their tyres; accident reports should always allude to the quality of the tyres of vehicles involved, and ASAE – the country’s health and safety authority – should be dispatched to carry out random checks.
DECO stresses that the belief that used or reconditioned tyres can somehow offer a saving to drivers is a “myth”.
“It works out more expensive to buy used tyres than new ones,” it explains, adding that used tyres can often be “ovalised” through extensive use, and unable to be properly balanced, while others “only touch the road surface” in the centres.
DECO’s research comes from a study of 89 tyres, of which 50 (over 56%) flagged “grave safety failings” that should have rendered them unfit for sale altogether.
“Various showed profound inequalities in width measurements of the same tyre, and others had lateral repairs, with tears and the metallic structure of the tyre visible. Seventeen were over 10 years old and one pair was 19 years old.”


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Apple brings in a high-fashion expert, one university's not on such good terms with Cupertino, and sorry, that's not actually your phone vibrating.
The CTO 11-inch MacBook Air performs better than a 13-inch Retina MacBook Pro, and it's much smaller and lighter.
You dopes just don't understand Mike Elgan's beautiful mind!
OS X could be holding back the new AirPort Extreme's wireless throughput.
This week's roundup of Mac accessories includes a Blu-ray player for your Mac and several items to protect your laptop from dirt, grime, and drops.
Sounds like the "ac" in the new MacBook Airs’ 802.11ac wireless might stand for "aw, crud." Elsewhere Pink Floyd has hit a wall with streaming royalties and Microsoft gets touchy about its gaming future.
Christie's said Friday it hopes to sell a working Apple-1 computer for as much as half a million dollars in a special online-only auction that starts next week.
Ted Landau relays reports of new MacBook Air models that perform poorly with third-party routers.
Best Buy has recalled about 5100 replacement batteries for Apple's MacBook laptops, after 13 reports that the battery caught fire, a U.S. consumer safety agency said.
Big under-the-hood changes are coming to OS X's ability to extend a Mac's battery life. Here's a quick look at how they work.


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Canadian fintech startup, Periculum has raised a $620,000 pre-seed funding round which would help it to expand its team, improve product development and scale its operations in Nigeria and other markets.
A statement by the firm said it is focused on improving financial inclusion in Nigeria and other emerging markets through automated credit assessment tools that close the consumer credit gap and help financial institutions provide credit facilities to the financially excluded,
The statement also noted that the firm which was founded in 2019, helps its banking and lending customers identify fraud risk, assess creditworthiness, and analyze its existing data.
The statement stated that Periculum offers real-time decision-making, analysis, and credit underwriting solutions to financial institutions including banks, non-banking financial companies, and fintech companies.
The statement further explained that by providing information on the financial worthiness of customers and automating the loan decisioning process, Periculum’s customers can gather and analyze borrower information, “and assign a credit score faster, with real outcomes on financial inclusion in Nigeria and other markets.”
The statement remarked that Periculum offers data aggregation APIs and platform solutions that aggregate data from partners including Mono and the CRC Credit Bureau, to provide complete financial and data profiles of prospective borrowers and third-party entities, “some of its clients include Fundii, Lendaba, and Venero.”
The statement disclosed that Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System Plc (NIBSS), only 48 million Nigerians, as of May 30, 2021, had a BVN, with an adult population of 105 million according to the World Population Review, 57 million Nigerians are currently out of reach to financial services.
The statement affirmed that unfortunately, credit bureaus that provide information to banks, only cover 13.9% of the population in Nigeria, with no information on the creditworthiness of the bulk of potential borrowers, adding that Periculum is committed to addressing this challenge.
According to the Chief Executive Officer, Periculum, Michael Temitope Collins, “Periculum is a top provider of data analytics and credit assessment services targeted explicitly to underserved markets. We help our customers to reduce their lengthy loan application processing times and loan default rates, and offer loans to the underbanked and unbanked consumers and micro, small and medium-scale enterprises. But our data analytic capabilities go beyond credit scoring. We can help our customers with solutions such as fraud detection, insights for lenders based on customer segmentation and customer lifecycle value, insights to retailers and ATM operators, and several other advantages.”
A statement said: “The startup was accepted into Techstars in 2021 and is among the current 2021 Techstars Montréal AI cohort, as well as the Founder Institutes Select portfolio. It has raised $620,000 from Techstars, Loyal VC, First Fund, and White Hibiscus Capital. Periculum currently delivers services to customers in Canada, Nigeria, and Kenya.
“For many countries in Africa, there is still a financial divide. By tackling the credit assessment challenge, Periculum can build the financial infrastructure that helps in addressing the issue of access to financial services and improves development outcomes for millions of people, with better opportunities for businesses, financial institutions, and lenders.”


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Yasumi Matsuno Reportedly Joins Level-5
Maker of Tactics Ogre, Vagrant Story and Final Fantasy XII working with Professor Layton studio.
The hot industry rumor surfacing from this week's Famitsu concerns Yatsumi Matsuno, the creative mastermind behind such games as Tactics Ogre, Vagrant Story and Final Fantasy XII. Famitsu reveals that Matsuno has become an employee of Level-5, maker of the Professor Layton and Inazuma Eleven series.
Matsuno apparently joined Level-5 at the request of Level-5 CEO Akihiro Hino. He'll be working not on massive productions, but compact games that can be released in a speedy fashion. His first Level-5 game is being described as something that his fans' nieces and nephews can enjoy.
Assuming this report is true, expect additional details shortly.