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Money made the world go round, but credit appears to have taken on this role after consumers have spent all their money. However, you can also run out of credit.
A study showed that debt levels among SA consumers are rising again, having declined slightly during the months when the government closed stores for weeks on end in 2020 in an effort to stop the spread of Covid-19.
The Genesis Analytics study, in collaboration with the Financial Sector Conduct Authority (FSCA), concludes that over-indebtedness remains a challenge in SA. It found that more than 50% of South Africa’s active credit consumers can be considered to have too much debt, which has led to bad credit records for 48% of all borrowers.
It’s hard to believe that nearly half of the 27 million adults who use credit find it difficult to keep up with debt repayments.
“Over-indebtedness is linked to national economic conditions and is exacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic. Slow economic growth and high unemployment, coupled with rising prices for food, gasoline and other basic necessities, have had a significant impact on South Africans’ credit needs and their ability to repay debt, “say the authors of the report, concluding that 95% of low-income people used debt to pay for basic needs such as food, clothing, transportation and other bills.
Genesis Analytics found that most credit-active consumers spend borrowed money to finance their needs. About 43% of the population surveyed borrowed money to buy food and 11% used debt to buy clothes.
As expected, this trend is dominant among low-income people (earning less than R1 500 per month), grant recipients (earning around R1 500 per month) and people with informal jobs (earning more than R1 500, but less than R3 000), “says the FSCA report.
“Borrowers in the high-income group acquire credit to finance the acquisition of assets such as motor vehicles or to build, purchase or renovate a home; while only 5% of low-income people could invest in the same way.
“The fact that credit is used to cover basic consumer spending or to deal with financial shocks is indicative of the high levels of over-indebtedness of the lower income segments and the low levels of financial resilience.”
It seems uncertain and any financial crisis serves to reinforce responsible behavior among consumers, but it only lasts a while and low-income families are always stressed. Household debt to disposable income declined after the 2008 financial crisis and reached a low in 2017, but started rising again between 2017 and 2020.
In 2008, debt on disposable income was 86%. Thereafter, it steadily increased to around 77% in 2020, but decreased slightly in 2021.
It is now rising again as consumers begin spending the reserves they may have accumulated during months of enforced austerity and their need to avert new hardships.
Banks against loan sharks
While the FSCA notes that SA’s credit market is highly developed, well regulated and that the formal banking sector provides credit to nearly half of the population, and other parts of the report point out that SA has enough capital available for investment to meet the capital requirements, many people rely on “informal” credit providers.
“The consumer credit market in South Africa is highly regulated, according to the World Bank, and complies with several good practices for consumer financial protection,” notes the FSCA.
It says the credit market is large, well developed and formally provides credit to over 27 million people, or 67% of the adult population. The number of people with active credit accounts peaked in 2020, as the heightened financial distress due to the Covid-19 pandemic prompted a growing number of consumers to acquire credit.
The number of active credit consumers went from 17.12 million in 2017 to a peak of 27.4 million in 2020.
There are 7,837 credit providers registered with the National Credit Regulator (NCR), ranging from banking institutions to non-bank lenders such as microfinance institutions, vehicle lenders, and retailers offering store credit.
An analysis of the value of consumer credit shows that credit extension increased by 4% annually between 2015 and 2020. In 2020, mortgages and secured credit accounted for 41% and 31% of the total value, respectively of the loan, while the unsecured credit accounted for 15% of the loan values.
“However, when measured by number of loan agreements, credit lines and short-term loans represent 55% and 21% of the market [respectively]”, The report states, indicating that consumers representing a large segment of the population take out small, short-term loans.
Therefore, people borrow out of desperation rather than to buy long-term assets.
Banks are the largest credit providers, by value. Banks provided over 80% of R2 trillion worth of consumer debt in 2020, but only 44% of the number of loan accounts.
Resellers account for the second largest share of loans, providing 38% of credit by number of accounts.
However, the report notes that more than half of all loan applications in the formal sector are turned down, “prompting more people to seek informal credit.”
Risky, but necessary?
The informal credit market remains endemic in SA and poses a significant challenge to the sustainable and responsible use of credit, warns the FSCA.
“Based on the amendments to the National Credit Act (NCA) in 2016, all credit agreements, regardless of amount, are considered illegal if the provider is not registered with the NCR,” says Genesis Analytics.
“Historically, South Africans have used informal means to acquire credit. For many decades, black South Africans have been unable to formally access credit. As a result, informal credit and loan patterns have emerged to satisfy a deep need.
“Unregistered lenders have long been in South Africa and are seen as socially integrated into low-income communities.”
In 2019, 28% of people surveyed formally acquired credit from a banking institution and only 2% from a microfinance institution, while 28% of people borrowed from friends and family. About 16% have borrowed from stokvel (community-based savings and credit groups) and usurers (known as mashonisas).
“While popular in low-income communities, the use of informal lenders exposes consumers to various risks, including high interest rates and dubious collection methods,” the FSCA says.
“Being located within communities, informal lenders can be visited after business hours and are easily accessible. Informal lenders offer a relatively easy-to-understand repayment formula, expressed as a total repayable amount rather than an interest rate. For example, borrow R1 000 and pay back R1 300 at the end of the month.
“Because both borrowers and lenders are integrated within the community, this brings elements of trust and reputation (of both borrowers and lenders) that may not be replicable by formal financial institutions,” says the FSCA.
“However, consumers have no legal or regulatory recourse when borrowing from informal lenders. Mashonisa typically have short payback periods, high interest rates (between 30% and 50% per month) and often questionable collection methods.
“There have been reports of borrowers’ identity documents (IDs) being retained, their bank card pins taken and direct collection of grant payments, as well as the threat of violence in the face of non-payment,” according to research.
In essence, this describes a vicious cycle of debt.
The high number of people facing over-indebtedness is worrying, the FSCA says, particularly because of the social risk that arises when consumers are debt-ridden forever, resulting in disproportionate social and personal harm.
“For the FSCA, finding solutions to consumer over-indebtedness is essential and an important intervention is education on relief measures. The FSCA, in partnership with the NCR and other regulatory bodies, has been proactive in educating consumers on debt relief measures put in place to relieve consumers of chronic over-indebtedness, “the report said.
By Adrian Kruger
This article first appeared on Moneyweb and has been republished with permission. Read the original article here.


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Youtube has gone beyond the 1080 HD videos which is still not very common on many consumer electronics devices today. Youtube has announced at the VidCon 2010 conference that they will now support a massive 4096×3072 pixel resolution of super HD videos and content on their website.
To achieve 4096p resolution, Youtube has increased pixel density by 600% while on the downside it has increased bitrate by only 25% on 1080p resolution to reduce the video file size. Because of the lower bitrate, the videos might not show true 4096p but will be definitely better than 1080p videos. Although, Youtube has said in future they will increase the bitrate which will automatically increase the file size and will need very fast broadband speeds.
Youtube’s previous supported a maximum of 1080p HD videos which was announced in December last year and in just little more than seven months they are supporting four times 1080p resolution which is really huge. According to Youtube blog, the ideal screen size of watching 4096p HD videos is 25 feet while IMAX movies are projected through two 2k resolution projectors.
Here is a snippet from Youtube Blog.
Because 4K represents the highest quality of video available, there are a few limitations that you should be aware of. First off, video cameras that shoot in 4K aren’t cheap, and projectors that show videos in 4K are typically the size of a small refrigerator. And, as we mentioned, watching these videos on YouTube will require super-fast broadband.
We’re excited about this latest step in the evolution of online video. We’ve been impressed by the 1080p videos you’ve uploaded over the last seven months and can’t wait to see (in 4K!) what you do next.
To view the video in more than 1080p resolution you just have to select “Original” in quality drop down menu. Below are the five videos from Youtube’s playlist which gives you a glimpse of how a 4096p resolution video looks like.
Note: Above screenshot is a compressed version of 4096p image.
Source: Youtube Blog

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A collection of news and information related to Jeff Bezos published by this site and its partners.
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NEW YORK (AP) — Wynn Resorts kept a suite open all year at its tony Las Vegas hotel and casino for founder and CEO Steve Wynn, at a cost of nearly $452,000. Former IBM CEO Samuel Palmisano was guaranteed an administrative assistant and furnished...
In a move to bump up physical book sales, Stephen King will not release an e-book version of his new novel, "Joyland," the Wall Street Journal reports. It’s something of a radical move for the man who stood onstage with Amazon’s Jeff Bezos...
The Hutchinson News, Kan.Crumpled-up chunks of metal rest in two large water-retention bins at the SpaceWorks division of the Kansas Cosmosphere and Space Center. The impact of each massive 18,000-pound engine falling more than 40 miles to the Atlantic Ocean crushed it like...
This is going to be interesting. Republican dogma unequivocally asserts that taxes stifle free enterprise. But here we have a situation where the imposition of a tax will benefit a segment of the retail universe that is a mainstay of traditional...
ReutersPor Alistair Barr y Ben Berkowitz SAN FRANCISCO/NUEVA YORK (Reuters) - Amazon.com Inc parece haber descifrado el secreto para ser mÃ¡s rentable: vender menos artÃculos fÃsicos. La compaÃ±Ãa reportÃ³ una desaceleraciÃ³n en el crecimiento de sus ventas...
Tags: Amazon Kindle
ReutersBy Alistair Barr and Ben Berkowitz SAN FRANCISCO/NEW YORK, April 26 (Reuters) - Amazon.com Inc appears to have figured out the secret to being more profitable: sell less physical stuff. The company reported slowing revenue growth and offered a...
Amazon.com reported a 22% increase in revenue in the first quarter but a hefty decline in profit. For the three months ended March 31, the e-commerce behemoth said profit fell 37% to $82 million, or 18 cents a share, from $130 million, or 28 cents, a...
Los Angeles Times Television CriticAmazon, the online bookseller turned online department store, turned e-book-reader manufacturer, turned publisher, turned video streaming service, turning movie-and-TV studio, has posted its first 14 "TV pilots" -- six kids' shows and eight grown-up...
Amazon has purchased the book-oriented social networking site Goodreads for an undisclosed sum. Speculation from Bloomberg Businessweek based on other social media properties (like Instagram and LinkedIn) puts the market price close to $1 billion. Other...
Millennial Media's stock has lost three-fourths of its value since the Canton company went public a year ago as an established force in the mobile advertising market. Ask CEO Paul Palmieri about that, and he'll repeat what he deems wise words from a...
The Securities and Exchange Commission may have booted Henry Blodget off Wall Street, but the former Merrill Lynch & Co. Internet analyst has attracted some big fans for Business Insider Inc., which he co-founded in 2007. A major endorsement for the...
Amazon.com Inc., which started as an online bookseller before becoming the e-commerce behemoth it is today, is buying book-recommendations site Goodreads. Amazon announced the deal Thursday. The purchase price was not disclosed. Goodreads, a San...
May 23, 2013 |Story| Petoskey News
May 20, 2013 |Story| Los Angeles Times
May 17, 2013 |Story| McClatchy-Tribune
May 7, 2013 |Story| South Florida Sun-Sentinel
Apr 26, 2013 |Story| Reuters
Apr 26, 2013 |Story| Reuters
Apr 25, 2013 |Story| Los Angeles Times
Apr 23, 2013 |Story| Los Angeles Times
Apr 14, 2013 |Story| Chicago Tribune
Apr 7, 2013 |Story| Baltimore Sun
Apr 5, 2013 |Story| Los Angeles Times
Mar 29, 2013 |Story| Los Angeles Times
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At the 36th annual ENCORE Award event on October 2, 2013, Stanford Graduate School of Business honored Tesla Motor CEO and Product Architect, Elon Musk. Chai...
A candid interview with Tesla CEO Elon Musk
Tesla CEO Elon Musk (2014)
Tesla CEO Elon Musk Fires Back At Angry Auto Dealers
Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla at ONS 2014
I4U News is feeding your Geek Mind. The Geek Mind is concerned with life, in all its different forms and facets.
The geek mind wants to know about societal and financial issues, both abroad and at home. If a Fortune 500 decides to raise their minimum wage, or any high priority news, the geek mind wants to know.
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Connect with gaming and metaverse leaders online at GamesBeat Summit: Into the Metaverse 3 this February 1-2. Register here.
Apple has shipped 7.5 million iPads since it launched in April, turning it into the largest player in the tablet computer market. The company grabbed that position in just six months thanks to its focus on a single device and surprising contributions from enterprise sales, Apple executives said on its quarterly conference call to discuss earnings.
Apple sold 4.19 million iPads in its most recent quarter, and 3.27 million iPads in the quarter before that. About two-thirds of the 100 largest companies in the world on the Fortune 100 list have begun deploying iPads for enterprise use, leading to a lot of growth in the corporate sector that has helped drive iPad sales, said Tim Cook, chief operating officer of Apple. Nearly 85 percent of those companies have also deployed the iPhone for enterprise use, he said.
“I’ve never seen an adoption rate on the enterprise side like this in my life. Enterprise is historically much slower moving on adoption,” he said. “We have built and are building additional capacity to call on businesses, and we’re putting a lot of energy into that — we aren’t treating this lightly or as a hobby.”
More than 10 percent of all mobile devices activated for enterprise purposes, outside of Research in Motion’s BlackBerry devices, were iPads, according to a recent report by Good Technology. The iPhone 4 accounted for about 30 percent of all enterprise devices activated as well, according to the same report.
Jobs also told analysts on the call that Apple has no plans to develop a 7-inch version of the iPad, because it would lead to the same kind of fragmentation that Android app developers are facing. Rumors had earlier surfaced that Apple would begin working on a 7-inch tablet with a lower price point than its current 10-inch offering.
“We don’t think about it that way, the reason we wouldn’t make a 7-inch tablet isn’t because we don’t want to hit a price point,” said Apple CEO Steve Jobs said. “It’s because we don’t think you can make a great tablet with a 7-inch screen.”
Apple has still struggled a bit to meet the ravenous demand for the device. It isn’t clear when the supply of iPads will finally meet the demand for Apple’s tablet, Cook said. Despite that, Apple is going to sell the device in Wal-mart and Verizon stores.
“I feel great to bring the supply and sales up from an 8 million number and expect it to reach 14 million,” Cook said. “Obviously working on that, but it will take some time to increase further.”
[Front page photo: Yutaka Tsutano]
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Apple has posted its latest iPhone 5s, called “Dreams,” to its YouTube channel. The new ad shows a number of iPhone owners using their devices in various professional and personal pursuits ranging from art, to medicine, to fighting fires. The ad is set to Jennifer O’Connor’s new single “When I Grow Up,” which was released on iTunes earlier this week.
The app highlights a specific set of apps, which Apple has detailed on the updated page “Powerful” on its website. The apps (and external hardware) include Vaavud Wind Meter, Response Deck, and iTranslate Voice. You can see the full ad below:


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In Focus: BP Pulse
28 June 2021
Author: Simon Harris
Electrification is a disruptive technology for fleets, according to BP Pulse, but it can be harnessed in a positive way.
The market for electric vehicles has accelerated in the past two years, spurred on by increased choice and capability of vehicles, as well as being steered by tax incentives.
With improved capability, the charging infrastructure needs to be up to the job, while ensuring users know how to make vehicles and charging network effective for their journeys.
There is clearly a future in battery EVs as the technology has persuaded oil companies to become stakeholders in the charging network - BP being one of them after acquiring Chargemaster in 2018, with the electromobility provider now called BP Pulse.
Mark Bonnor-Moris has spent more than a decade in the sector, originally with Siemens, and then at Chargemaster from 2016, and is now business development director for BP Pulse.
"I've been working with the electromobility sector since 2010," he says. "I've seen how it has grown from the earliest Plugged-in Places scheme to home and public charging on the go, and into fleet charging now, and we have really seen that accelerate during the last couple of years to people electrifying the fleet that delivers their business.
"This is now big, disruptive technology requiring big board level decisions for businesses to make about how they deliver their businesses to customers.
"We've been working closely with a number of big fleets over the last 12-18 months, helping them get their heads around this significant shift. It's a journey on both sides. It's more complicated than filling a car with petrol. It takes longer, and requires
"But there are more places you can charge a vehicle. For ICE vehicles, you have to go to a petrol station or a location where there is a tank [for bunkered fuel], but for an electric vehicle you can charge a vehicle where it's parked."
As well as making savings compared with refuelling ICE vehicles, as more low-emission zones are introduced with daily use costs, Bonnor-Moris says it could present some businesses with the situation of being unable to afford not to have them.
He says: "The combination of improved choice of vehicles with big policy changes, such as low emission zones in cities gaining impetus, [is] making the cost of not having them very clear, while BIK tax has been very helpful in the acceptance of technology for cars.
The transformation to the present level of infrastructure has been dramatic, with the power and range of many of today's electric cars requiring more energy in a shorter charge time.
Bonnor-Moris says: "There has been massive change from the early days of Plugged-in Places, when it was more about numbers and not so much about utilisation of those charge points.
"We kind of got away with that because there weren't so many vehicles. Now it's completely changed and it's about utilisation. It's very expensive installing the charging technology now, battery capacities are much greater and time has become much more important. How quick and how convenient is it to charge, and will the driver have to wait for a charger to become available."
He suggests that vehicle manufacturers always have to plan for how consumers might be given incentives through regulations and build vehicles that will be compliant, which has resulted in ever greater choice of electric cars with a broad range of price points.
"In a way, Covid-19 has also helped with people getting into the psyche that EVs are more feasible," he says. "There's a technology acceptance curve and we're really moving through that.
"It isn't straightforward. There are many considerations about how you're going to manage that fleet and you need to understand the duty cycle, where the vehicle is parked, where it's going, who's driving it, and I think we've understood from a very early stage that this has three main elements when it comes to charging: depot, home, and on the go.
"They complement each other, and it's very difficult to manage vehicle charging with just one of those elements. A lot of fleets are beginning to understand that. It means providing facilities at the depot, but also providing the means of charging when they're travelling around, as well as charging if they've got [the] ability to park off the road at home.
Bonnor-Moris says many commercial vehicle operations with depots can encounter problems with space and power requirements when it comes to installing charging.
"Many were built without any idea that they would need to provide huge amounts of electrical infrastructure, and the problem is not so much the cost of the charge points, but the cost of getting that power to the depot to provide electricity to the charge points.
"I think the industry has looked at that and there are some quite interesting technologies around the whole load management area and around the 'dwell time' of the vehicle, and the way BP Pulse positions it is about leveraging our investment in terms of our public infrastructure to reduce the requirement to provide that high level of charging.
"What we're doing in London is developing commercial hubs that businesses can hire space or time at, so there won't be public consumers in the spaces topping up their cars."
But he says there needs to be a blend of different options for businesses to make any transition as easy as possible and make it work for them.
"We include home charge products for fleet drivers, for example. If you're a delivery driver, your vehicle is your business tool - you need it to do your job.
"It's about providing support in those situations, including surveys and installing it, and working out ways of reimbursing them for charging at home.
"It's having the ability to be able to provide different options for different parts of the fleet. We even have to consider geography.
"In London, most professional drivers don't have off-street parking, but in other parts of the UK that's not the case. Some businesses don't have a depot, and the charging is based around plugging in at home.
"We can also provide access to our charging network through the BP fuel and charge card. For other customers, they might need all three elements."
While there has been a surge of interest in electric vehicles among fleet operators, he says most of them will gradually transition from ICE vehicles to electric.
"Most fleets will not have 500 or 1,000 EVs arriving at once, in fact it might not be possible to secure that volume of EVs at once. It will be an incremental process.
"This is such a disruptive technology - but in a positive way - because perhaps the fleets have workshops for maintaining their own vehicles, or they've been using ICE vehicles for decades. Moving to a new technology is a learning curve for a lot of these businesses."


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Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Enterprise Ireland have joined forces to provide entrepreneurs and early stage companies access to a range of resources, benefits and technologies to help them innovate and grow.
The AWS Activate programme is being made available to Enterprise Ireland start-up companies, including New Frontiers Phase II programme participants and High Potential Start-Ups (HPSUs).
It new programme aims to help the companies internationalise faster.
Enterprise Ireland HPSUs have already availed of over €4m in Amazon Web Services credits through AWS Activate.
Benefits include access to experts who can offer technical, hands-on guidance and support to help businesses gain the latest secure cloud technologies such as data analytics, AI and machine learning.
Start-ups will also benefit from AWS credits, premium business support, and training seminars and events on everything related to building a successful business, from employment and cultural topics to dealing with data security.
Jenny Melia, Manager, HPSU Division, at Enterprise Ireland said the collaboration demonstrates what can be achieved when two organisations come together to help Irish companies scale faster.
Noting that Enterprise Ireland invested €24m in Irish start-ups and supported a total of 127 start-up companies last year, she said that the agency has launched a new roadmap for HPSUs to support the growth of the next generation of companies and develop Ireland as one of the best locations to start and scale.
"Having a strong offer to start and scale is not just about the funding. It's about fully utilising the developmental supports available through Enterprise Ireland and through our strategic partnerships with Irish industry and stakeholders." Ms Melia said.
"Covid-19 has reinforced the need to work together to accelerate Ireland's recovery from the crisis," she added.


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HMV has launched its own record label called 1921 Records.
The entertainment retailer’s first signing through the new imprint is 22-year-old Newcastle singer-songwriter India Arkin. She was discovered after playing in the HMV Live & Local programme.
Arkin’s debut studio album ‘Home Truths’ will be released to coincide with National Album Day 2022 on October 15. It’ll be available exclusively on vinyl in HMV stores across the UK and online. Pre-order here.
Doug Putman, owner of HMV, said: “India’s music is absolutely incredible and we’re thrilled to make her our first 1921 Records signing. She has such passion for her craft, and she’s a true musician who writes, plays instruments and performs.
“We’re really proud of our HMV Live & Local programme, which sees artists like India given the same platform as the international artists who come to our stores, like Charli XCX and Yungblud. India’s performances in Newcastle got rave reviews from our staff and led to her being signed today.”
Arkin commented: “I’m thrilled to be releasing my debut album with 1921 Records, and it’s almost unbelievable that gigs in the store in HMV Newcastle would lead to this. I can’t wait to see my record on the shelves and tour the country performing with my band.”
As for the company’s wider plans for 1921 Records, HMV will focus on promoting debut albums by smaller grassroots acts.
“With our new label, we want to do what we can to help debut artists make their mark in a tough industry,” Putman explained. “Streaming algorithms mean it’s hard for new artists to get their voices heard, so we’re giving them the chance to get their albums in our stores where music fans can discover them for themselves.
“This is just the beginning for 1921 Records – it’s our mission to get more fantastic albums by debut artists into the homes of music fans. HMV is leading the way in the vinyl revival, so it makes sense for us to create our own label and promote the music we know our shoppers care about.”
To mark this year’s National Album Day, more than 100 live shows are due to take place at HMV shops in the UK.
The name of HMV’s new record label is a nod to the retailer’s roots, with 1921 being the year that The Gramophone Company opened His Master’s Voice on Oxford Street in central London.
HMV reached its 100th anniversary last year. As part of the celebrations, Ed Sheeran performed a special in-store concert at the HMV Empire in Coventry. The company also opened shops in 10 new locations.
In 2019, HMV closed 27 of its stores after falling into administration. Putnam, an entrepreneur and owner of Canadian chain Sunrise, secured a rescue deal for HMV at the time and has since been plotting ways to revive it.
The post HMV launches its own label 1921 Records, announces first signing appeared first on NME.


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This sporty Kia Rio replacement isn’t for Australia
Kia has revealed the successor to the current-generation Rio in Mexico, but don’t get your hopes up about it coming Down Under.
The new Kia K3 sedan is set to launch in “select markets” in the fourth quarter of 2023 and adopts the name that was previously reserved for the South Korean-market version of the Cerato sedan and hatch.
It’s unclear what this means for the naming convention of the next-generation Cerato, which was recently spied during testing.
The new Kia K3 will be produced exclusively in left-hand drive in Nuevo Leon, Mexico, which automatically rules it out from launching in Australia.
At launch the K3 will be available with a 1.6-litre four-cylinder engine producing 90kW that can be mated to a six-speed manual or automatic. Other engine options include a 2.0-litre four-cylinder engine producing 112kW and a


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The week ahead will see a continuation of economic data from across the various regions. In the UK, the inflation numbers for April is expected to show a continued increase in consumer prices, while also we will get to see whether wages have managed to keep up the pace.
In the Eurozone, the second GDP estimates and inflation figures will be coming out this week with data expected to show no changes from the preliminary flash readings. Japan’s first quarter GDP numbers are also coming up this week with data expected to show a modest increase in economic activity in the three months ending March 2017.
Eurozone GDP revision and inflation numbers
Economic data from the Eurozone will see revisions to the GDP and inflation figures, although by and far no major surprises are expected. This means that the first quarter GDP growth in the Eurozone is expected to remain steady at 0.5%, while inflation figures are set to confirm that headline consumer prices rose 1.9% and core inflation rose 1.2%, unrevised from the preliminary estimates released by Eurostat.
The confirmation on the numbers is likely to see more pressure coming onto the ECB amid growing calls for the central bank to ease off the QE pedal. The European Central Bank will be published the meeting minutes from its April meeting this Thursday. Not much information is expected however that will have any impact on the markets.
The German ZEW Economic sentiment will be published on Tuesday. The economic sentiment indices are already at a historically high level as far as Germany is concerned with firming expectations on robust growth that is expected to continue.
In April 2017, the ZEW indicator rose 6.7 points to reach a high of 19.5 which marked a nearly one and a half year’s high. Following the French elections, there is scope for the ZEW economic sentiment to rise even further.
Japan first quarter GDP expected to rise
Japan will be announcing the first quarter GDP numbers this week on Thursday. The preliminary estimates are expected to show that the Japanese economy expanded, led by increased demand and a stable global outlook.
The Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is expected to rise 0.4% on the quarter, driven by an increase in exports while on an annualized basis, GDP is expected to rise 1.8%. The increase in the GDP during the first quarter comes after the nation posted a 1.2% increase during the fourth quarter of 2016. It was, however, lower than the market estimates of 1.6%.
There is a chance that the first quarter GDP could also possibly miss the estimates of 1.8% annualized growth but instead come in around 1.2% – 1.4%. Still, policy makers at the BoJ will welcome any positive news on the economy especially with wages and inflation showing no signs of going anywhere.
Last week, the BoJ released its summary of opinions which showed that policy makers were slightly doubtful on the pace of inflation, despite striking a very optimistic tone during the April BoJ meeting.
UK data to focus on wages, inflation, and spending
Data from the UK this week will bring two crucial elements to the table, the monthly consumer price index and the labor market data. Inflation is expected to continue rising, with estimates pointing to a 2.6% increase in April on a year over year basis. This comes following March’s 2.3% increase.
After Tuesday’s inflation figures, the monthly jobs reports due on Wednesday. The focus will no doubt remain on the wage growth which is expected to trail consumer prices. Real wage growth stood at 0.3% on a year over year basis in February.
On Thursday, retail sales numbers will likely top off the suspicions that higher prices and weak pace of wage increase is curbing customer purchases. In the first quarter, retail sales numbers fell sharply posting the biggest decline in seven years.


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Home Tags Business confidence
Tag: Business confidence
The travel industry was delighted with the announcement that came through during the night and that will ensure some level of normality and confidence in the market that travel is open and easy. It will also certainly help to support the recovery of the sector.
The trouble with forex controls is that they are far more effective at keeping money 'out' than at keeping it 'in'. Almost every historical case shows that forex controls were conceived in shamed and weakened circumstances. In every case they have ultimately proven to be unalloyed failures.
With Black Friday around the corner, most if not all, e-commerce and retailers will have that feeling of anxiousness and dread in the weeks leading up to the day asking:mWill the site or systems stay up? Will it perform under the additional load? and If it goes down how fast can we recover?
The past decade has not been easy for small and medium enterprise (SME) owners. GDP growth has been almost non-existent for most of the past ten years, and despite a widely held – and correct – belief that SMEs hold the keys to job creation and economic growth, they’ve largely been left to fend for themselves.
For a country always in need of cheering up, recent news of better-than-expected economic growth was most welcome. StatsSA data showed that the economy grew by 4.6% after inflation in the first quarter on a seasonally adjusted and annualised basis.
Franchising has at its heart the spirit of entrepreneurship but amidst the COVID-19 pandemic that has resulted in immeasurable destruction of small businesses, the question remains whether the entrepreneurial flame can be re-ignited for future growth.
The South African economy, like many emerging and developing economies, has high levels of poverty. As with many such countries, there are three primary objectives to reducing poverty, unemployment and inequity. These three objectives take precedence over almost all other goals.
The spread of coronavirus, COVID-19, beyond China has created fresh uncertainty for the global growth outlook and sparked volatility in financial markets. Outbreaks in South Korea, Iran and Italy have raised concerns that the spread outside of China may be accelerating.
As we enter a new decade, CEOs are showing record levels of pessimism in the global economy, with 53% predicting a decline in the rate of economic growth in 2020. This is up from 29% in 2019 and just 5% in 2018 – the highest level of pessimism since we started asking this question in 2012.
With GDP growth prospects forecast at a meagre 1.3% for 2019, and 1.7% in 2020, business confidence in mid-2019 remains at an all-time low. Exacerbated by policy uncertainty, debilitating bouts of power cuts, challenges in industries such as mining, and political events like national elections, getting out of the slump continues to be a pipe dream for corporate South Africa.
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Today is Wednesday, June 22 and Google News is popping 20 this yr and getting a facelift. The redesign is impressed by consumer suggestions and centered on personalization.
Proteus is Amazon’s first absolutely autonomous cell warehouse robotic — it has the power to select issues up and put them down whereas additionally shifting objects round.
It’s Take Your Dog to Work Day, the Biden Administration needs to take away nearly all nicotine from cigarettes, and the worth of haircuts are up essentially the most since 1982. Here’s what else needs to be in your radar this morning.
Outsmarting Fraudsters. NeuroID CEO Jack Alton instructed PYMNTS’ Karen Webster that there are three telltale methods to disclose a cyberthief is at work, the primary being detecting human versus machine habits. Behavioral as a know-how is tough to pretend, Alton mentioned, and can more and more change into an added layer of safety to the “top of funnel” combine. READ MORE
Bitcoin History Tell-All. Bitcoin is down 70% from its November all-time excessive, however has it reached backside? Stephen Pair, CEO of bitcoin funds agency BitPay, instructed PYMNTS’ Karen Webster that now’s the time for knowledgeable traders to consider getting again into the crypto market and determining bitcoin’s backside. READ MORE
BNPL Regs. Jaidev Janardana, CEO at U.Ok. challenger financial institution Zopa, instructed PYMNTS that he welcomes the brand new purchase, now pay later (BNPL) mandates. Janardana mentioned it’s a brand new period of BNPL 2.0 centered on regulation and client safety. READ MORE
Faster Access. Managed disbursements platform Onbe CFO Brian Levin instructed PYMNTS that gig staff want quick entry to wages and infrequently depend on costly routes like payday loans. Companies can entice and retain gig staff by providing sooner entry to their funds through early wage entry or sooner entry to real-time funds. READ MORE
ICYMI. Lowe’s is making digital merchandise accessible at its metaverse hub, no cost. Other manufacturers entered the metaverse with merchandise through a digital platform or sport resembling Fortnite. Lowe’s metaverse can be utilized to visualise dwelling enchancment initiatives, but it surely’s a platform that’s meant for customers to discover and is a piece in progress. READ MORE


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Latest Personally identifiable information Stories
Badosoft's Privacy Optimizer has been released to help Internet users maintain privacy, secure their data and keep potential intruders away from their private information & files.
As the privacy rights of Americans have come under the spotlight in recent weeks, one federal regulator is pushing for a new initiative that would give consumers the ability to reclaim control of their personal data from brokers, Web sites, and other entities.
Later this summer, Outlook with Ben Kingsley will debut a report on the $50 billion dollar identity theft crime epidemic and what people can do to stay safe. Hollywood,
GlobalSign Recognized for Demonstrating Leadership in Brand Protection, Online Security, and Privacy Best Practices Boston, MA (PRWEB) June 05, 2013
- The word or words serving to define another word or expression, as in a dictionary entry.


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Millions Add Shopping, Sales to Thanksgiving Traditions
Millions of people were expected to flood stores Thursday evening as frenzied shopping and deep discounts are coming to symbolize Thanksgiving as much as turkey, pumpkin pie and Pilgrims.
Thursday’s “Black Friday” deals started as early as 6 a.m. Thursday when Kmart opened its doors for some pre-feast shopping.
In Louisville, Pam McCurdy was in line outside Kmart at 4 a.m. planning to buy an Android tablet and flatscreen TV. By 6:25 a.m., she was done shopping.
“We’ve got it down to a science,” McCurdy says. Estimated savings: $200.
Other retailers planned evening openings — Wal-Mart and Best Buy kick off Black Friday sales at 6 p.m., followed by the likes of Macy’s, Target, Kohl’s, J.C. Penney and Sears at 8 p.m. That’s an hour earlier than last year, when most retailers opened at 9 p.m.


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BOSTON Fidelity Investments has reached out to agencies for online marketing ideas that focus on revamping its Web site, sources said.
The Boston-based mutual funds giant has contacted several undisclosed shops—mainly e-marketing specialists in New York and Boston with some financial services background—and has scheduled presentations to take place in the next few weeks, according to sources.
The work up for grabs is a new assignment, with a budget in the $5-million-plus range. The project could lead to a more permanent relationship with Fidelity, per sources.
Havas-owned Arnold has for five years handled Fidelity's mainstream creative account. An Arnold representative declined comment, but sources said the shop is not participating in the interactive review. A Fidelity representative said he had no immediate information on the matter.
No outside consultants are involved, and there is no timetable for a decision.
Recent Fidelity ads have been tagged "Smart move" and include a TV spot featuring former Beatle Paul McCartney [Adweek Online, Sept. 7].
The client spent $120 million last year in measured media, per Nielsen Monitor-Plus. Boston-based Arnold successfully defended the business in a review two year ago against finalists TBWA\Chiat\Day and BBDO, both Omnicom Group agencies in New York, and Havas' McKinney + Silver in Durham, N.C.
The company's in-house ad department handles some print chores. Havas' MPG holds Fidelity's media account.


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It seems South-Korean tech giant Samsung is reportedly working on a new version of Galaxy Tab Pro 8.4 tablet rumored to be supporting iris recognition. California (US)-based Stanford Research Institute (SRI), is reportedly it has exclusively licensed its Iris on the Move (IOM) technologies for Samsung mobile products.
It is said that the first product manufactured under this agreement will be a Samsung Galaxy Tab Pro 8.4 tablet with IOM iris module. The tablet will be unveiled at SIA New Product Showcase at ISC West 2015 and will be launched worldwide through SRI partners and resellers.
SRI claims that the iris-based recognition is more accurate than fingerprint sensor, as per some tests. Moreover, there are lots of rumors surfacing about the Samsung's flagship smartphones with iris scanners, so far the company has hesitated to equip.


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Corona Launches Plastic-Free Six Pack Rings
Corona announced that it will pilot plastic-free six pack rings in select markets as part of the brand’s commitment with Parley for the Oceans to lead the industry with eco-friendly packaging. Both Corona and Parley have a shared mission to help protect the world’s oceans and beaches from marine plastic pollution. The partnership began with a commitment to protect 100 islands by 2020 and expands to include the pursuit of scalable innovation that can change the status quo. With roughly 8 MM metric tons of plastic entering the ocean each year1, there is a need to confront the issue on multiple fronts, which is why Corona has adopted Parley’s A.I.R. strategy to not only “avoid” and “intercept” plastic as much as possible, but also help “redesign” solutions that use the material.
This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20181127005152/en/
(Photo: Business Wire)
“Our oceans are under attack. We are taking their life in rapid speed, destroying the chemistry that allows us to be here. Therefore we are bidding on the few who take the lead in true change. The ones who are shaping the future with us. Corona is such an Ocean Champion, a powerful ally in our war against marine plastic pollution — and in building the material revolution that will lead us beyond it. We share the goal of phasing plastic out for good, because we simply can’t afford its toxic impact anymore.” Cyrill Gutsch, Founder and CEO, Parley for the Oceans
Although Corona is primarily packaged in glass and fiberboard, the brand sees an opportunity to help redesign a common source of plastic in the category: six pack rings. The plastic-free rings being tested are made from plant-based biodegradable fibers, with a mix of by-product waste and compostable materials. If left in the environment, they break down into organic material that is not harmful to wildlife, whereas the industry standard plastic six pack rings are made from a photodegradable form of polyethylene that results in increasingly smaller pieces of plastic if not recycled. Although most plastic rings are recyclable, the reality is that the majority of all plastic ever created hasn’t been recycled2, which is the motivation for brands like Corona to pursue solutions that avoid the material entirely. That journey starts in the brand’s homeland of Mexico, where the plastic-free rings will be piloted in Tulum at the beginning of the year.
“The beach is an important part of Corona’s DNA and we have been working with Parley to address the issue on the frontlines where plastic is physically accumulating,” said Evan Ellman, Corona Better World Director. “We also recognize the influence a global brand like Corona can have on the industry, and with the support of Parley, are pursuing scalable solutions like plastic-free six pack rings that can become a new standard to avoid plastic for good.”
Since the partnership launched in 2017, Corona and Parley have conducted over three hundred clean-ups in over 15 countries, including the Maldives, Palau, Mexico, Dominican Republic, Chile, Indonesia, Italy, South Africa and Australia, with over seven thousand volunteers from more than two hundred locations participating in the project, totalling in more than three million pounds of plastic waste collected.
About Parley for the Oceans
Parley for the Oceans is the global network where creators, thinkers and leaders from the creative industries, brands, governments and environmental groups come together to raise awareness for the beauty and fragility of the oceans and collaborate on projects that can end their destruction. The organization has formed alliances with major corporations including adidas, Anheuser Busch InBev (Corona), American Express; the United Nations; the Maldives and collaborators spanning the worlds of science, art, fashion, design, entertainment, sports, and space and ocean exploration. To know more: www.parley.tv
Born in Mexico, Corona is the leading beer brand in the country, the most popular Mexican beer worldwide exported to more than 180 countries. Corona Extra was first brewed in 1925 at the Cervecería Modelo in Mexico City.
Corona is a pioneer in the beer industry by being the first to use a transparent bottle showcasing its purity and high quality to the world. Each glass bottle is produced in a glass factory in Mexico owned by the brand. The artwork found on the bottle is painted, highlighting our commitment to quality in our packaging and our Mexican heritage.
No Corona is complete without the lime. Naturally adding character, flavor and refreshment, the lime ritual is an integral part of delivering an experience that is truly unique to Corona. The brand is synonymous with the beach and celebrates time outdoors. It invites people to pause, relax and enjoy the simple pleasures of life. For more visit www.corona.com
Lauren Bishop, Alison Brod Marketing + Communications
Corona@alisonbrodmc.com | 212-230-1800
Aimee Baxter, Anheuser-Busch InBev
For more than 50 years, Business Wire has been the global leader in press release distribution and regulatory disclosure.
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Warm welcome for ABB Formula E in Davos19.1.2019 12:00 | Tiedote
Just a few days before the start of the World Economic Forum 2019, Davos is celebrating a world premiere: The latest ABB FIA Formula E racing car - dubbed Gen2 – was transported on a train from the iconic Swiss Rhaetian Railway to Europe’s highest city, where it will be an exciting eyecatcher during the coming week at the Davos Platz railway station. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20190119005003/en/ ABB FIA Formula E racing car in Davos (Photo: Business Wire) From this Saturday until next Sunday, January 27, the Gen2 will be on display in a special glass case. Interested passersby can learn about the ABB FIA Formula E racing series as well as about the activities of ABB in e-mobility via an information system. With over 8,500 fast charging stations installed in 70 countries around the world, ABB is the global market leader for charging infrastructures. To watch the video, click here ABB (ABBN: SIX Swiss Ex) is
PMI’s Mission Winnow Goes Full Throttle with Ducati Corse for 2019 MotoGP™18.1.2019 20:00 | Tiedote
Philip Morris International Inc. (PMI) (NYSE: PM) is pleased to announce that its Mission Winnow initiative is expanding in 2019 to include the Ducati Corse racing team. Mission Winnow is a PMI-led campaign to raise global awareness of our passion and determination to constantly improve and evolve, as well as highlight the power of science, technology and innovation to build a better future. PMI has partnered with Ducati Corse since 2002 and has extended the relationship for another three years until the end of 2021. As of the start of this year’s MotoGP season, the team will be officially known as Mission Winnow Ducati. Mission Winnow was first launched in October 2018 with Scuderia Ferrari Mission Winnow, which – like Ducati Corse – has a passion for innovation and a relentless drive to improve in the team’s pursuit of victory. Ducati Corse is one of the most inspiring and resilient teams in MotoGP, with a 70-year history in racing. Ducati fans form a passionate community who appreci
IFF’s Frutarom Division Completes Acquisition of 60% of Thailand-based Mighty18.1.2019 15:50 | Tiedote
Regulatory News: International Flavors & Fragrances Inc. (NYSE:IFF) (Euronext Paris:IFF) (TASE:IFF), announced that its Frutarom Division has completed the acquisition of 60% of the share capital of The Mighty CO. LTD. (“Mighty”), a leading savory solutions provider in Thailand, thus continuing its growth strategy in Southeast Asia. Amos Anatot, President of IFF's Frutarom Division, said, “The completion of this deal with Mighty underscores that the Frutarom division will continue on its growth strategy and pursue attractive companies that create new opportunities or build on current capabilities.” Mr. Anatot continued, “And in this case, we are helping to grow our capabilities in savory solutions – already an area of strength for legacy Frutarom, now IFF." Mighty, founded in 1989, develops, produces and markets reaction flavors, with particular expertise in savory solutions. The company’s portfolio includes flavors, seasoning blends, marinades, and specialty functional raw materials f
LTI Q3 FY19: Constant currency revenue growth up 6.1% QoQ and 20.6% YoY; Net Profit jumps 32.8% YoY18.1.2019 15:02 | Tiedote
Larsen & Toubro Infotech (BSE code: 540005, NSE: LTI), a global technology consulting and digital solutions company, announced its Q3 FY19 results today. In US Dollars: Revenue at USD 346.9 million; growth of 5.6% QoQ and 18.2% YoY Constant Currency Revenue growth of 6.1% QoQ and 20.6% YoY In Indian Rupees: Revenue at Rs 24,729 million; growth of 6.1% QoQ and 31.3% YoY Net Income at Rs 3,755 million; growth of (6.2%) QoQ and 32.8% YoY “We are pleased to deliver another strong quarter with 5.6% QoQ growth in USD revenues. Our broad-based revenue growth, superior margin delivery and steady cash generation in Q3 is a testimony of our focused execution and client centricity. We are also thrilled to welcome Ruletronics to LTI family. Ruletronics enables businesses to transform and evolve digitally by providing innovative BPM and CRM solutions leveraging Pega Platform.” - Sanjay Jalona, Chief Executive Officer & Managing Director, LTI Recent Deal Wins Nets, the leading payments company in th
Schlumberger Announces Full-Year and Fourth-Quarter 2018 Results18.1.2019 15:00 | Tiedote
Schlumberger Limited (NYSE: SLB) today reported results for full-year 2018 and the fourth quarter of 2018. (Stated in millions, except per share amounts) Full-Year Results Twelve Months Ended Change Dec. 31, 2018 Dec. 31, 2017 Year-on-year Revenue $32,815 $30,440 8% Pretax operating income $4,187 $3,921 7% Pretax operating margin 12.8% 12.9% -12 bps Net income (loss) - GAAP basis $2,138 $(1,505) n/m Net income, excluding charges & credits* $2,261 $2,085 8% Diluted EPS (loss per share) - GAAP basis $1.53 $(1.08) n/m Diluted EPS, excluding charges and credits* $1.62 $1.50 8% Full-Year Consolidated Revenue by Area North America $11,984 $9,487 26% Latin America 3,745 3,976 -6% Europe/CIS/Africa 7,158 7,072 1% Middle East & Asia 9,543 9,394 2% Other 385 511 n/m $32,815 $30,440 8% North America revenue $11,984 $9,487 26% International revenue $20,446 $20,442 - North America revenue, excluding Cameron $9,668 $7,518 29% International revenue, excluding Cameron $17,675 $17,423 1% *These are non
FLIR Systems Awarded $89 Million Contract from French Armed Forces to Deliver Black Hornet Personal Reconnaissance System18.1.2019 14:00 | Tiedote
FLIR Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ: FLIR) announced today it has been awarded a contract from the French Defense Procurement Agency (DGA) in support of the French Operational Pocket Drone (DrOP) program. The contract has a ceiling value of $89 million to provide the FLIR Black Hornet® 3 nano-unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) and Personal Reconnaissance System (PRS) to support French Armed Forces operations. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20190118005085/en/ The French Armed Forces awarded FLIR Systems a contract to deliver the Black Hornet Personal Reconnaissance System for military operations. (Photo: Business Wire) The Black Hornet PRS is the world’s smallest combat-proven nano-Unmanned Aerial System (UAS) and is currently deployed in more than 30 countries. The Black Hornet enables the warfighter to maintain situational awareness, threat detection, and surveillance no matter where the mission takes them. Equipped with el
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[Beijing, March 9, 2020] Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business (CKGSB) Assistant Professor of Economics Zhang Gang recently held a webinar with MBA alumni Wang Wei relating to the COVID-19 outbreak, its transmission, and the effects it has had on both the economy and the supply chain.
Here are a few of his key points:
- The hospitality industry has been severely impacted by the COVID-19 outbreak. The effect is also felt by the industry’s upper-stream supply chain industries such as the food processing, agriculture, forestry, husbandry, fishing and beverage industries.
- The impact of COVID-19 on transportation and logistics industries is also felt by all other industries as they offer services to people and businesses in almost the entire economy. As people are encouraged to stay at home and to limit social contact, transportation and logistics are greatly impacted and the recovery of businesses in other industries are therefore also affected.
- Based on my analysis of the supply chain, having people return to work in areas only where the COVID-19 outbreak is mild is not enough to ease the pressure on China’s economy. A lack of upper-stream suppliers or down-stream retailors for example, would negatively affect other sections in the supply chain. We should balance the need for economic growth and to effectively deal with COVID-19. Caution is still required to curb the spread of the virus to the wider community.
To read and view more on the webinar in Chinese, visit: http://www.ckgsb.edu.cn/about/activity_detail/80/1400.html


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Counter-terrorism street furniture supplier Securiscape has appointed a business development manager with 30 years’ experience of the industry to spearhead a new sales strategy designed to target new sectors.
Tim Troman says he is looking forward to putting his knowledge of street furniture design and development to good use for the company, which manufacturers and supplies hostile vehicle mitigation products such as security planters, bollards, cycle racks and benches designed to protect buildings from ram-raids and vehicle-borne attacks.
Securiscape, which is based in Ashbourne, Derbyshire, has installed HVM products outside a host of premises across the UK, including King’s Cross Station, the luxury One Hyde Park residential development in London and Birmingham New Street Station.
Tested to the high standards laid down by the strenuous PAS 68 classification, they are capable of stopping a truck weighing 7.5 tonnes and travelling at 40kph in its tracks.
It has also developed an anti-blast litter bin and its innovative Securipod system, which is a pedestrian-friendly security barrier designed to be rapidly deployed across a street in order to protect the public attending temporary outdoor events.
Tim said: “Securiscape has a growing reputation for the quality and design of its products and a large part of my role is to ensure that we continue to spread the word about how we can help businesses and organisations to protect their premises, their workforce and the public.
“Every installation we do has its own issues, so I am also particularly looking forward to using my problem-solving skills to help solve the countless public realm design challenges that we face on a day to day basis.
“I have worked with organisations from large supermarket chains to small community groups and the ethos I try to follow is to treat every customer with the same high standard of service, which is something that will follow through naturally into my role at Securiscape.”
Mark Stone, Managing Director of Securiscape, said: “We’re thrilled to have appointed somebody of Tim’s high calibre.
“Not only is his experience and knowledge of our industry unrivalled, his attention to detail and enthusiasm for problem-solving will ensure that we are able to serve our customers’ demands in an arena where the suitability, installation and performance of security products is critical.
“We are a young company with a growing range of innovative products and plenty more in the pipeline, so Tim is joining us at a very exciting time.”


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According to XperiaBlog, the highly rumored Sony Yuga will be renamed to ‘Sony Xperia Z’. This blog in the past correctly predicted that the Sony Hayabusa would actually be released as the Sony Xperia TX.
The rumors of the Sony Xperia Z being dust and water proof have been reinforced. The device has water and dust ratings of IP55 and IP57. The Xperia Z will also feature OptiContrast technology in its 5-inch display, which will help reduce reflection thanks to its special resin coating. The special resin coating absorbs any diffused light that is delivered through the backlight.
The other rumored specs are still the same:
- 5-inch 1080p display
- Samsung Exynos 5 quad-core processor
- 3GB RAM
- 16MP camera
- 3000 mAh battery
- 128GB Internal Storage
We’re three weeks away from finding out this device’s real capabilities.


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Tesla is working on new battery cell designs, and a way to make their own cells, with R&D teams in a lab near its car plant in Fremont, California.Technologyread more
The Federal Reserve and the market are miles apart on interest rate expectations, and the disparity could cost the stock market a 7%-10% drop, economists say.Economyread more
President Trump lambastes Twitter, Google and other technology giants for what he claims as their efforts to stifle him.US Economyread more
Underneath the impressive market rally is a trend that doesn't seem quite right, according to J.P. Morgan.Marketsread more
Mnuchin tells CNBC he's confident President Trump and China's Xi Jinping can make progress in stalled trade talks.World Economyread more
JP Morgan's Jamie Dimon says student lending "is a disgrace and it's hurting America."Economyread more
These are the stocks posting the largest moves midday.Market Insiderread more
The Supreme Court refused to overturn a precedent that strengthened the power of government regulators in a closely watched case that could have had broad ramifications for...Politicsread more
Shares of Paychex dropped on Wednesday after Bank of America downgraded the stock due to its "excessive valuation" and "underwhelming fundamentals."Marketsread more
A full-time worker earning the federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour cannot rent an affordable two-bedroom apartment anywhere in the country, where affordable is defined as...Spendread more
The president raised $6 million alone at a fundraiser he attended at the Trump International Hotel on Tuesday in Washington.Politicsread more
Qualcomm on Friday said it's working on updates for products that are affected by recently announced chip-level security vulnerabilities.
These vulnerabilities, first disclosed earlier this week by security researchers from Google and other organizations, have already wiped billions in value from Intel, whose chips are among those affected. They have also forced many software and cloud services companies, including Amazon, Apple, IBM and Microsoft, to deploy fixes.
"We are actively incorporating and deploying mitigations against the vulnerabilities for our impacted products, and we continue to work to strengthen them as possible," a spokesperson told CNBC in an email. "We are in the process of deploying these mitigations to our customers and encourage people to update their devices when patches become available."
Researchers have found that one of the vulnerabilities affect processors from AMD, as well as chips that use certain Arm technology. Qualcomm chips do use Arm technology, and so the disclosure from Qualcomm shouldn't be a major surprise.
Still, Qualcomm stock fell about 1 percentage point in after-hours trading on Friday after the company made the disclosure.
The spokesperson didn't identify the affected products, although the upcoming Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 chip is likely included in the bunch. It's expected to contain Arm's Cortex-A75 core, which is affected by the vulnerabilities.


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As we enter the home-stretch of the holiday shopping season, the winners and losers grow more obvious by the day.
Also increasingly obvious is a sub-category of retail brands that can best be labeled “zombies.” This sad lot includes brands that may appear to be alive, but for all intents and purposes are already dead. Radio Shack and Sears find themselves at the top of this list, but they are hardly alone.
The retail graveyard is filled with well-known and formerly sizable brands that once had customers beating a path to their doors. Borders, Linens & Things, Blockbuster, CompUSA, just to name a few, have all disappeared in recent years. Coldwater Creek and Delia’s are two once successful companies that have initiated liquidation procedures just in the last six months. The new year will surely bring a raft of store closings and bankruptcy filings.
Much more recently founded pure-play e-commerce sites aren’t immune from this phenomenon either. Many once seemingly promising ventures have gone under or seen their valuations pummeled (I’m looking at you Fab.com and Ideel). Many more are struggling mightily to find a pathway to profitability and are starting to see their venture capital sugar daddies lose patience. As it turns out, selling at a loss and trying to make it up on volume doesn’t work on the internet either. Their “zombie-ness” may not yet be apparent, but it’s there.
The seismic changes affecting the entire retail world are so profound and, in many cases, have come on so quickly, that it has been impossible for even the leaders to respond effectively. Yet, the brands that have gone under, and those that are not far behind, have all made a few common mistakes:
- They either lacked deep customer insight or were unwilling to act on what that insight told them
- They were afraid to compete with themselves by aggressively embracing (organically or through acquisitions) new formats and concepts that were gobbling up market share
- They became overly focused on cost-cutting and store closings as the path to prosperity rather than doubling-down on customer engagement and growth
- They protected their older, core customers while failing to acquire a sufficient number of new customers
- They often chased revenue without an eye on profitability
- They didn’t realize that customers buy experiences and solutions, not just the products that comprise them.
I suspect that when the post-mortem is done on next year’s zombies that transcend to the great beyond our autopsy will reveal similar patterns.
Clearly–and sadly–many retail brands are now beyond repair. For those that are struggling but still have hope, the real question is how many of these very familiar mistakes they will keep making.


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Entrepreneur and aspiring bigot Dick Smith has announced that his company Dick Smith foods will launch a new line of One Nation peanut butter that like the party will be chock full of nuts.
Speaking to The (un)Australian Dick Smith talked up his latest release, saying: “When most Australians think of One Nation and their policies they say that’s nuts, so why not cash in on that?”
“You know 77 people voted for Malcolm Roberts and if we can get those 77 people to put on their tin foil hats and leave their bunkers to come out and buy a couple of thousand jars of peanut butter then we’ll be rolling in the cash.”
One Nation leader Pauline Hanson was also on the promotional trail for her parties Peanut butter and she said of the product: “At first I was sceptical of Dick, I mean Peanut butter is brown and I don’t trust anything that is brown but when Dick said it would be chock full of nuts I thought that is One Nation to a tee.”
One Nation peanut butter will hit the shelves early next year. Those wishing to buy a jar will need to provide proof of Australian residency and must also be accompanied by their carer.


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Nigerian companies making anything from soap to tomato paste could run out of raw materials and be forced to shut down as Africa’s top oil producer has effectively banned the import of almost 700 goods to prevent a currency collapse.
Selected luxury items such as make-up or brown bread imported from Europe have become scarce in some shops as the central bank denies importers dollars, seeking to stem the fallout from a crash in vital oil revenues hammering Africa’s largest economy.
The central bank has restricted access to foreign currency to import 41 categories of items to stop a slide of the naira but the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN) said this in fact amounted to about 680 individual items.
The foreign exchange bans are part of a long-term plan by President Muhammadu Buhari to encourage local manufacturing, but they run the risk of pushing the economy closer to recession after growth halved in the second quarter compared with the same period last year.
Many items on the central bank list – ranging from incense and toothpicks to plywood, glass and steel products – are not available in Nigeria in sufficient volumes.
While Nigeria grows a lot of tomatoes, transport is poor and it lacks facilities to produce the concentrate needed by factories making tomato paste, a staple in the West African nation.
“We’ve taken this matter up with the central bank and the highest authority in this country … Fiscal authorities will also be involved, they weren’t before,” Remi Ogunmefun, the director general of MAN, said.
MAN had told the central bank 105 items should be removed from the list, but the bank said it could not afford to do so and agreed to look into removing 44 items.
MAN also suggested 93 finished items that should be added to the list because Nigeria produces enough of them.
The economic crisis is a blow to Buhari who wants to end dependence on oil revenues but faces criticism for failing to name a cabinet four months after taking office.
Since the central bank unveiled its controls in June, executives have had to deal with foreign suppliers worried they won’t get paid. They also struggle to convince banks to approve dollar payments.
“It takes minimum 10 days now to get dollars, before it was 24 to 48 hours, and sometimes when you request like $100 000, you only get $80 000 and it’s getting worse,” said an executive at a large furniture company, asking not to be named.
It’s not clear which imports are still allowed as the central bank lists only categories. He can still bring in beds and chairs to be assembled in Nigeria, but not sofas.
Some firms have defaulted on contracts and lost credit lines. “Many companies have defaulted on fulfilling foreign obligations … even blue chip companies … for the first time,” said Muda Yusuf, director general of the Lagos Chamber of Commerce.
With no cabinet in place, central bank governor Godwin Emefiele finds himself discussing policies usually reserved for a finance or economy minister.
At a news conference on Tuesday, Emefiele justified the controls – which Buhari has backed – as a way to create jobs in a country hit by poverty despite its oil wealth.
“I read an advertisement in a paper that shortly after we announced the foreign exchange exclusion for the importation of tomato paste they advertised for almost 1 000 jobs,” he said, citing the example of a tomato paste company, a sector that experts do not in fact expect to flourish now.
Emefiele has ruled out another naira devaluation but on Tuesday loosened monetary policies to inject liquidity into banks, which had been forced to transfer government revenues to a central bank account as part of an anti-corruption drive.
Nigeria stepped up import controls when Buhari led a military government in the 1980s and the economy suffered then too.
Razia Khan, Chief Economist, Africa, at Standard Chartered Bank, said there was little certainty the latest controls would boost manufacturing.
“Nigeria has had substantial experience with similar import-substitution policies in the past,” said Khan. “Rarely have they succeeded in creating a vibrant, competitive industrial sector, with the capability of creating the employment growth that Nigerian demographics otherwise demand.”
According to the Lagos Chamber of Commerce, Nigeria is short of 600 000 tonnes a year of palm oil, that is used to make soap, detergents and cosmetics that have also been restricted. Pharmaceutical firms lack bottles, and glass manufacturers do not have the glass to make them.
Bags full of cash
Companies also suffer from the central bank’s attempt to stop the dollarisation of the economy. A ban on cash deposits of foreign currency has forced firms to use informal “transfer markets”, whereby people abroad wire dollars on a company’s behalf.
That exchange rate is well below the official rate to the dollar. Some executives now carry bags of cash to deposit in neighbouring countries.
For some though, the measures offer hope.
“It’s a big challenge to compete in a market with imported frozen chicken and fish. The profit is marginal,” said Kabir Chaskewa of Ajima Farms, a family business based near the capital, Abuja.
Compared to a foreign firm that produces frozen chicken in batches of up to 1 million, Chaskewa can only do batches of 5 000. “Now there’s a rise in demand for local poultry and rice,” he said.


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For the next few weeks, we are going to format the Blog to cover the topics that seem to be of most interest, those being the markets, stimulus, economic reports, earnings reports, and COVID-19. We would appreciate any relevant feedback on this new layout.
The S&P 500 jumped nearly 2% Monday morning on iPhone 12 enthusiasm, but then slowly faded over the week to finish up a modest 0.2% by Friday’s close. Within the market tech stocks dominated on Monday and Tuesday, while more cyclical “value” sectors outperformed the last three days. Small cap stocks fared worse, with the Russell 2000 finishing fractionally lower. The yield on the Ten-Year Treasury slipped 4 basis points to 0.74%, while Gold declined 1.5% back to $1900, and the Dollar was unchanged slightly above its lowest level since early 2018.
To quote the White Queen in Lewis Carroll’s 1871 classic Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There:
“The rule is jam tomorrow and jam yesterday—but never jam today.”
The Democrats seem firm at a $2.2 trillion program, the White House is currently at $1.8 trillion, and the Senate is preparing a $500 billion stand-alone bill in support of the Payroll Protection Program.
Nancy Pelosi and Steven Mnuchin spoke at length Saturday night and a deadline was set to make additional progress by Tuesday night. It is beginning to seem likely that the tomorrow we are waiting for (to get our jam) won’t come until after the election.
Initial jobless claims for the week increased to 898k, up from 845k the previous week, and approximately triple the pre-pandemic average. Another negative data point was a surprise drop in U.S. industrial production in September.
The inflation data was mixed with a tame Consumer Price Index, but a 0.4% jump in the Producer Price Index. Producer price changes tend to forecast future consumer price movements.
Spend baby spend! Retail sales for September came in +1.9%, which comfortably exceeded forecasts, and the Michigan Consumer Sentiment Index in October rose with the Expectations Index increasing the most. There will be jam tomorrow!
Third quarter earnings season is off to a good start, although there is still going to be a sharp year-over-year decline. Due to the number and magnitude of positive EPS surprises, the blended earnings decline for the third quarter is smaller now relative to the end of last week at -18.4%, compared to a year-over-year decline in earnings of -20.4% last week and a year-over-year decline in earnings of -21.0% at the end of the third quarter. Positive earnings surprises reported by companies in the Financials sector were mainly responsible for the decrease in the overall earnings decline during the past week. Curiously, the Financial sector stocks modestly underperformed during the week.
There were the highest number of new weekly cases since July. The seven-day average of new cases hit record highs in 20 states. While the initial surge of the virus was in densely populated urban areas, it is now hitting the rural regions, suburbs, and small cities hardest. The news is equally bad globally, with cases surging in Europe, India, Russia, and many other areas. Pfizer announced Friday there would be no coronavirus vaccine before the election. And a new study questioned the effectiveness of Remdesivir, a drug used to treat hospitalized COVID-19 patients. With so many brilliant scientists working feverishly to develop therapeutics and vaccines, we are confident that in the not too distant future this pandemic will be under control. For now, please exercise good judgement and stay safe. Fall is here and Winter is coming.
Will there be jam? Stimulus talks will dominate the headlines. Earnings season will pick up speed 96 S&P 500 companies (including eight Dow 30 components) are scheduled to report results for the third quarter.
The housing market dominates the economic calendar early in the week, with forecasts calling for continued strength. We think that the Initial Jobless Claims on Thursday is worth notice after last week’s disappointing reading.
Needless to say, COVID-19 news will remain of utmost importance.
Stocks on the Move:
PRTS +13.8%:CarParts.com Inc is an online provider of automotive aftermarket parts and repair information. The company principally sells its products to individual consumers through its network of websites and online marketplaces. The company’s products consist of collision parts serving the body repair market, engine parts to serve the replacement parts market, and performance parts and accessories. This week, online retailers in general saw some gains due to Amazon’s Prime Day. PRTS is a 6.31% holding in the North Star Micro Cap Fund and a 2.59% holding in the North Star Opportunity Fund.
OESX -10.8%: Orion Energy Systems Inc is a developer, manufacturer, and seller of lighting and energy management systems. Orion Engineered Systems segment, which is the key revenue driver, develops and sells lighting products, and provides construction and engineering services for commercial lighting and energy management systems. The company serves energy service companies, electrical contractors, national accounts, and electrical distributors. This week, the company got a new CFO after the planned retirement of William “Bill” Hull. Orion gave a welcome in a press release to J. Per Brodin who will start on October 19th. OESX is a 5.57% holding in the North Star Micro Cap Fund and a 5.56% holding in the North Star Opportunity Fund.
HEAR -10.6%: Turtle Beach Corp is a gaming audio and accessory brand offering a broad selection of gaming headsets for Xbox, PlayStation, and Nintendo consoles, as well as for PC, Mac, and mobile/tablet devices. The company’s portfolio includes gaming headsets, PC gaming headsets, PC gaming keyboards, PC gaming mice and other accessories which are sold at thousands of storefronts, including retailers such as Amazon, Argos, Best Buy, GAME, GameStop, EB Games, Media Markt, Saturn, Target and Walmart. This week, concerns over more aggression into peripheral areas from Apple (AAPL) contributed to Turtle Beach’s downtick. HEAR is a 4.96% holding in the North Star Micro Cap Fund and a 1.41% holding in the North Star Opportunity Fund.
TACO -13.2%: Del Taco Restaurants Inc is a restaurant operator company. It is a franchisor of restaurants featuring fresh and fast made-to-order cuisine, including both Mexican inspired and American classic dishes. The company holds approximately 564 Del Taco restaurants, a majority of these in the Pacific Southwest. This week, the company released in-line earnings with Q3 revenues of $120.8 million. TACO is a 1.92% holding in the North Star Micro Cap Fund.
ETH +10.0%: Ethan Allen Interiors Inc. is a U.S.-based company that manufactures and retails home furnishings and accessories. The majority of revenue within Wholesale is generated by upholstered products, and the majority of revenue for the overall company is derived from the Retail segment. There was no significant company news this week, although investors may be starting to warm back up to consumer stocks. ETH is a 1.48% holding in the North Star Micro Cap Fund.
Related: To Stimulate, or Not To Stimulate


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Some Google users can now play cloud games directly from their search results
Google Stadia and other streaming game services are being promoted in a new way, as it seems that searching for certain games presents you with a new button that can start it and play it instantly, although it’s not yet available for everybody.
As noted by Bryant Chappel on Twitter, searching for games available on Stadia can now feature a “Play” button which, when pressed, launches you directly into the game. Chappel used Control Ultimate Edition as an example of the feature, getting to the title screen without too much trouble.
In follow-up tweets, Chappel also discovered that similar buttons could be found for Amazon Luna and Xbox Cloud Gaming. While the Play button for Stadia games takes you straight into the game, it’s worth noting that it appears Luna and Xbox Cloud Gaming games take you to the game page first, before allowing you to jump there. actually play.
Nvidia GeForce Now is also apparently being touted as an option, though not for all games on the service at this time. Chappel notes that Fortnite works, but Far Cry 6, which is available on Nvidia’s service, doesn’t currently display the button.
It looks like the Google search engine has a new update for cloud gaming platforms!!!
When searching for a game, players can now launch a game directly from the search results using @GoogleStadia. pic.twitter.com/xblOsBpF6O
—Bryant Chappel (@BryantChappel) August 11, 2022
It’s also worth noting that this feature doesn’t appear to be available in all regions, as Chappel is based in the US. While the feature doesn’t currently appear to appear in the UK, so it’s possible it’s slowly rolling out.
Google Stadia’s game studios were shut down last year, painting a worrying picture for the cloud gaming platform. But a report earlier this year suggested that Google wanted to save the technology by using it for new purposes, a recent example being the Resident Evil Village demo which is playable through a browser.
The products discussed here were independently chosen by our editors. GameSpot may get a share of the revenue if you purchase something featured on our site.


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$12,750 Tourism Grant awarded for Wisconsin River Pro Rodeo
Lincoln County Rodeo Association increases marketing to draw more people to Merrill
TINA L. SCOTT
In mid-May, the Wisconsin Department of Tourism presented a $12,750 Joint Effort Marketing (JEM) grant to the Lincoln County Rodeo Association (LCRA) for the Wisconsin River Pro Rodeo, enabling the LCRA to expand their marketing radius to attract more spectators to Merrill for this year’s Rodeo.
“The Wisconsin River Pro Rodeo has drawn travelers to central Wisconsin for more than 30 years,” said Secretary-designee, Anne Sayers. “This grant will help even more families discover this fun opportunity to enjoy Wisconsin’s spirited nature and make lasting memories.”
The Wisconsin River Pro Rodeo will take place June 10, 11, and 12, 2022, at the Merrill Festival Grounds. The weekend-long event features one daily professional rodeo show, live music, a tractor-pull, food and shopping vendors, and other family-friendly activities. Historically, this volunteer-run event brings more than 10,000 people to Merrill and the surrounding communities, and this year, the LCRA is hoping for even more
“Our grant that we applied for and were awarded has enabled our organization to expand our advertising for the Wisconsin River Pro Rodeo,” said Theresa Grund, Marketing Director for the Rodeo. “This was used towards digital billboards in Appleton, Green Bay, and west of Wausau. These digital boards also are working through Geo Fencing. This is an additional feature that when traffic goes through the perimeters around our location of billboards, they will receive another ad for our event on their phones or electronic devices – another beneficial tool to bring more spectators to the area through the advertising of our event.”
“Additional news coverage and radio coverage was also added to the Appleton and Green Bay area, as well,” she said. The sign company anticipates 172,000 cars will pass by the signs. The campaign launched on May 16 for a full four weeks of advertising to the expanded demographic.
Rodeo growth equals success for Merrill
“The continuous growth of our event contributes to added growth of the Merrill community and businesses,” said Grund.
As a $17.3 billion industry in Wisconsin that supports more than 157,000 jobs, tourism is crucial to the state’s economic recovery and success, a press release from the Department of Tourism said. JEM grants are just one of the tools in the toolbox for the Department of Tourism to partner with organizations and nonprofits around the state who are using innovation and creativity to bring visitors and dollars to their community.
In fiscal year 2021, the Department funded 45 JEM projects, awarding $1,100,000 million statewide. JEM grant funds are available to nonprofit organizations for the promotion of Wisconsin tourism events and destinations. The state can fund up to 75 percent of a project’s first-year advertising and marketing costs and provide support for second- and third-year projects with decreasing amounts for funding until projects become self-sustaining.
“This is our 33rd year of bringing professional Rodeo to the Merrill and Central Wisconsin area,” Grund said. “We are evolving bigger each year. Our gates have offered 10,000 spectators to enjoy the rodeo and the Merrill community over the three-day weekend each June. Our event is traditionally the second weekend of June and people already start knowing how to plan the kick off to their summer activities. It is always a pleasure to see returning faces and rewarding to meet the many new ones. We have had spectators from outside the state of Wisconsin to watch our professional rodeo, as well as many throughout the state. The Wisconsin River Pro Rodeo has become a household name when summer plans are being made.”
“We look forward to further expanding our advertising direction in the following years to come,” she added.
The LCRA is excited to be bringing back the tried-and-true and also adding new things. “We will have a Jumbotron in our arena this year – this is a big screen that lets you watch the events closer and replays also,” Grund said. “We are very excited with the addition to our arena.”
The Rodeo City Riders Drill Team will perform over the weekend, as well.
Friday will be Military Appreciation Night, with live music after the performance with The Jerry Schmidt Band in the beer tent, food and merchandise vendors, and face painting for the kids.
Saturday features an all day antique tractor pull, and the performance for Tough Enough to Wear Pink, “So wear your pink attire,” Grund said. “Let’s see the stand aglow of pink. We also have Tough Enough to Wear Pink attire for sale in the office tent if needed.” The Jerry Schmidt Band will be in the beer tent again, and there will be food and merchandise vendors and face painting again for the kids.
Sunday is billed as Family Day. The first 100 children through the gates will get a free cowboy hat and there will be free face painting for the kids again. Queen coronation at noon, watch the performance, and food and merchandise vendors.
There is “Something for everyone!” at the Wisconsin River Pro Rodeo, Grund said.
Get rodeo tickets early
Friday and Saturday gates open at 5:00 p.m. with performances at 7:00 p.m.
On Sunday gates open at 11:00, the coronation of the Rodeo Queen will be at 12:00 noon, and the rodeo performance will begin at 1:00 p.m.
Tickets are currently on sale online at: wrpr.org Advance tickets are $14.00 and children under 5 are free, and advance ticket pricing is ONLY available online.
Weekend passes also offer cost savings, so attendees can enjoy a full three days of professional rodeo.
And Sunday Family Day offers: “Buy 5 or more tickets and receive 20% off” but that is available ONLINE ONLY, not at the gate for the Sunday performance.
Online ticket sales close on Wednesday, June 8, 2022, at midnight, so be sure to buy tickets in advance online. Seats are filling up!
Locally, tickets are also available at the Merrill Chamber and Tomahawk Chamber Offices as well as Brickner’s Park City of Merrill.
The mission of the Wisconsin Department of Tourism is to inspire travelers to visit Wisconsin. Because we believe in the power of exploration and travel, we work to market the state as a premier travel destination. By executing industry-leading marketing programs and establishing strategic partnerships, the Department plays a significant role in generating greater economic impact for Wisconsin through tourism. Learn more at industry.travelwisconsin.com.


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Stocks opened lower today. The Dow is currently down 14 pts and the S&P 500 is down .24%. Telecoms and utilities are getting hit, down over 1% at the moment. Semiconductors & biotechs are giving up ground as well. On the other hand, banks and oil/natural gas stocks are up nicely this morning. The dollar is weaker against a basket of foreign currencies today, and has given up about 5% this year. That’s helping US multi-national companies doing business overseas. Most commodities are rebounding (copper, iron ore, oil). WTI crude oil is up again today, trading around $44.11/barrel. The more convinced traders are that oil bottomed last week, the better the stock market will do in the near-term. Bonds are selling off today (maybe a response to oil?). Remember, falling bond yields happen to be the linchpin in most bear investor forecasts. At the moment, the 5-year Treasury yield is back up to 1.81% and the 10-year is up to 2.19%.
Alphabet (GOOGL) reports the European Union (EU) has imposed a record $2.7bil fine for anti-competitive behavior. And it seems like the company intends to pay the fine. The EU says it investigated the company for seven years and found that Alphabet 1) has monopoly power, 2) altered its search engine results to give priority to its own comparison shopping service (“Google Shopping”), and therefore 3) disadvantaged rival online shopping comparison services. So this is very similar to what the EU did to Microsoft a decade ago.
Bloomberg ran an article referring to research in QSR Magazine showing the restaurant industry is still hurting. “Restaurants have now posted four consecutive quarters of declining year-over-year sales. The last time the industry experienced a year with all negative quarters was 2009, when the economy was suffering the effects of the great recession.” Restaurant traffic has declined and check growth flat. So the question is, if the economy is stable and consumer spending is growing, why are restaurants getting left behind? Well, profit margins are suffering because wages are rising, and of course this hits quick-serve businesses harder. Remember the push for $15/hour minimum wage? In addition, competition is incredibly fierce. And differentiation like “organic” and “all natural” adds to restaurant operating costs. Think Panera. Are they able to fully pass along added costs to the consumer? Finally, consumer demand patters are changing. Mediocre sit-down chains (i.e. Applebees) and mall food courts are outdated formats. It will take time to shake them out.
The Case-Shiller Home Price Index rose 5.5% in April from year-ago levels. This nation-wide index has been trending from 4% to 5.5% for the last three years. Results confirm this is very much a sellers’ market. In fact, Bloomberg says a “severe inventory shortage” is the main reason prices continue to head higher. Meanwhile, wage growth just hasn’t kept pace with home prices and this is hurting would-be first-time home buyers. Still, it’s pretty clear that housing demand is higher than supply, and renting is an increasingly unattractive option, so home prices should continue to rise.


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The free PS4 PS Plus games for February have been announced. There are five games awaiting PS4 players in the new month, three of which come from The BioShock Collection, which includes the first game, BioShock 2, and BioShock Infinite. PS4's other offering is The Sims 4, and PSVR owners can also grab Firewall: Zero Hour.
Free PS4 PlayStation Plus Games For February 2020 Revealed
Five PS4 games are up for grabs this month, thanks to The BioShock Collection and a bonus PSVR title.
Each month, GameSpot breaks down the free games included with your PlayStation Plus membership.


text: In tune with the weather, Google has finally warmed up to Canada and is now shipping its Nexus One smartphone to Canada. Previously, the Nexus One was only available to purchasers with a US shipping address and worked on a select set of 3G frequencies. Even if Canadians were able to purchase the phone from the US, Rogers, Bell and Telus subscribers could only use the device over 2G or EDGE networks resulting in slower data transfer rates. Google’s new version of the Nexus One, released March 17, is now capable of running on both Rogers and the new joint 3G+ network launched by Telus and Bell. The device will ship unlocked and is available from Google for $529.


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CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — Thousands of Australian meat workers have had no work for a second day after a cyberattack crippled the world’s largest meat processing company. Australian Agriculture Minister David Littleproud said Tuesday that it might take days for production to resume. JBS is Australia’s largest meat and food processing company, with 47 facilities including abattoirs, feedlots and meat processing sites. JBS USA said in a statement on Monday that it was the target on Sunday of an “organized cybersecurity attack” affecting some of its servers supporting its North American and Australian IT systems. Littleproud said the Australian government was working with JBS to resolve the problems.
The post JBS cyberattack disrupts Australian meat production appeared first on WEEK.


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Volvo has announced that it is appointing Dutch executive Lex Kerssemakers as its new U.S. chief. The 55-year-old replaces former chief Tony Nicolosi and will have an expanded role that will also see him run things in the rest of the Americas, including crucial emerging markets in South America. Nicolosi will now run Volvo’s finance company in the Americas.
Kerssemakers’ appointment comes at a time when Volvo’s sales in the U.S. are tanking. The automaker saw sales here drop 7.9 percent in 2014 to just 56,366 units. One of Kerssemakers’ first tasks will be to instigate a revival plan which calls for “over 100,000” sales in the medium term, driven by a renewal of the entire product range by the end of 2017.
The first of the new-generation Volvos is the 2016 XC90. It will be followed shortly by an S90 sedan and V90 wagon, after which we’ll see replacements for the S60, V60 and XC60. Also helping to boost sales will be an extensive marketing program dubbed the Volvo Way to Market. The program will see Volvo focus in four key areas: marketing tools, online presence, dealers and service.
Kerssemakers has worked in the auto industry for over 30 years and has held senior positions at Volvo for the past 16 years. His most recent role was head of product strategy and vehicle line management.
"I am looking forward to this challenge," Kerssemakers said in a statement. "The U.S. is a key market for the development of the group and today we get back onto the front foot.”
He will report to Volvo CEO Håkan Samuelsson.


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Tesla CEO Elon Musk will take crowdsourced question from retail investors at Q1 2018 earnings call
During electric vehicle manufacturer Tesla’s first-quarter 2018 earnings call this week, CEO Elon Musk will take a crowdsourced question from Tesla retail investors. Generally, individual investors who independently make investments in stocks, don’t get a chance to ask questions during earnings call.
In a recent Twitter post, Musk has apparently agreed to the proposal of fielding a crowdsourced question from Tesla retail investors at the company’s forthcoming quarterly earnings call.
The development is noteworthy because usually institutional investors usually get a chance to question management at the company’s quarterly earnings call. The venue for retail investors to ask questions is the company’s annual shareholders’ meeting which, for the year 2018, will be held in June.
Generally, at its quarterly earnings call, Tesla releases the results for a recently-ended quarter. The announcement of quarterly results is followed by a public conference call with financial analysts and the Tesla management.
Despite the fact that quarterly earnings call mostly unfolds an opportunity for the analysts from Wall Street firms to seek certain clarifications from the company’s management and to ask some more details with regard to the quarterly results, Musk’s candidness generally steers the conversation at the company’s quarterly earnings call towards a discussion about Tesla’s future plans and products.
At the Goodwood Festival of Speed event in the UK this week, Swedish technology start-up Einride has unveiled an all-electric and autonomous logging truck called The T-Log.
In response to an apparent suggestion in recently leaked reports that a wider ban on sales of non-electric cars is being proposed in the UK, environmentalists have said that the proposed ban is ‘not ambitious enough.’
Japanese electronics giant Panasonic has recently disclosed it is planning a 30 percent increase in the production of battery cells at Tesla Gigafactory 1 by the end of year 2018.
In a Thursday announcement, Sweden’s state-owned utility Vattenfall and Volvo Cars -- owned by Geely -- have revealed that they are teaming up for an arrangement which will allow the owners of electric vehicles (EVs) to recharge their vehicles at
In a recent clarification of its plans related to electrified vehicles, Volvo Cars has announced that it is aiming for 50% of its sales to be ‘fully electric’ by the year 2025.
In a recent press release, US electric vehicle maker Tesla Motors has officially confirmed that it has hit a new record production number in the 2018 third quarter. The news resulted in an increase of 2 points for the TSLA stock.


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MOSCOW, May 30. /TASS/. The Bank of Russia sold currency worth 2 bln rubles ($24.7 mln) with settlements on May 29 in the domestic market, the regulator reported on its website.
The volume of currency sold by the Bank of Russia with settlements on May 26 also amounted to 2 bln rubles.
The Ministry of Finance will allocate 40.4 bln rubles ($499 mln) for foreign currency sales from May 10 to June 6, the Ministry said earlier.