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CHICAGO (MarketWatch) - Abercrombie & Fitch Inc. shares tumbled Wednesday as analysts dueled over whether inventory is an issue for the hip clothier.
Shares of Abercrombie & Fitch
Analysts weighed in on what were pretty spectacular first-quarter results that catapulted sharply higher to $40.4 million, or 45 cents a share in its first quarter. A year ago, Abercrombie & Fitch earned $29.3 million and 30 cents of the year-ago period.
A key industry benchmark, same-store sales jumped 19%. A year ago, same-store sales sank 5 percent.
But analysts were most concerned about what one called a "scary" 56% surge in inventory levels over last year.
Banc of America analyst Dana Cohen lowered her rating on the stock to a neutral from buy because of those levels, particularly in denim.
"Like many companies now, (Abercrombie & Fitch) is investing a significant portion of the inventory in denim; we think this is raising the risk profile of the category," she said in a note to clients.
Prudential analyst Stacy Pak labeled her note to clients: "Nice bottom-line numbers, but scary inventory levels."
"The bottom line is that inventories are growing quite a bit faster than sales," she said.
"The bullish interpretation is that management believes in the business -- clearly they do -- but we do not agree that the stores don't have a lot of fashion risk," she added. Having said that, she is a big fan of Abercrombie & Fitch's fashions.
Merrill Lynch analyst Mark Friedman's comfortable with the inventory issue, noting that "spending has helped drive sales" in the quarter.
"The company has increased sales help with staff hours, as well as investments in inventory to be in stock -- both of which have helped drive improved sales," he said.
Most analysts liked that Abercrombie & Fitch was stepping up its square footage plans.
The company will be opening international stores in Canada in late 2005 or early 2006 and is now looking for space and a distribution center in Europe for a roll out in 2006. The company recently established a Japanese subsidiary.


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Apple has been working to make Siri sound less like a robot and more like a human. As it gears up to launch iOS 11 to hundreds of millions of users across the globe, the company has released a white paper which details how it used deep learning to make Siri sound less robotic. The company has even included voice samples in the paper which let you hear the difference.
Several hours of high quality audio was captured so that it could be sliced to create voice responses. Developers also had to work had to get the prosody right, that’s the pattern of stress and intonation in a spoken language.
It’s not just about working this out. It’s about making it work on a mobile device because this level of processing can put a lot of stress on a device’s processor and thus hamper its performance.
Apple relied on machine learning to get around this. Enough training data allowed it to help the system understand just how segments of audio that pair well have to be selected in order to create responses that sound more natural.
Siri will sound much better with iOS 11. Apple has worked with a new female voice actor to record more than 20 hours of speed in US English. It generated between 1 and 2 million audio segments that were used to train the deep learning system. Apple mentions in the paper that test subjects liked the new Siri responses compared to the previous one.
Check out Apple’s white paper on the matter to hear just how different Siri sounds on iOS 11.

domain: news


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Despite gathering storm clouds over Wall Street, global mergers-and-acquisitions activity reached record proportions last year. A string of landscape-shifting deals have been spilling over into the first months of 2008. The worth of worldwide megamergers and acquisitions in industries ranging from automobiles to video games was up 23% last year to $4.8 trillion, according to market researcher Dealogic. Even with a slowing economy, American M&A deals were up 3%, to nearly $1.6 billion, in 2007.
Acquisitions are often efforts to "buy" innovation, folding in a so-called disruptive, or game-changing, technology developed by another firm. Or they represent attempts to bring in a staff known for its consistent and profitable creative output. Indeed, earlier this week, analysts widely interpreted video game giant Electronic Arts' (ERTS) gambit to acquire Take-Two Interactive Software (BusinessWeek.com, 2/25/08) as an attempt to gain control of Take-Two's (TTWO) blockbuster Grand Theft Auto franchise. And Microsoft's (MSFT) recent $44 billion megabid (BusinessWeek.com, 2/1/08) for Yahoo! (YHOO) is a last-ditch hedge against Google (GOOG), which has managed to innovate circles around the two tech titans.
Corporate history, meanwhile, is filled with thousands of additional examples—both successful and ruinous—from Disney's (DIS) heralded 2006 Pixar purchase to the troubled AOL Time Warner (TWX) merger in 2000.
BusinessWeek.com's Matt Vella spoke with Roger Martin, dean of the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto and author of The Opposable Mind: How Successful Leaders Win Through Integrative Thinking (Harvard Business School Press, 2007), about the potential pitfalls and rewards of trying to "buy" innovation. An edited excerpt of their conversation follows.
When you think of companies that have been able to successfully acquire innovation, what examples come to mind?
I think what's happened in business intelligence software—where IBM (IBM) bought Cognos and SAP (SAP) bought Business Objects, both last year—has been a recent example of success. Essentially, the acquirers waited for somebody else to innovate, build a business around that, and then absorbed the whole.
Cisco (CSCO), meanwhile, has a corporate strategy of letting a whole bunch of venture capitalists capitalize companies, waiting to see what works and buying up the companies that succeed. In these cases like Cisco's [as well as in other industries], buying is a way to add value. For many commercial products—as opposed to consumer products—scale is an advantage that allows bigger companies to successfully acquire smaller innovators.
So often the discussion centers on technology—software in particular, where products can be melded together somewhat more easily than physical goods—but are there telling examples in other sectors?
Yes, of course. And in a way those are even more interesting. Take Procter & Gamble (PG): Their innovation strategy is "connect and develop," which is not M&A outright necessarily, but is still a method of bringing external innovation into an organization. They believe that invention, the front end of innovation, in other words, is much more randomly distributed than the back end, which is about qualifying, commercializing, and distributing products. In essence, [such an open-innovation tactic is about letting] "the little people invent" and then helping commercialize the innovation through the resources of a much bigger company.
So is there a tendency for larger companies to avoid risky, costly projects that could result in disruptive innovation?
Well, larger organizations drift toward reliability. It can be hard for big corporations to promote invention. You cannot prove in advance that any new idea will work. That's the rule. But if big companies have a culture of reliability, they will insist on proving things ahead of time. What that does is cause them to favor waiting for somebody else to prove something works, to take the risk. In other words, they're willing to pay a pretty big markup for not having to take that risk on themselves.
Microsoft's attempted acquisition of Intuit (INTU) in 1995 might be the very best example of that. They waited for Intuit to build a business and then tried to acquire it to slap its software into Microsoft Office, which sells 10 times the number of copies of software products [than Intuit does].
What about acquisitions that are based more on bringing in a creative group of people, for example, than a particular product or technology? Are the potential pitfalls greater?
I think it is unquestionable that when you're buying a patented technology that is an inanimate object, it's easier to manage that than a case that requires the happiness and satisfaction of talent on an ongoing basis. Many bad things can happen, not the least of which is the talent walks out the door.
A successful acquisition requires a combination of blending new and old cultures together, trying to get them to continue doing what made them successful in the first place, but in a new context. It sounds cliché, but there's a little give and take. The key is offering an acquired team a chance to make their beloved creation bigger and a lot more prominent. In the end, if the people aren't enthusiastic about the potential of a new venture, the deal may not be worth doing.
So how important is clarity of purpose or possible benefit ahead of time? Sometimes, big M&A deals are couched in terms of what the future "could be" if two companies merged, rather than a more sober assessment of the challenges of combining two disparate company cultures. Do corporations often overlook the danger of a "bad marriage"?
I think so. I guess I'm a strategist at heart because what I say is, unless you have a really clear strategy for what you're trying to accomplish—why the duality of the two of us being together: the how, why, and what of what we're going to do—you're likely to mess it up. Having a clear picture in your mind is crucial. From a cultural standpoint, there's great value in thinking of honoring the path each company has come from. Not honoring a company's past is a quick way to get in trouble. It has to be a balance of the past and the future.
The autopsies of so many failed acquisitions point to incompatible cultures, especially when large companies are absorbing smaller ones. What about managing the culture clash?
If you look at reliability and validity-oriented cultures, for folks at larger institutions, innovators can appear dangerous and worrisome. They think perhaps they will not be careful stewards of the corporate charter, etc. But, [those people who are] more cautious have to be made to understand that risk-takers aren't always being profligate or irresponsible. That's the production, the factory out of which innovation comes. Corporate leaders have to emphasize the "why" of such deals, especially after they're done. That's the only way to make sure innovation prevails.


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Twitter’s CEO says the user experience needs to improve. YouTube to audit for fake video views. These stories, and more, in today’s Morning Social Media Newsfeed.
Groupon, Zynga and Pandora a much bigger portion of their traffic from mobile users than any of the other top 50 digital properties, according to comScore’s first tally of Internet traffic across Web and mobile apps, released today.
If you’ve been feeling inundated with ads when watching online videos there’s a good reason for it. According to comScore stats, we’re being exposed to a whopping 67.5 percent more online video ads than we were a year ago.
Pinterest has just secured $200 million in funding, more than double what it brought in from the Japanese e-commerce firm Rakuten in its well-publicized round last year, the company said.
Pinterest is in the midst of a fund raising round that puts the company’s total value between $2 and $2.5 million, according to a Wall Street Journal report.
With Facebook’s launch earlier today of a social search feature, the company indicated that it increasingly sees Google as a competitor and won’t sit idly by while Google pushes into social networking.
comScore has released their October 2012 U.S. Online Video Rankings and they reveal an unsettling trend—unless of course you love watching online video ads. It looks like last month Americans watched less online videos than they did in September, but they were exposed to a heck of a lot more video ads.
ComScore released the list of the 50 most-trafficked U.S.-owned Web properties today, and Pinterest just made the cut. It’s the first time the upstart social network has made the list, but MySpace still came out ahead, securing the 47th spot.
comScore has released their August 2012 U.S. Online Video Rankings, revealing that online video content has reached an all-time high, with over 188 million unique viewers in the United States. But it looks like people aren’t getting their online video fixes in the same places that they used to. Back in July, Facebook was second only to Google Sites (aka YouTube) in terms of total unique viewers. In August, Facebook dropped to the fifth spot, below Google, Yahoo!, Microsoft and VEVO.
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A Cadaver, Facebook, Free Speech (Inside Higher Ed)
The Minnesota Supreme Court on Wednesday upheld the right of the University of Minnesota to punish a mortuary science student for posts on Facebook that made fun of a cadaver. The court’s ruling said that because of the nature of the student’s career-related academic program, the university did not violate the student’s rights in failing her in an anatomy laboratory course. AllFacebook Facebook stayed the course on its path to keep optimizing its mobile offerings with Wednesday’s long-awaited introduction of the “like” button for mobile applications. The social network introduced an open graph built-in like action for mobile apps, allowing developers to build like buttons into their apps with the aim of increasing engagement with its rapidly accelerating mobile user base. Bloomberg Businessweek Facebook’s audience in the United States declined in May, while the amount of time users spent on the social-networking website rose, according to comScore. The number of visitors to Facebook.com dropped less than 1 percent to 158 million in May from April, the Reston, Va.-based company said in an emailed statement. Visitors in April also fell less than 1 percent from March. ZDNET Yahoo and Facebook have asked for more time from a U.S. judge as part of efforts to end ongoing litigation, according to a court filing. The two companies, which are locked in a battle over patents, said they wanted court deadlines pushed back to allow breathing space for the talks to continue in the hope the two can avoid the courtroom. The Wall Street Journal A bipartisan group of lawmakers called on regulators to overhaul the way initial public offerings are conducted, concerned that last month’s flubbed stock sale by Facebook shows the current system unfairly punishes small investors. In a letter to Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Mary Schapiro, Rep. Darrell Issa (R., Calif.) prodded the agency to revamp rules for pricing and disclosure in IPOs. Read more


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On the Vulgamore farm near Scott City, Kan., each combine can harvest up to 25 acres of wheat an hour—as well as real-time data on crop yields. Most of the food Americans eat is now produced on such large-scale, mechanized farms, which grow row after row of a single crop, allowing farmers to cover more ground with less labor.
With the world’s population exploding, we’ll have many more mouths to feed in the near future. But agriculture already uses up tons of resources and land. So how can we grow more food and how can we limit its damage to the environment?
The U.S. Department of Agriculture wants to greenlight a proposal that would allow imports of fresh beef from certain sections of Brazil, despite the South American country’s history of outbreaks of foot-and-mouth disease, a highly contagious pathogen that cripples cattle.
In the kitchen at the high school in Decorah, Iowa (IA), Chad Elliott ladels out tomato soup. The school system sources many ingredients locally.
Credit Amy Mayer / Harvest Public Media
The smell of baking dinner rolls fills the kitchen at Decorah High School in northeast Iowa. As two kitchen workers mix a fresh broccoli salad, another, Chad Elliott, ladles tomato soup from a large metal pot on the stove into white plastic buckets for delivery to the town’s elementary schools.
Samara Davis shops at the small Harvest Learning Center market in the basement of her Kansas City, Mo., church. It’s part of an effort for local farmers to expand their customer base.
Credit Jeremy Bernfeld / Harvest Public Media
Farm stands and farmers markets remain really important for many local farmers, but U.S. consumers barely buy any food directly from farms. That’s why local farmers are trying to crack in to the big institutional markets such as grocery stores, work cafeterias, schools and hospitals.
Local food is slowly becoming a not so niche market. Six years ago, USDA put the size of the local food sector at $4.8 billion.
Credit Matt Hannon / Flickr
When the U.S. Department of Agriculture releases detailed data from the 2012 Census of Agriculture in May, the numbers should illuminate all sorts of details about the country’s farmers. And for those involved in local food initiatives, the data may finally make it possible to update the statistics on the size and scope of their successes.


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Gitex Global 2022, conducted in Dubai from 11th October to 14th October is one of the globe’s biggest start-up and tech shows. Gitex brought many opportunities for the start-ups who participated in the event from knowing people, companies, and resources to scaling up their businesses. It is indeed been an inspiration for so many businesses as one can find true innovation and thought leaders under one roof.
The future of automation was clearly visible in Gitex 2022 as flying cars incredibly insightful panels on the Web 3.0 revolution and super smart AI Robotics and many more. It is really fascinating to see how next-gen technologies affect our future. The main show catchers of the events were the flying car, the first driverless car of UAE, Mind-powered football, moon ‘walk’, hologram phone calls, and robotic technologies.
Gitex provides vast opportunities for start-ups to showcase their capabilities and how they can change the future in a technological way. Indian start-ups participated with the same passion and enthusiasm and it is our pride that DATOMS one of our start-ups reach the finals of the GITEX North Star Supernova Challenge.
India had a great contribution to the event and 40 startups from Kerala Startup Mission (KSUM) and 32 NASSCOM (National Association of Software and Services Companies) were there to represent India and presented different ideas in Artificial Intelligence, Fintech, Data Analytics, and deep tech. GreenAds were one among them and for us, it opened up tremendous opportunities to take our start-up to next level.
It is noticeable that Kerala Start Up Mission was able to gather worth 130 crores of business commitments at the event. India took the most advantage of the largest tech show held in Dubai by showcasing amazing works by young talented Indians. Aman Puri, counsel general of India, Dubai said that the way the India-UAE corridor has been growing will enable the startups in global expansion by testing their products and services at the global level.
The presence of big industrial players such as Amazon Web Services, Nokia, Dell, Oracle, and Lenovo was also there at Gitex 2022 bringing much importance to the event. The event also witnessed incredible new launches and front-line developments in areas of Fintech, Cloud & Edge, AI, cyber security, and Smart cities.
Apart from the Indian Start-Ups, the global presence is quite noticeable. Companies from different fields like artificial intelligence driven products, driverless cars, and innovative technologies presented an extraordinary experience to all those who attended the event. Dubai Chamber of commerce, RTA, Etisalat UAE, G42 Cloud, and Dataiku are some of them who participated in the event.
At Gitex, GreenAds was able to meet up with several business personalities and learn from them and at the same time, we were able to display all of our products and services can help to take their businesses to a new level through conversational marketing. We are proud to generate more than seventy leads from Gitex from various countries including UAE, and South Africa.
It was an incredible experience in showcasing our products in front of several delegates who attended the event. We displayed Google RCS, WhatsApp Business API, Bulk SMS, and IVR solutions and it was exciting to explain how their business can grow to a new level by using ours as leverage.
The feedback we got was really exciting and it was happy to recognize how businesses are anticipating growth by using our different solutions. This gave us a clear-cut idea of how we can grow further in the future. It is through events like Gitex that we can recognize our true potential and can learn new things to power up our future endeavors. We are looking forward to being a part of events like Gitex not only to showcase our capabilities but also to learn and mold ourselves for the best future.


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By KEIICHI KITAGAWA/ Staff Writer
September 20, 2022 at 18:43 JST
Prices of air conditioners and other electric appliances are rising due to higher costs for materials and transportation. (Asahi Shimbun file photo)
The consumer price index jumped by 2.8 percent in August from the same month last year, the steepest rise in 30 years and 11 months, the internal affairs ministry said Sept. 20.
It was the 12th straight month of increase and the fifth consecutive month of consumer prices surging by more than 2 percent.
Energy and food prices shot up due to the weakening yen and soaring material costs following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Some mobile phone carriers introduced discount plans in August 2021. But the effects from the reduced fees wore off last month, further pushing up the CPI.
Overall energy costs soared by 16.9 percent year on year, with electricity jumping by 21.5 percent and gas bills in urban areas rising by 26.4 percent.
Excluding perishables, food prices were up 4.1 percent, with fried chicken costing 9.4 percent more and fast-food hamburger prices up by 11.2 percent.
Excluding periods when the consumption tax rate was raised, the last time the CPI increased at this rate was in September 1991, right after the collapse of the asset-inflated economic boom that lasted for more than four years.
Unlike during the bubble economy, wage increases now are not keeping up with inflation, and the higher prices are weighing heavily on household budgets.
Inflation-adjusted real wage growth was up 1.1 percent in 1991 year on year, while it was down 1.3 percent in July this year, the fourth straight month of decline.
Visit this page for the latest news on Japan’s battle with the novel coronavirus pandemic.
Cooking experts, chefs and others involved in the field of food introduce their special recipes intertwined with their paths in life.
Here is a collection of first-hand accounts by “hibakusha” atomic bomb survivors.
The Asahi Shimbun aims “to achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls” through its Gender Equality Declaration.
Let’s explore the Japanese capital from the viewpoint of wheelchair users and people with disabilities with Barry Joshua Grisdale.


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Short's Brewing Co. calls out customers who bully staff
Short's Brewing Co. employees have had enough.
Like many restaurants and brewpubs across Michigan, the Elk Rapids-based brewery's popular Bellaire brewpub has faced a slew of vitriol from customers who are angry about the pub's new mask and distancing rules since reopening its dining room in late May.
The Bellaire brewpub took to Facebook on Thursday night to explain what employees have had to endure since returning to work: Customers cussing at them, yelling at them, laughing in their faces, threatening bad reviews and bringing them to tears, all while navigating the COVID-19 pandemic that so far has sickened tens of thousands of Michiganders and killed thousands of others.
"It's time to STOP. Enough is enough already," the brewpub posted. "To all of the customers who have swore at us, yelled, laughed in our faces, threatened negative reviews, name-called, belittled and brought us to tears, we are done. We're here to tell you that we stand with all of our staff and we will not tolerate this behavior at our pub. Our staff deserves better.
"We are mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, daughters and sons. We might not be yours, but we are somebody's and deserve the respect you would want for your own. We are your servers, hosts, bussers, and kitchen crew. We've had enough of the bullying that has come to light during the time of COVID."
Short's reopened the Bellaire brewpub in late May, shortly after Gov. Gretchen Whitmer allowed bars and restaurants in northern Michigan (and later the rest of the state) to reopen at 50% capacity with strict mask, social distancing and sanitation guidelines. This forced restaurant and brewery owners and staff across the state to adjust dining room rules and regulations, largely on the fly as they scrambled to reopen.
"We will not be bullied," the Facebook post from Short's continued. "We bust ours to give you a killer experience. We understand how frustrating waiting for food or dealing with lines can be, but we are also constantly working to streamline our business levels with this new system. Changes have happened overnight and day by day for all of us.
"We ask that you please be patient with us and remember that you aren't talking to just a server or manager, you are talking to another human being with feelings. Our management team is aware that issues arise and is willing to listen, think and make changes to ensure an awesome Short's experience for our guests."
The post has since gone viral, with more than 5,000 Facebook shares and more than 13,000 reactions, many from customers who expressed support and understanding for the employees at Short's.
"I was so impressed by what you are doing that I bought a 6 pack and I don’t even drink beer," one commenter said.
"Thank you for caring so much about your awesome staff. No one deserves to be harassed or abused just for doing their job," another said.
Short's Brewing Co., founded in 2002 by Joe Short, is one of Michigan's largest breweries, with distribution across Michigan and to multiple states across the Midwest. It's known for several popular flagship beers such as the fruity Soft Parade (7.5% ABV) and the hoppy Huma Lupa Licious (7.7% ABV), and its Bellaire brewpub, which opened in 2004, has made its mark as an extremely popular northern Michigan destination.
Though its operation is larger than most Michigan brewers — Short's sold a 19.9% stake to Lagunitas Brewing Company, owned by Heineken, in 2017 in a bid to support expansion of its growing business — it's not invulnerable to the struggles of American breweries during the pandemic, several of which have had to close for good as they were already operating on razor-thin margins.


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Red Bull's recent purchase of the New York/New Jersey Major League Soccer franchise and subsequent name change may be blazing the trail for a new frontier in commercializing professional sports in the U.S.: Corporate-named teams, already a fixture in parts of Europe, could open the marketing door wider for U.S. advertisers.
Newspapers are thinking outside the box when it comes to attracting new audiences as well as luring readers and advertisers away from global portals and search engines and toward their online version. Around the U.S., newspapers are experimenting with free commuter tabloids that present a crisp, graphical and entertainment-heavy version of the day's news as well as local search offerings online, and new payment and placement models for individuals and companies seeking to advertise.
Five major magazines, including Time and Newsweek, face a July 1 deadline to resolve an advertising dilemma: how to comply with a new recommendation from the Distilled Spirits Council of the U.S. Code of Responsible Practices that calls for titles distributed in school libraries to not feature ads for spirits makers on back and inside covers. The challenge for the magazines will be to keep the lucrative revenue from these high-profile placements without having to resort to publishing special school editions.
In the latest installment of its "Road to the Upfront" feature, Advertising Age details how Discovery Communications is positioning its 13 channels, including TLC, Animal Planet and the Travel Channel, for the fall TV ad marketplace.


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MANILA -- Universal Robina (URC) and Japan's Calbee have launched a range of upmarket snacks a year after forming a 50-50 joint venture to produce Calbee products in the Philippines.
Universal Robina's Chief Executive Officer Lance Gokongwei, center, hopes to sell 1.7 billion pesos of upmarket snacks over the next five in a venture with Japan’s Calbee targeting the emerging middle class.
The seven potato snacks, which include wasabi-flavored chips tweaked for Philippine taste buds, are up to 40% more expensive than anything previously produced by URC, according to Teree Eugenio, the Calbee-URC general manager.
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Glassnode’s latest onchain newsletter shows the effect of the NFT sector and its attraction on the adoption rate of Bitcoin and the crypto industry as a whole. This week’s edition takes a deep dive into the emergence of an intriguing concept in the crypto world – Ordinals.
Mainstream Adoption with the Help of NFTs
The recent heavy US regulatory moves and SEC crackdowns have rocked the digital asset market, causing the first significant pullback of the year. Yet, amidst the chaos, a new demand for blockspace is emerging, fueled by the unexpected popularity of Ordinals on the Bitcoin blockchain.
According to the newsletter, NFTs hosted on the Bitcoin blockchain in Ordinals and Inscriptions have taken the world by storm, with over 69k Inscriptions already created. This has led to a surge in Bitcoin network activity.
With the rise of Ordinals and Inscriptions on the Bitcoin blockchain, there has been a significant uptick in on-chain activity metrics, primarily related to activity and not necessarily coin volume moved. The total number of non-zero balance addresses has reached an all-time high of 44.06M addresses, indicating a short-term increase in Bitcoin network usage.
However, instead of carrying a large payload of coin volume, Ordinals have a more significant load of data and new active users, leading to a new buyer of blockspace and upward pressure on the fee market.
The market analysis provides a good gauge of higher demand for blockspace, and the current upward pressure suggests a growing overall demand.
As this unexpected innovation generates network activity beyond the typical investment and monetary transfer use cases, it marks a new and unique moment in Bitcoin history. The growth in the user base and upwards pressure on the market describe a new frontier in the crypto world.
The emergence of Ordinals and Inscriptions has created a non-trivial expansion in demand for blockspace, and the impact on the on-chain network and investor behavior remains to be seen. As Glassnode delves deeper into this new and exciting phenomenon, we can expect more updates on the unique impact of Ordinals on the digital asset market.
In conclusion, the emergence of Ordinals and Inscriptions on the Bitcoin blockchain and the growing popularity of NFTs could pave the way for the mainstream adoption of cryptocurrencies.
As more people become interested in NFTs and other crypto products, the demand for Bitcoin and other digital assets could increase at an even higher rate, leading to greater adoption and broader acceptance. It will be interesting to observe how this trend develops and affects future on-chain metrics and investor behavior.


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N.Y. wineries can use out-of-state grapes
ALBANY – The state Department of Agriculture and Markets announced Monday that New York wineries can use out-of-state grapes for their products because last year's harsh winter heavily damaged crops.
State law allows the department to let a winery manufacture or sell wine from out-of-state grapes if weather conditions destroyed more than 40 percent of a grape variety. The state hasn't permitted the use of out-of-state grapes since 2005.
"The state's grape harvest is fast approaching and due to freezing temperatures that severely damaged plants throughout the state, there will be more demand than supply for New York grapes," state Agriculture commissioner Richard Ball said in a statement. "We need to give New York's world-class farm wineries every tool possible to succeed this year."
Cornell Cooperative Extension assessed the damage from last winter's storm and determined that 15 grape varieties had more than a 40 percent loss.
State law requires that all wine produced by a New York winery must be made from grapes, fruits or products grown in the state. The waiver changes that, but federal law requires all wines to be labeled with the origin of their grapes.
So to get the label as a New York wine, at least 75 percent of the contents must have been grown in New York. The state said it's too soon to know how much of the wine produced this year will still have the New York label.
Grape varieties covered under the state's declaration include: Riesling, Cabernet Franc, Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, Gewürztraminer, Merlot, Pinot Gris, Cabernet Sauvignon, Lemberger, Syrah, Gamay Noir, Brianna, Frontenac, La Crescent and Noiret.
"We experienced as much as 75 percent bud damage over the winter, as did many other growers who grow the same grapes that we do," Scott Osborn, president of Fox Run Vineyards in Penn Yan, Yates County, said in a statement. "There are only so many grapes out there in our region, and right now there are more buyers than there are grapes."
Not only did growers have bud damage, vineyards also had trunk damage, meaning whole plants needed to be replaced in some cases.
New York has aggressively marketed its wine, and Gov. Andrew Cuomo has boosted laws to support the industry.
The state ranks third in wine and grape production in the nation, and it's a $4.8 billion a year industry, the state Wine and Grape Foundation said in a recent report.
"It is vital for wineries to source products from other regions in order to maintain their presence in the marketplace," Jim Trezise, president of the state Wine and Grape Foundation, said in a statement.
Wineries need to apply to use out-of-state grapes at: http://www. agriculture.ny.gov/AP /Farm_Winery_ Application.pdf


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When Mary Meeker speaks, people tend to listen.
The former Morgan Stanley MD and, as of 2010, partner of leading Silicon Valley venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, is widely considered as one of the most influential and forward-thinking technology leaders on the planet.
Her annual Internet Trends Report, the latest of which was released last week, has become a globally-anticipated bellwether of the state of the world. Given how much of our lives, jobs and relationships now play out across the web, Meeker’s work is well worth a few minutes of anybody’s time.
In this weekend’s Saturday Edition, I wanted to briefly focus on some of Meeker’s predictions, and offer my own assessment of them through the lens of what we are seeing here at The MBS Group.
Quantifying the Scale of the Net:
Internet adoption: As of 2018, half of the world’s population will be on the internet
Mobile usage: Smartphone shipments are flat, internet user growth is slowing. People are spending more time online thanks to mobile
Daily usage: Revenue gains for services like Facebook are tightly coupled with daily user growth
Mobile ads: People are shifting their time to mobile faster than ad dollars are following
If the sheer mass of the internet – with 3.8 billion people estimated to have access to the web – isn’t mind-boggling enough, the fact that it still has the capacity to double in size undeniably is. With the mass adoption of technology, the ever-reducing price and ever-increasing pace of innovation, billions of new internet users will join the web in the coming years.
This unstoppable wave of internet adoption offers both opportunities and existential threats to consumer brands.
The opportunities are evident. More users means more potential customers. Not only that, with the incredible amount of data digital shoppers offer up, from customer location to spending patterns, personal data to preferred items, savvy ecommerce companies can now deliver a level of bespoke yet scaled personalisation that was previously unthinkable. And in a world where the once-crucial metric of brand loyalty has been replaced with unlimited choice, at the touch of a button, a developed understanding of the customer through data technology will be the difference between success and failure.
It’s no wonder we’re working on more and more Chief Data Officer mandates, as companies begin to understand the potential value in the masses of data they hold.
Increased mobile usage also offers the prize of prime marketing real estate. Now that businesses can target every penny of their advertising spend at their core audience, when, where and how they’re likely to want to engage, it becomes harder and harder to envisage a future of expensive, unmeasurable glossy magazine, TV and billboard spots.
Failure to drive a business through data-driven customer centricity, user experience, innovation and, fundamentally, a “mobile-first” approach will inevitably end badly. The growth of the web means a growth in choice, and with the competition a click away, something as simple as a poor shopping experience can cost a brand a lifetime of loyalty and purchases.
Bricks vs Clicks: Shops and Shoppers
Ecommerce vs Brick & Mortar: Ecommerce growth has quickened: 13% of all retail purchases now happen online
China: Alibaba is expanding beyond China with strong gross merchandise volume
Amazon: More people start product searches on Amazon than search engines
Subscription services: Enjoying massive adoption, often with free tiers that accelerate conversion rates
Ecommerce now represents 13% of all retail purchases in the US – with UK numbers at a similar rate. For context, in 2010, the total value of ecommerce sales in the US amounted to around $18bn. Today, eight years on, that figure is close to $45bn.
Retail has been fundamentally disrupted. Millennial shoppers rarely even contemplate hitting the high-street. Their mobile device offers range, instant selection and suggested accompanying items, providing an algorithmically-calculated personal shopping experience that can’t be matched in-store.
Amazon continues to broaden its offering and services. With Amazon Fresh taking on traditional grocery businesses and Amazon Wardrobe arriving imminently, customer expectation will continue to rise. Those who fail to keep up will be left behind.
Meeker’s observation that more customers now begin their product searches on Amazon’s platform than on search engines – for which we can read Google – is a watershed moment for both companies, and one that graphically demonstrates the sheer power of Jeff Bezos’s empire.
In my own experience, every senior executive I speak to says broadly the same thing: “Amazon is our biggest competitor. If they’re not in our sector now, we now just assume they eventually will be.”
But whilst the world’s businesses look over their shoulders at Amazon, 2018 is the year Amazon may be looking over their own towards China, and the emergence of Alibaba. China’s ecommerce trajectory is explosive, with a 28% year on year increase and almost exponential growth in mobile payments volume that has seen a stratospheric rise from zero in 2012 to $16t in 2017.
Amazon have also scaled Amazon Prime at record pace, placing them at the forefront at yet another emerging technology trend highlighted in Meeker’s report: subscription services. Staggeringly, Prime grew from 0 to 100m subscribers in under a year. To put that into context, Netflix, the global subscription service leader, grew 25% in 2017, to 118m members, having launched its streaming function 10 years ago.
Talent: The leaders and workforce of tomorrow
Freelancing: Employees crave – and increasingly expect – scheduling and work-from-home flexibility
Immigration: Really matters. 56% of top U.S. companies were founded by a first- or second-generation immigrant
The guaranteed, high-quality connectivity and functionality that come with the Internet Age offer evolution to employees as much as employers.
The immense power of applications like Whatsapp, Facetime and Google Hangouts cannot be underestimated. Access to free, live and constant face-to-face communications with colleagues anywhere in the world allows employers to hire the best talent, wherever it is, and realise their maximum potential.
With that comes a new level of expectation from employees. Flexible and off-location employment requests, even at the most senior levels, are far more common in contract negotiations today, as employees seek more flexible lives, with many building their work around strategically-selected consulting and freelance jobs.
The options digital connectivity now offer staff with external commitments are genuinely transformative, and I’m heartened to see a large number of our clients going over and above to secure their perfect candidate through creative digital solutions.
Finally, Mary Meeker poignantly illustrates the immense impact immigrant populations to the US have made within the technology world. In a poignant slide, she shows that 56% of top American tech companies were founded by first and second-generation immigrants.
It’s a powerful demonstration of the impact political decisions stand to have on the progress of the planet. Companies are grappling with how best to navigate the choppy political waters that lie ahead, be they Brexit, visa legislation or aggressive immigration legislation under the current American administration.
Many employers are starting to get their heads around the idea that, in order to keep the best talent working on their largest challenges, remote working and digital contribution may well be the best way to guarantee their continued success.
Meeker’s report is a snapshot of our world today. Technology has fundamentally transformed every aspect of our lives, at a pace nobody could have predicted. The only prediction we can safely make is that the pace of disruption will only continue to accelerate.
With the scale of digital fluency society has now achieved, coupled with a level of connectivity that already incorporates half of the global population, the companies who will survive and thrive will be those who acknowledge that technology has changed everything, and have the courage to energetically embrace that change.


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Pre-reg bargains drive down used city car prices
Used values tumble due to glut of pre-registered small cars. Prices have fallen 10 per cent in two years
Prices of second-hand city cars have fallen by more than 10 per cent in the past two years, following a massive increase in the number of nearly-new pre-registered models available.
The amount of two-and-a-half to three-year-old city cars on the used market rose by 80 per cent in 2016, following a 34 per cent rise the year before, according to residual value specialist Glass’s.
It has led to an average drop in value across the sector of five per cent in 2015 and an eight per cent fall last year, meaning buyers can now pick up a bargain as dealers look to shift stock.
Rupert Pontin, director of valuations at Glass’s, said: “There’s pressure on that area of the market, and cheap retail cars are around in volume, because makers force the dealers to pre-register them.”
City cars are targeted due to their lower cost compared with larger models and the fact it’s easier to shift smaller, cheaper cars, too. Pontin added: “£50,000 will buy five of those, but it might buy one BMW 5 Series. Equally, once you’ve priced up with a sensible, monthly personal contract purchase (PCP) figure, it’s going to sell much quicker in the used market.”
It’s the first sign of second-hand car prices dropping after strong performances in recent months. The Glass’s chief said the combination of pre-registering, plus the return of thousands of cars bought on PCPs during recent years of record sales, will push prices down even further.
“The drop in prices is based around the volume of vehicles coming back into the market,” Pontin added, “but also the fact that pre-registered cars have to show a price advantage over a brand new car, so there’s quite a bit of pressure to take prices downwards.”
What's the best deal you've ever got on a new car? Let us know in the comments...


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Two-thirds of Americans ages 16 to 34 intend to search for temporary work this holiday season, but restaurants won’t be the first places they look, according to a new study.
The report found that seasonal applicants of all ages would prefer to be hired by a retail store rather than a foodservice establishment, 25% versus 16%.
Restaurateurs have long maintained that they’re at a disadvantage in hiring temporary workers from Thanksgiving through New Year’s Day because department stores and other retailers typically offer staff discounts on merchandise. The perk can significantly reduce what they spend on Christmas and Chanukah presents.
But the new study, conducted for temp agency Bluecrew, found that compensation and perks were low on the list of reasons to accept one seasonal job over another. Rather, scheduling flexibility and the number of hours available were much stronger recruitment lures, according to the data.
Although pay may not be a key determinant of whether to accept a short-term job, about a third (32%) of the job hunters who were surveyed said they expect to make at least $13.26 an hour.
They were less optimistic about the hours they were likely to land. More than half (55%) of the job seekers said they’d like to work 26 or more hours per week, but a larger majority (66%) indicated they expect to be tapped for 25 hours or less. Fifty-five percent said they plan to work two seasonal jobs.
About two-thirds (63%) of the respondents said they expect finding a job this holiday season to be easy, but the data shows that would-be employers may be too late if they’ve yet to ramp up their hiring. Sixty-three percent of respondents said they started their search for seasonal employment before October, though 1 in 5 (21%) are beginning their hunt this month.
The data indicates that the job seekers are most likely to learn of an opening via online job boards (used by 30% of respondents), followed by social media (23%) and mobile apps (16%).
The research was based on surveys conducted for Bluecrew by Toluna QuickSurveys between Aug. 27 and Sept. 3.
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The electronic display industry is filled with female pioneers and professionals who have made outstanding contributions to technology. This year, more than ever, is an ideal time to hear this diverse panel of movers and shakers provide their unique perspectives about what makes the industry tick, how they’ve gotten to where they are, and what more the tech world needs to do to continue enabling women from all walks of life to rise to their potential.
Over the past decade, Robinne has been at the forefront of technology and emerging media, having worked with brands spanning digital, interactive, mobile and social experiences. She led product development and strategy at Amazon/IMDb, and myspace during its peak and Match.com/Tinder. Through her company, Redflight Innovation – an interactive development company located in Los Angeles and Johannesburg – she has built digital products for NBC’s The Voice, Comedy Central and Steven Spielberg’s The VR Company, among others. Robinne was also an on-air correspondent at the Presidential Inauguration of Barack Obama, covering the logistical technology used during the ceremonies. Standard and Poor’s identified her as part of the “Society of Industry Leaders” and Hollywood Reporter named her as part of “The Next Generation of Industry Execs.” She is the first African-American woman to be nominated for an Emmy in VR. More info about Redflight Mobile is here: http://redflightmobile.com


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stinkymountain writes: At a launch event for MIT's new wireless technology research center, PhD student Swarun Kumar presented technology for a new autonomous vehicle that recognizes when it may be in danger of striking other cars and pedestrians. Link to Original Source
Real programmers don't bring brown-bag lunches. If the vending machine
doesn't sell it, they don't eat it. Vending machines don't sell quiche.


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The Long Haul to Capitalizing on Web Trends
Web companies often upend industries. But they can labor for years to fully make money on their revolutions.
Take Google Inc. When the Internet titan came onto the scene in the 1990s, the company first focused on building technologies for searching the Web before considering its advertising prospects, recalls Rishad Tobaccowala, chief strategy and innovation officer at Vivaki, the digital advertising company owned by Publicis Groupe SA.
It wasn’t until a competitor, GoTo.com, created a pay-for-placement search product in 1998 that Google got serious, he says. The way that service worked, a company would make a bid to appear at the top of a search results page then pay if a consumer clicked. Google launched a similar advertising product in 2000. The key difference was that the system took into account the relevance of the ad to decide its placement on the search engine results page, not just the amount that the advertiser paid.


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One in four Brits still use a photo album
June 17, 2013
In the UK, more than 300 million images are shared online each month.
Most Brits (53%) share their photos on Facebook, while 11% upload them to Twitter, 7% to Instagram and 6% to Flickr.
Facebook was used by 70% of 18-24-year-olds.
‘The rise of shooting and sharing in the UK is showing no signs of slowing down,’ said a spokesman for Samsung which conducted the poll of 3,000 people, 500 of whom live in the UK.
Though one in 10 UK respondents said they shoot and share online in less than 60 seconds, this compares to one in four in Spain and one in five in Italy.


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Google executives weren't particularly gloomy on Thursday's earnings call. The company didn't provide any financial projections, but sales chief Nikesh Arora shared his sunny assessment of how display ads in YouTube could be huge contributors to growth.
Google sales chief Nikesh Arora
Video ads are "going to be another big leg for the whole industry, not just for us," Arora said on the call.
The prediction clicked with ThinkEquity analyst William Morrison, who sees a big shift in ad spending headed toward video.
"Our research suggests we may be nearing a tipping point with some brand marketers [who are] beginning to move large portions of their television budgets to the online channel," Morrison wrote in a research report on Friday.
When it came to other areas like mobile search ads, Google tried to smooth over ripples caused by the splashy introduction of its
Nexus One Android
smartphone. CEO Eric Schmidt said there were no problems to report when it came to competing directly with device partners. "For the most part," said Schmidt, "our partners understand the message and are okay with it."
(AAPL - Get Report)
however, seems to disagree. After Google's Android smartphones -- positioned as bold competitors to the iPhone -- were announced, Apple reportedly started discussions with Microsoft to have its Bing search service replace Google on the iPhone.
Google shares fell 4% to $557.89 in early trading Friday.
-- Reported by Scott Moritz in New York.
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DETROIT — Striking workers at the General Motors factory with the most employees have approved a new contract with the company, all but assuring the deal will be ratified and a contentious 40-day strike will end soon.
Production workers at GM’s SUV plant in Arlington, Texas, voted 78% in favor, while skilled trades voted 60% for the contract. Arlington is the United Auto Workers union’s largest GM local, representing more than 5,000 people.
The voting percentages were posted Friday on the local’s website but no totals were given. Also, workers at an assembly plant in Wentzville, Missouri, near St. Louis, approved the deal Friday with 63.5% of production workers and 69.9% of skilled trades in favor.
About 49,000 workers walked off their jobs Sept. 16, halting production at more than 30 U.S. factories and hampering it in Mexico and Canada due to parts shortages. Analysts estimate the strike cost GM more than $2 billion.
The new four-year contract includes a mix of wage increases and annual lump-sum payments, as well as an $11,000 signing bonus. But it also allows GM to close three U.S. factories that made slow-selling cars and transmissions.
Some production workers could return to work as early as Friday night or Saturday morning, ending a walkout that was big enough to help push down September U.S. durable goods orders by 1.1%, the largest drop in four months.
Although GM dealers had stocked up on vehicles before the strike and many still have decent supplies, analysts say GM won’t be able to make up for the lost production. Had the strike been shorter, GM could have increased assembly line speeds and worked the plants on overtime to catch up and refill its stock. But many of the plants that make popular SUVs and pickup trucks already were working around the clock to keep up with demand before the strike began.
Also, companies that supply parts to the factories and halted production during the strike will need time to restart, although GM has some parts in stock.
Jeff Schuster, senior vice president of the consulting firm LMC Automotive, estimates that GM has lost production of 300,000 vehicles, and he said maybe only a quarter of it can be made up.
“You can’t add days to the week and you can’t add hours to the day,” he said.


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Aprilia Quits Motorcycle GP
According to news published in the Italian press this past weekend, Aprilia has pulled the plug on its Motorcycle GP participation for the 2005 racing season. Bad news not only for fans of the Italian brand but also for riders Shane Byrne and Jeremy McWilliams. Word from Piaggio, who just recently purchased Aprilia, is according to CEO Rocco Sabelli the withdrawal from the MotoGP World Championship stating: "To stay in MotoGP could cost a lot of money and damage our firm."
Sabelli although confirmed the companies further involvement in the smaller displacement classes "Aprilia haven't any doubt about maintaining our involvement in the 125 and 250 GP classes."
UK riders Shane Byrne and Jeremy McWilliams are by this announcement instantly left without a gig for next season. McWilliams is said to still have two offers on the table, one with his former Proton Team KR with whom he recently tested the new KTM V4 powered prototype motorcycle in Jerez. The second offer supposedly comes from British Superbike Team MonsterMob, who concluded their relationship with Ducati at the Macau Motorcycle GP and will be riding Honda next season.
Aprilia's race horse, the RS3 Cube made 48 starts with the triple cylinder designed by Cosworth over the past 3 years, with the best result being the sixth place by American Colin Edwards at Motegi in the 2003 Japan Grand Prix.
As another option regarding Aprilia's racing involvement, Italian sources also named the World Superbike Championship series. Official word on all the above although still has to be heard. Neither Aprilia, nor the brands new owner Piaggio have yet released an official statement on the reports.


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Last year’s flooding throughout the Midwest pushed prices of some pumpkins 60% higher around the U.S. This year, widespread drought is causing prices to edge up once more because of several regional shortages. But this time, most farmers are expecting one of the healthiest pumpkin crops in years — and they’ve actually got the drought to thank.
The Drought of 2012 has extended its arid tentacles into so much of what we’ve bought this year: Prices for U.S. beef, milk and groceries in general have all been higher. Problems shipping commodities along the Mississippi River and the Great Lakes may still force prices up on everything from cereal to automobiles.
But the drought appears to have substantially helped pumpkin farmers. While there will likely be fewer pumpkins this year than last – some regions are reporting drought-related shortages – the pumpkins that farms are producing are big, healthy and likely to be a hit with consumers. And they’re being found from Iowa all the way to Florida.
“We’ve got beautiful, beautiful pumpkins coming in,” Al Mueller of Uncle Al’s Season Retail, Inc., told NBC2 in Fort Myers, Fla.
In the Midwest, while production is hurting in some areas, many farms are bursting with pumpkins. One official with the Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship told the Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier that while some farmers didn’t get much of a pumpkin crop at all, others – often irrigated throughout the summer – are producing large numbers.
Those Iowa farms seem to be an accurate cross section of what’s going on around the country. The farmers who got hit with too little rain have a poor crop. But those that got just the right amount and irrigated properly are producing thousands.
Still, that variability has caused pumpkin prices to increase. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, prices are slightly higher than they were last year. The average retail price for pumpkins is around $4.80. Last year, the price was closer to $4.60.
The heart of pumpkin production is northern Illinois, a state that has been hard hit by drought like the rest of the Midwest. But it turns out that pumpkins don’t need as much rain as other crops like corn or soybeans. They often do better in warmer climates, which helps them fight off certain diseases that thrive in wetter areas. Pumpkins also have extensive root systems that can find water deep in the soil that other crops often can’t get to.
One farmer told the Associated Press that pumpkins are “a bright spot in production this year” in a season during which farmers were hit hard for three straight years – a 2010 and 2011 full of water, and a 2012 without enough.
Thanks to last year’s flooding, pumpkin prices got frightening in a number of areas. In New York state, they were 60% higher than 2010, according to The Wall Street Journal. But while some are predicting price increases of anywhere from 10% to 60% again, those higher estimates seem a bit much this time around for a crop that is healthy in a number of areas.
And for those thinking that a minor pumpkin shortage is in any way tied to shortage of Starbucks’ popular Pumpkin Spice Latte, it’s not. Demand for the popular seasonal drink caused the coffee chain to temporarily run out of the pumpkin sauce used in the drink. But it was largely due to infrequent deliveries.


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European markets have finished a positive month on the back foot after the latest flash CPI numbers for February from France and Spain surprised to the upside, pushing up yields, and prompting traders to price a peak ECB rate of 4% for the first time.
UK grocery price inflation also rose to a new record high, rising 17.1% in February according to Kantar Worldpanel, raising the prospect that the Bank of England may have to keep hiking rates in the coming months, if only to keep a floor under the pound.
It’s been a disappointing day for Ocado after the company posted full-year results which showed that group revenues came in flat at just over £2.5bn, while revenue in its core retail business declined 3.8%, falling to £2.2bn. Losses also widened to £500.8m from £176.9m last year, with the retail business contributing to the bulk of the miss, sliding to an EBITDA loss of £4m compared to a £150.4m profit a year ago.
The company blamed higher costs, as well as smaller basket sizes in its JV with M&S, along with the addition of new investment in the expansion of the solutions business.
Intertek shares have also fallen back after a disappointing reaction to a solid set of revenue and profits numbers. If anything, uncertainty over guidance could be weighing on the shares. Full-year revenues were solid coming in line with expectations, at £3.19bn, while pre-tax profits rose to £488.2m.
It’s been a similar story for Croda, the shares slipping back after posting a similarly solid set of full-year numbers. Full-year sales rose to £2.09bn, while profits were boosted by a £356m disposal, which pushed them to £780m, a rise of 89.6%.
The proceeds of this have been reinvested into the business with the acquisition of Solus Biotech for £232m.
AO World on the other hand has seen some solid gains after upgrading its full-year guidance for adjusted earnings to be in a range of between £37.5m and £45m, a decent upgrade from the £35m mid-point upgrade seen in January. Management cited cost reductions as well as margin improvements.
Abrdn shares pushed higher as they announced their full-year results, as well as laying out plans to sell its discretionary fund management arm Abrdn Capital to LGT for £140m in a move that is set to complete in the second half of the new fiscal year, and which controls £6.1bn in assets.
On the wider business, the story was a little weaker with the business posting a 2022 pre-tax loss of £615m, on revenues of £1.45bn, a decline of 4% from last year. Assets under management fell to £500bn a record low.
Sector peer St. James Place also appears to be doing well, reporting better than expected adjusted pre-tax profits of £514.8m, an increase of 34%.
US markets slipped lower on the open as upward pressure on yields served to cap the upside.
On the economic data front consumer confidence for February fell back to 102.90, while the latest Chicago PMI also came in weaker at 43.6.
Zoom Video has opened higher after reporting Q4 sales of $1.12bn, pushing annual revenues to $4.39bn, and Q4 profits of $1.22c a share. The company also said it has seen an increase in enterprise customers over the last 12 months, helped by a 27% gain in those who spent more than $100k on a 12-month basis.
The company says it expects to see Q1 revenue at between $1.08bn and $1.085bn, which was slightly disappointing, however, profits are expected to come in between $0.96c and $0.98c a share. Full-year revenue is expected to rise to between $4.44bn and $4.46bn.
When Target reported in Q3 it cut its guidance for Q4 projecting a modest single digit decline in sales and expecting operating margin of around 3%. Today’s Q4 numbers saw sales increase by 1.2% to $30.98bn pushing annual sales up by 2.8% to $107.59bn. Q4 profits fell by 41% to $1.89c a share, or $876m, but were still better than forecast Annual profits came in at $2.78bn or 5.98c a share, a decline of 57.6%. Higher costs has been the main problem for Target as a business, these rose by 9.7% to $82.2bn over the year, and this appears to be a trend that looks set to continue.
Target’s Q1 guidance was for sales to come in a wider range either side of zero, from a low single digit decline to a low single digit increase, with profits expected to come in between $1.50c to $1.90c. For the full year Target is expecting a similar sales performance as Q1.
Tesla shares are on the up again today, as optimism over demand continues to drive the shares higher. Today’s news that they are looking to build a new factory in Monterrey in Mexico.
AMC Entertainment is expected to release its Q4 numbers after the bell, along with Rivian and HP
The pound has continued to push higher after a strong performance yesterday, further squeezing various short positions, as optimism over the outlook for the UK economy increases.
Higher flash annual inflation readings from France, which hit a new record high of 7.2%, and Spain for February is also helping to support the euro with markets now pricing in the prospect of an ECB terminal rate of 4%. With inflation numbers from Germany due out tomorrow and expected to remain above 9%, we’ve seen German 2-year yields rise to their highest levels since 2008, above 3%.
In February alone we’ve seen these German yields rise by over 50bps in expectation of further aggressive rate hikes from the ECB, even as the German economy teeters on the brink of a technical recession.
The Japanese yen has been the worst performer, as it continues to slide back across the board as it looks to test the 200-day SMA at 136.70.
Gold prices have continued to slide back, pressured by higher yields and rising expectations that central banks will be forced to go further when it comes to raising rates, as it looks to slip back towards the 200-day SMA at $1,780.
Crude oil prices continue to ebb and flow between hopes of a pickup in Chinese demand and concerns that central banks are likely to have to overtighten in order to tamp down increasing inflationary pressures.
Wheat prices fell again during Monday’s session with the soft commodity trading down to 17-month lows as a result. Despite last year’s concerns that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine would lead to massive market disruption, the maintaining of an export route across the Black Sea has been helping here and talks are already underway to extend this beyond next month’s expiry. One day volatility on US Wheat printed 38.15% against 31.13% for the month.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index was active, testing fresh lows for the year on Monday. Traders are reportedly waiting for policy signals from CCP meetings in Beijing which get underway on Sunday, although there is concern as to just how aggressive this support will be. One day vol on the Hong Kong 50 printed 28.92% against 26% for the month.
It wasn’t all negative news from China however with Li Auto comprehensively beating expectations and this resulted in a turbulent start for the ADR on Monday. Prices did however revert to the lows seen late last week, but one day volatility on the stock came in at 116.38% against 84.23% for the month.
And heavy selling for Australia-listed Fortescue Metals pushed price action for the stock, too. Whilst there’s broad-based weakness being seen in the sector, the stock also traded ex-dividend and that appears to be taking a toll. One day vol sat at 82.04% against 52.21% for the month.
Disclaimer: CMC Markets is an execution-only service provider. The material (whether or not it states any opinions) is for general information purposes only, and does not take into account your personal circumstances or objectives. Nothing in this material is (or should be considered to be) financial, investment or other advice on which reliance should be placed. No opinion given in the material constitutes a recommendation by CMC Markets or the author that any particular investment, security, transaction or investment strategy is suitable for any specific person. The material has not been prepared in accordance with legal requirements designed to promote the independence of investment research. Although we are not specifically prevented from dealing before providing this material, we do not seek to take advantage of the material prior to its dissemination.


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Fluxergy’s Irvine campus will encompass over 65,000 sq. ft, as the company seeks to quickly build capacity for producing a high-speed point of care diagnostic testing system to assist in the COVID-19 pandemic response.
July 20, 2020, Irvine, CA — Fluxergy LLC, has entered into an agreement to establish a new and expanded research and manufacturing center near the Irvine Spectrum to support increased production of its medical diagnostic testing system, which is being developed for point-of-care applications. The new facility, located at 15 Musick, sits across from Fluxergy’s current offices in Irvine, CA, and will encompass more than 20,000 square feet of production space, increasing the company’s Irvine presence to over 65,000 sq. ft.
“I’m very excited about this significant expansion in our production capability,” said Ryan Revilla, Fluxergy Co-Founder and Vice President. “We expect our new facility will enable us to significantly scale our current automated production process, provide space for expanding our multimodal testing capabilities, and ultimately allow us to provide cost-effective, accessible testing to a much larger audience.” Fluxergy plans to leverage its expanded capability to partner with innovative companies across multiple industries that want to become early adopters of Fluxergy’s rapid multifunction testing platform. Fluxergy is encouraging interested companies to reach out to discuss how they might work together.
The new building in Irvine is a major investment in the growth of Fluxergy, and will support the company’s desire to continue to produce all of the primary facets of its innovative diagnostic testing system, including the Fluxergy Analyzer, Fluxergy Test Card, and the supporting reagents, entirely within the United States.
Currently, Fluxergy products are offered for Research Use Only. However, Revilla said that a significant portion of the new production capability will initially be devoted to manufacturing the company’s COVID-19 test, for which the Company has filed a request for Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The company’s COVID-19 test has been shown in initial studies to identify the SARS-CoV-2 virus, which causes COVID-19, in under one hour. If the EUA is granted, medical sites with CLIA-certified high complexity laboratories would be permitted to use the Fluxergy system as a COVID-19 diagnostic tool in accordance with the FDA’s authorization.
Fluxergy announced in May that it received $30 million in capital from its principal investor John Tu, a co-founder of Kingston Technologies, to support the ramp-up of the company’s manufacturing capacity. When fully operational, the new manufacturing site is designed to produce up to one million COVID-19 test kits per month.
“Experts have estimated we will need more than 10 million COVID-19 tests per day as a nation to safely reopen,” said Dr. Ali Tinazli, Fluxergy’ Chief Commercial Officer. “Our goal is to deliver an innovative and high-speed testing solution that can eventually be delivered at the point-of-care, and can help support the growing testing need as the nation continues to battle the COVID-19 pandemic.”
The Fluxergy Analyzer System: Fluxergy Card, Fluxergy Analyzer, and user interface FluxergyWorks
Fluxergy launched in 2013 with funding support from principal investor and Kingston Technology co-founder John Tu. The Fluxergy system uses patented microfluidics and a highly integrated sensor system to produce a more flexible and cost-effective testing platform. The Fluxergy Diagnostic Testing System consists of The Fluxergy Card, a single-use “lab-on-chip” consumable test cartridge; the Fluxergy Analyzer, which conducts the testing process, and FluxergyWorks, software used to review and interpret the test data. The Fluxergy Cards are designed to be very cost-effective and scalable, using proprietary printed circuit board (PCB) manufacturing and microfluidics technologies. FluxergyWorks enables organizations to link together via the Cloud as many as 256 Fluxergy Analyzers for centralized data reporting.
Visit fluxergy.com for more information.
Business Contact: Dr. Ali Tinazli, Chief Commercial Officer, email@example.com
*Fluxergy’s products are for Research Use Only (RUO) and are not for use in diagnostic procedures. Fluxergy’s products are not yet cleared by the FDA or USDA for in vitro diagnostic use. None of these statements have been endorsed by the FDA or USDA. Fluxergy does not currently sell products for human or animal use. Although forward-looking statements contained in this document regarding Fluxergy’s objectives, plans, goals, strategies, future growth, business prospects and opportunities are based upon what Fluxergy management believes are reasonable assumptions, estimates, and other judgments, there can be no assurance that forward-looking statements will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements.


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The Commerce Department on Wednesday said the economic activity in the U.S. grew at an annualized rate of 1.9% in the third quarter, down slightly from the 2% print in the second quarter. Economists polled by Dow Jones had expected the economy to grow at a 1.6% rate.So continued declines in investment (business) spending and consumer spending slowing from 4.6% growth to 2.9% while government spending keeps growing is the mark of an economy in decent shape? Not so sure about that.
The better-than-expected print was the result of continued consumer spending as well as government expenditures, the government report said. Personal consumption expenditures, a gauge of spending by American households, rose at a 2.9% annualized rate while government spending grew at a 2% rate.
Growth in gross private domestic investment continued to decline in the three months ended September 30 with a read of -1.5%, but far better than the -6.3% contraction in the second quarter.
Especially when I look at one particular area of the economy dealing with goods. Because part of the consumption “growth” in real GDP in the industrial sector for Q3 is actually a sign of weakness – price deflation. And it’s worse on the business and trade sides.
Price index, Q3 2019
Consumption, goods -0.8%
Business spending, equipment -0.9%
Exports, goods -3.9%
Imports, goods -4.0%
This means that real (inflation-adjusted) GDP is higher than the actual growth in spending and trade for these industrial sectors.
So if these industrial businesses are getting lower prices and fewer sales, how are they going to avoid layoffs and/or stay in business? Especially when prices keep rising for consumer services (+2.6%) and residential construction (+3.3%)?
The other thing I want to point out about today’s GDP report is that it reiterates how 2019’s growth is sputtering back to the levels of 2015-2016 that Donald Trump claimed he was going to improve from. Let’s look at GDP growth that takes out the change in government spending (which has grown in the time of Trump), and the effect of inventories.
If you look at the chart of those figures, you’ll see that underlying growth isn’t any different now than when some blue-collars thought electing Trump would “Make America Great Again” by improving the economy. In fact, private sector GDP growth has been under 1.6% for 3 of the last 4 quarters.
You can also see that there is no real difference in growth for the last half of 2017 and the first half of 2018, despite the GOP Tax Scam being passed into law at the end of Q4 2017. And now growth has fallen back to trend after that one-time bump.
Even if you include added government spending and the inventory effect, the last 12 months have only netted 2.0% growth. That’s no different than what we had 3-4 years ago, when Trump took advantage of economic softening to convince some people that he could make things better than what they were experiencing in November 2016.
So what’s going to keep things going with fiscal stimulus ending in the US as deficits rise to $1 trillion, and job growth slowing down? The Fed can try to pump up the stock market and encourage more borrowing by printing money and lowering interest rates (including another 0.25% cut today), but is that going to translate over into the real economy? Doubtful, and there would be more risk of becoming a major recession if things go south.
I’m not buying the happy talk from the financial media, and the numbers in today’s GDP report should be seen as more evidence of a full-employment economy slowing as the US expansion starts its 11th year. The real question is whether that slowing becomes a full-fledged stall and decline for 2020, and my guess is that future jobs reports (including Friday’s release for October) will be a better answer of that question than what we will see from Wall Street.
EDIT- And here's Paul Krugman to remind us that US GDP may tell a much different story than you see in your part of the country.
The meh GDP numbers won't help Trump next year. But what should really scare him is his utter failure to boost manufacturing in swing states pic.twitter.com/x4RkrSnSjS— Paul Krugman (@paulkrugman) October 30, 2019


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Apple will start offering the iPad in India on Friday, but its focus will be on sales through retailers, rather than bundling the device with service plans from mobile operators.
Large numbers of Indians are acquiring new mobile connections, which rose to 23 million in November, up from 19 million in the previous month.
Vodafone has given the green light to Indian joint venture partner Essar Group to conduct an IPO (initial public offering) of Vodafone Essar if desired.
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Folding smartphones featuring flexible displays are getting a lot of attention at the moment. While the technology to produce foldable smartphones exists today will we see this type of device come to the mainstream in 2019?
We’ve seen a number of working examples. In November last year, Samsung showcased a prototype device at its developer conference in San Francisco featuring the company’s Infinity Flex folding display. The device is more like a proof-of-concept to show that a folding smartphone with a flexible display is doable.
In China, a company called
Excited to share this video of a special Xiaomi smartphone from our President and Co-founder Bin Lin. It is the world’s first ever double folding phone — that’s pretty cool, isn’t it? #xiaomi #foldingphone #technology pic.twitter.com/iBj0n3vIbW— Wang Xiang (@XiangW_) January 23, 2019
Now, we have a video from Xiaomi, it shows Xiaomi’s president and co-founder Bin Lin using what looks like the world’s first dual-folding smartphone. Where the other examples of folding phones I’ve seen look agricultural, the Xiaomi folding phone in the video
I’m excited but I’m not convinced that this is actually a working device.
At first glance, the video may look convincing but I’m not sure. If you watch the video at the 4-second mark where Bin Lin starts to rotate the phone, there’s something not quite right with how the display looks. And then as you move along to the 5-second mark where he starts to fold the device, the video immediately cuts to a different angle as if to hide what could be tell-tale signs that the device is not the real deal.
At the same point, you can also see a seam line where the device folds and light from the background appears to cut through it.
Move to the 8-second mark in the video and something even more weird happens, the screen looks like it is rotating twice. It’s hard to describe, you have to watch the video to get what I’m saying. To me, it looks like bad CG but others at the office say that it could be a buggy OS. Take a look and let me know what you think.
Beyond that, I have a few other questions: What OS is the phone running? How does Xiaomi solve the battery problem? Where are the cameras? Even if this is a real working device, would users be ok to not have cameras at all?
Beyond the video, no other information was shared. I think the video is part practical effect (the physical phone) and part CG (the on-screen part) but who knows, I could be wrong. What do you think?


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How time flies
AMD has been keeping itself busy these days. In addition to its Mantle API, the company is working on a line of Radeon-branded SSDs and there are rumors that it will cut the pricing on its FX processors in September. Despite all of this, AMD will be celebrating 30 years of graphics and gaming this Saturday, August 23, with a live broadcast.
The live stream will start at 7:00 AM PST/10:00 AM EST with AMD chief gaming scientist Richard Huddy as the master of ceremonies. Huddy was a guest on the No BS Podcast #226 for an in-depth interview that we recommend you listen to.
The event will be broadcasted live from the company’s Lone Star Campus in Austin, Texas where game developers will be asked about their latest projects. Unfortunately, AMD did not reveal what developers would be interviewed. It will also provide stories that cover the history of the company and, supposedly, there will be some new product announcements.
Will you be watching the broadcast tomorrow and what do you hope to see?


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The United Arab Emirates will be home to the world’s tallest indoor climbing wall, as well as the biggest indoor skydiving flight chamber, in accordance to their usual outstanding masterpieces of architecture.
They are part of the indoor adventure venue, Clymb Abu Dhabi, which is set to open at Yas Island on 29 November. The geometrically-designed building will break two world records. The flight chamber is the widest in the world at 10m wide and 25m high, and it will cater for visitors as young as three years of age right up to expert level.
Clymb is also home to the world’s tallest indoor climbing wall, The Summyt, at 43m high. It will offer climbing experiences to its guests of all competency levels. Beginners can enjoy various wall options to suit their preference and climbing level, while more advanced climbers can push their limits at The Summyt. The building will also house retail outlets, private event space and dining options.
The new indoor adventure facility joins the likes of Ferrari World Abu Dhabi, Yas Waterworld and Warner Bros. World Abu Dhabi on the man-made island, which is home to some of the UAE's most exciting attractions, racing events, concerts and luxury hotels. “We can’t wait to reveal this exciting project," says general manager, John Rogers. "Clymb Abu Dhabi offers an unforgettable adventurous experience for residents as well as visitors to the capital from all over the world.”
Ticket and timing information
Clymb will be open from noon to 9pm on Sunday through Thursday and noon to 11pm on Friday and Saturday.
Ticket pricing has also been announced. Indoor skydiving tickets start from Dh215 for beginners, inclusive of pre-flight training, flight gear rental, one-on-one flight instruction and two flights. Pro-flyers who have prior experience can book with rates starting at Dh700.
Tickets for indoor wall climbing start from Dh95 for beginners and is inclusive of 90-minute access to indoor climbing walls and instructor supervision. Those who are more experienced can buy a ticket starting from Dh100 that includes a mandatory level check by an instructor (either level 2, 3 or 4) and safety briefing. Both tickets are inclusive of climbing gear rental including helmet, harness and climbing shoes.
For more information on Clymb , you can visit the attraction’s website here.
Sources: lonelyplanet.com, the national.ae


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NH Market Basket workers: Why mess with success?By JASON SCHREIBER
Union Leader Correspondent
July 15. 2013 9:18PM
STRATHAM — Dean Clevesy is doing all he can to gather signatures for a petition in support of Market Basket CEO Arthur T. Demoulas.
A 34-year employee of the supermarket chain known for its "More For Your Dollar" slogan, Clevesy and others fear Demoulas could be ousted this week by the company's board of directors.
A leadership change could bring other changes that some employees say aren't necessary
Acting as a private citizen, Clevesy, assistant store manager of the Stratham Market Basket, has contacted more than 100 people to drum up support for keeping Arthur T. Demoulas at the helm.
He's not alone.
"Why mess with success?" said Stratham Market Basket store manager Mark Owens, who has worked for the company for 32 years — 25 as a manager.
"We're doing a phenomenal job. We're opening four to five stores per year, and there's no debt in this company," Owens said.
Owens said the company has been able to pay for the new stores using company profits instead of taking out bank loans.
Demoulas often talks about "valued consumers" and "valued employees."
"This guy is returning money to consumers every day in lower prices, and employees are rewarded through their pay and pension plans. That could all change overnight," Owens said.
Clevesy said Market Basket "does things the right way," and he hopes Arthur T. Demoulas remains in his leadership role.
Grocery associate Alex Booth was among the Stratham Market Basket employees who volunteered time over the weekend to collect signatures for the petition.
"We've got a good business model, and it doesn't make sense to change it," he said.


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Every year, Apple hosts a couple of important events one of which is Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC). The event is especially for developers and the company unveils its upcoming updates on various platforms including iOS, watchOS, macOS and tvOS. At the WWDC 2019, the company is most likely to showcase the iOS 13, watchOS 6, macOS 10.15 and tvOS 13.
According to a recent report by MacRumors, the WWDC 2019 will take place at McEnery Convention Center in San Jose, California. The report further suggests that the event will be hosted on the evening of June 6 and June 7. As San Jose requires special permissions for such events, the report comes from 2019 events calendar from San Jose’s Office of Cultural Affairs. However, the calendar has now been modified to remove words like WWDC and Apple.
Further, the report claims that around 7000 people have been consistent in attending Apple’s yearly Worldwide Developers Conference. The 7000 people include around 5000 developers, 250 WWDC Scholars, hundreds of journalists and Apple employees. The event tickets are usually sold for around USD 1,599 and the price is expected to be more or less the same this year.
Apart from WWDC, Apple is expected to host another big event, which will be hosted on March 25. At the upcoming event, the company is most likely to launch its own video streaming service and will provide developers with some initiatives in order to speed up the whole process. Rumours suggest that Apple might also launch a few hardware products including AirPods 2 and AirPower.


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AGENDA: Pre-registration and lodging specials for Vegas show, Aug. 17-19.
SIA: Cooling down NYC with annual Summer Snowdown media event.
Details on Industry Insight.
September sales turned out better than expected for important industry customer Zumiez, the company reported this afternoon. As a result, the company raised its earnings guidance for the third quarter.
Zumiez said same store sales in September rose 10.1%. In September 2010, same store sales increased 17%.
This year during the key back-to-school months of August and September combined, Zumiez’s same store sales increased 6.8%.
Comp sales by week in September were:
3. + 8.9%
The dollars per transactions rose, while the number of transactions decreased.
Strong categories: Men’s, Footwear, Junior’s, Accessories, Boys
Weak category: hardgoods
Year-to-date same store sales: + 8.8%
Total stores: 436
Because of stronger than expected sales, Zumiez now expects third quarter sales of $150 million to $152 million and net income per diluted share of 40 cents to 41 cents, up from the previous guidance of 37 cents to 39 cents.


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Designer Consignors, which has held women's consignment sales in Wake County for the last few years, is branching out into the western Triangle.
The sale's owners, Alice White and Candace Anderson, will be holding an event in Chapel Hill next month. It's 10 a.m. to 7 p.m., June 11 to June 13, at University Mall in Chapel Hill (home to A Southern Season, Kidzu Children's Museum, Glee children's boutique, Red Hen children's consignment shop and more).
The sale will feature clothing, handbags, shoes, accessories and home decor - all from local women who are cleaning out their closets and homes. In fact, some of those women could be going home with some big money after the sale. The top three consignors from the 2015 spring sale in Cary made $3050.95, $1503.60, and $795.90, according to the sale.
It's also a great opportunity to add some new pieces to your own wardrobe. Shoppers can find brand names and labels from Michael Kors, Tory Burch, Kate Spade, Coach, Loft, Chico's, Banana Republic, among others, according to the sale.
This sale will host a presale fundraiser and food drive for Urban Ministries. Shoppers can shop before the public from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m., June 10, by paying a $10 entrance fee or bringing $10 worth of canned goods. All money and food collected with go directly to Urban Ministries.
Otherwise, it's free to shop at the sale from June 11 to June 13 though shoppers are encouraged to bring canned goods.


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