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Stocks tumbled after Wal-Mart Stores Inc. said higher gasoline prices curbed customer spending. The news sent many retail stocks lower, while government data showing a larger-than-expected jump in inflation also dampened investor enthusiasm.
The Standard & Poor's 500 index fell 14.53, or 1.18 percent, to 1,219.34, its biggest point drop in almost four months.
The Dow Jones industrial average dropped 120.93, or 1.14 percent, to 10,513.45 and the Nasdaq composite index slid 29.98, or 1.38 percent, to 2,137.06.
Wall Street is facing increasing evidence that high energy prices, spurred by record crude oil futures, are nipping consumer spending. Wal-Mart's stock dropped after the company blamed lower quarterly revenues on higher gasoline prices. Shares of other retailers, including Target Corp., Home Depot Inc. and Limited Brands Inc. dropped as well.
CBS News Correspondent Trish Regan reports that it's not just the giant retailers feeling the effects of higher energy costs. Florist Richard Sonnick is a one-man operation trying to cope with fuel surcharges tacked on by wholesalers.
"There's really nothing I can do. I have to eat it, to be honest with you. I hate to say it like that, but that's what I've been doing, I've been paying the extra," Sonnick said.
Regan reports that higher gas prices could soon translate into higher prices for the goods we buy and slow sales across the board.
"We are starting to see the bite from some of the risks that have been lurking in the background, like oil," said Hans Olsen, managing director and chief investment officer at Bingham Legg Advisers. "I think it's going to continue to be tougher for this market to do anything positive."
Investors also fretted over the latest reading of the Labor Department's Consumer Price Index, which rose 0.5 percent in July — the biggest increase in three months and larger than the 0.4 percent hike economists had expected. With food and energy prices removed, "core" CPI rose 0.1 percent.
Bonds rose sharply as stocks moved lower, with the yield on the 10-year Treasury note falling to 4.21 percent from 4.28 percent late Monday. The dollar was up against the euro and gold prices fell.
Crude oil futures traded in a narrow range but remained in the mid-$60 range — high enough to keep gasoline and heating oil prices near record levels. A barrel of light crude was quoted at $66.08, down 19 cents, on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
In one of the few bright spots of the session, investors welcomed the Commerce Department's report on home construction. For July, the number of housing projects started fell slightly to an annualized 2.042 million units, but housing permits issued reached a 21-year high.
Yet the retail sector sputtered.
Fellow Dow industrial Home Depot Inc. fell 94 cents to $40.67 despite reporting a 14 percent jump in quarterly profits that beat Wall Street's expectations by 3 cents per share on strong revenues. The company, apparently avoiding the energy pinch felt by Wal-Mart and other retailers, also increased its profit forecasts for the rest of the year.
Teen retailer Abercrombie & Fitch Co. closed regular trading down $2.32 to $61.23. Its earnings, released after the close of regular trading, missed analysts' estimates and the stock lost $4.48 to $56.75 in extended trading.
Ed Peters, chief investment officer at PanAgora Asset Management Inc. called the news from retailers "potentially troublesome." Other retail and consumer stocks dropped, including Target, which fell $1.44 to $55.71, Limited, which fell 84 cents to $23.35 and Starbucks Corp., which fell $1.15 to $51.09.
Computer maker Gateway Inc., which reported after the close of regular trading Monday, posted a quarterly profit for the first time in three years, but cut its profit and sales forecasts for the rest of the year. That led analysts at Bear Stearns to cut their rating on the company to "underperform" from "peer perform." Gateway tumbled fell 78 cents, or 20 percent, to $3.11.
Delta Air Lines Inc. rose 19 cents to $1.58 after it sold its Atlantic Southeast Airlines unit to SkyWest Inc. for $425 million in an effort to stave off bankruptcy. SkyWest climbed $2.97 to $25.01.
Declining issues outnumbered advancers by more than 2 to 1 on the New York Stock Exchange, where volume came to 1.38 billion shares, down from 1.18 billion Monday.
The Russell 2000 index of smaller companies fell 11.03, or 1.66 percent, to 654.61.
Overseas, Japan's Nikkei stock average rose 0.48 percent. Britain's FTSE 100 slipped 0.41 percent, Germany's DAX index lost 0.78 percent, and France's CAC-40 fell 0.49 percent.


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Rocket internet to invest up to €2.6bn in AI, fintech
German tech-focused venture capital (VC) firm Rocket Internet has announced that it will look to increase its investments in financial technology and artificial intelligence-focused companies.
The company has a cash pile of up to €2.6bn that it would be willing to attribute to these areas, having invested successfully into a number of startups including HelloFresh, Delivery Hero and Home24.
Accenture: Banks could raise revenues 34% by investing in AI and upskilling
“In the first quarter of 2018, our selected companies continued to make progress on their path towards profitability, while demonstrating sustainable growth”, says Oliver Samwer, CEO of Rocket Internet.
Having released its quarterly results of late, the company reported a consolidated profit of €75mn.
According to Reuters, Samwer has revealed that although the company has not set any criteria or a timeframe surrounding this, it is currently actively pursuing opportunities within the fintech and AI markets.
The news comes shortly after Alibaba’s purchase of Daraz, a Pakistan-based ecommerce platform, from Rocket Internet earlier this month, marking the Chinese company’s second purchase of Rocket Internet assets.
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IT firm, Taylor Made Computer Solutions, has revealed plans to transition to an all electric fleet starting next month with the delivery of six BMW i3s.
Taylor Made Computer Solutions’ founder and managing director Nigel Taylor said: “With the Government planning to ban the sale of all new petrol and diesel cars from 2040, it’s never been clearer that the future is electric.
"Businesses have a significant role to play in the switch to alternatively fuelled vehicles and we’re keen to start that journey right now.”
The six BMW i3s will initially be used as pool cars. With Taylor Made’s clients spreading across southern England, from Poole in the west to Brighton in the east, and London the BMWs will have the chance to show off their ability to recharge quickly when needed.
The cars can travel around 124 miles before needing to recharge and drivers will be able to do this at rapid DC charging stations, where the i3 can go from 0 to 80% charge in 39 minutes. Taylor Made will also install a charger at its headquarters in Fareham to ensure staff are topped up for their journeys.
The rest of Taylor Made’s vehicle fleet will transition to electric gradually over the coming years, most likely with a range of different makes and models.
It’s a step-change for the company, which last year bore the title of having the largest private business fleets of Skodas in UK. Taylor said: “Our current vehicles have relatively low emissions but we’re keen to take our carbon footprint down even lower.
"Making a positive impact on the world around us is important to all of us here at Taylor Made and we’re excited to take delivery of our six BMW i3s in December.”


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By CHRISTOPHER S. RUGABER AP Economics Writer
WASHINGTON — Sales at U.S. retailers fell in March from February, indicating that higher taxes and weak hiring likely made some consumers more cautious about spending.
Retail sales declined a seasonally adjusted 0.4 percent last month, the Commerce Department said Friday. That followed a 1 percent gain in February and a 0.1 percent decline in January. Both February and January figures were revised lower.
Consumers cut back across a wide range of categories last month. Sales at auto dealers dropped 0.6 percent. Gas station sales dropped 2.2 percent, partly reflecting lower prices. The retail figures aren't adjusted for price changes.
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Nintendo's Wii U has been responsible for some of the very best video games of recent months on any system.
Unfortunately, it still isn't selling very many.
The confusingly named all-new follow-up to the hugely popular Wii has sold less units in more than a year than the Xbox One and PS4 did in their first month on sale, Nintendo has admitted.
The company initially expected to sell 9 million Wii U machines in the financial year to April. Now? Just 2.8 million.
It also cut forecasts for its actually-very-successful 3DS handheld, with estimates down from 18 million to 13.5 million.
Overall Nintendo said it expects to make a $240m loss in this financial year. While the company as a whole is pretty healthy - it has at least $6 billion in the bank - it will have to work hard to regain a foothold in the living room console market, if that remains a long-term goal.
Titles to be launched in 2014 include Mario Kart 8 and a Wii U version of Super Smash Bros. These could bring another boost to the Wii U's fortunes, but it seems unlikely they will be the big breakthrough the system needs.
"It is now expected that our sales will fail to meet our previous forecast by a large margin," said Nintendo president Satoru Iwata.
On the Wii U, Iwata said:
"Sales in the U.S. and European markets in which we entered the year-end sales season with a hardware markdown were significantly lower than our original forecasts, with both hardware and software sales experiencing a huge gap from their targets.
In addition, we did not assume at the beginning of the fiscal year that we would perform a markdown for the Wii U hardware in the U.S. and European markets. This was also one of the reasons for lower sales and profit estimates."
Iwata has now presided over an 80% decline in the company's value since 2007.


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In 2014 innovative tech stocks and companies enjoyed phenomenal shareholder support. Shareholders bought in to companies who were able to illustrate user growth rates and the development of new tech products.
What shareholders are slowly starting to recognize is that new products and user growth rates don’t necessarily equal a return for equity holders. In fact, more often than not, to create user growth and new tech products these same tech stocks are actually costing shareholders money by overspending on innovation with little or no return. This often times means a total loss on cost inefficient projects (i.e. Amazon’s Fire Phone).
We have heard many different “experts” stating that we are seeing bubble-like levels in the equity markets, and that the market will suffer from a bubble burst similar to the tech bubble bursting of 2000. Before we can identify which momentum tech stocks will be crushed in 2015, we need to understand the difference between the tech bubble of the late ’90s and the current bubble-like enviornment.
In the ’90s nearly all dot com companies were exceptionally highly valued, with many enjoying P/E’s over 200, P/S over 15 and P/B ratios well over 10. That is absolutely ludacris in terms of valuation from a fundamental valuation metrics standpoint. Bear in mind these experts are stating that the market is at bubble levels due to P/B ratios nearing 2.0. Let’s see, which is greater? P/S over 15 in the late 90’s or P/S nearing 2.0 currently?
We need to quantiy this a little further. Investors still have the market collapses we endured from 2000 through 2011 still fresh in their minds, and rightfully so. Many individual investor retirement accounts are only now returning to the values they were at before the market collapse. A knee-jerk reaction is somewhat warranted.
Also, the tech bubble pushed the entire market higher. Tech companies needed cash to expand. Banks, private investors and equity firms invested in those tech companies. Then, when those tech companies, who weren’t cash-flow positive when they first received their initial investments, went belly-up the investors were forced to write-off those investments as total losses.
When tech stocks fail, unlike brick and mortar type businesses, there are limited assets available to recover losses during the bankruptcy process. This means that even bond holders and Round A investors, initial investors, are hard pressed to recover their investment. This resulted in severe pressure being put on the banks and other investment institutions to recover their investment through alternative methods.
Enter the housing bubble and subsequent collapse.
Now we need to look at the current economic and market conditions. Yes, the overall market P/S ratio is nearing 2.0. The S&P 500 P/S ratio currently sits just above 1.8 to be exact. However, the economic situation couldn’t be more different now compared to the late 90’s. Here are some key differences:
- Existing home sales are still exceptionally weak. Comparable existing homes are cheaper than comparable new home prices. This means it is more expensive for home buyers to purchase a new home compared to an existing home. This is the exact opposite economic condition of the late 90’s when it was cheaper to buy a new home compared to a comparable existing home.
- We are in a rising interest rate enviornment, with interest rates projected to rise to 0.75 – 1.0% by the end of 2015. Investment “experts” disagree with this opinion, but there is a reason they are investment “experts” and not economists. ( See the latest Federal Reserve Minutes ) By 2000 we were in a falling interest rate and slowly creeping unemployment economy, which spurred individuals to refinance mortgages.
- The rental market is decidedly in a bubble. To rent a 1,200 sq. ft. property in Chicago compared to purchasing a comparable 1,200 sq. ft. property costs approximately 25% or more to rent vs. own. This also doesn’t take into account the lack of the accumulation of wealth that comes with individuals purchasing and making payments on a home, as opposed to renting which results in zero equity in a residence.
- The combination of the aforementioned housing market statistics creates a great deal of incentive for individuals who have been renting to purchase a home. A rising interest rate enviornment paired with bubble-like rental market conditions and a strengthening job market will drastically improve the housing market, and subsequently the banking sector as individuals need to finance home purchases.
As we can see, the economic climate is entirely different now compared to early 2000. The basis for the opinion that we are enduring the bubble effect in the overall market simply isn’t accurate. Corporate profits, revenues and earnings have been setting records for nine consecutive quarters now.
Where the bubble talk is somewhat accurate resides in the technology and social media spaces. However, this statement also needs clarification. These two spaces are nowhere near the levels or quite as similar to the late 90’s tech sector as people make it out to be.
Aside from the P/B, P/S and P/E that we mentioned earlier, it is important to note that during the 90’s dot com bubble more than 72% of the publicly traded dot com companies had PEG ratios of more than 50. In simpler terms this means that dot com companies share prices were growing 50 times faster than their respective earnings. That is certainly not the condition with the tech stocks and social media stocks currently.
There is a noticeable divergence forming between the best tech stocks and social media stocks to own and the rest. The key differential being noticed on a revenue per share basis.
Many tech and social media companies have been revered for their innovation and willingness to develop new products. Twitter, Facebook, WhatsApp, Vine and other social media players are touted for their massive user bases. Apple, Google, Amazon and other tech giants are applauded for developing new consumer tech that continually pushes the envelope.
Each of the companies above have very different management styles. Apple is probably the best test case for the rest of the field to heed. While Apple was determined in the 80’s to bring the most cutting edge product to market, it did so at the detriment of shareholders. If not for a sizeable investment by Bill Gates, Apple would have gone bankrupt. That is precisely why Apple now has the cash hoard it does today, refusing to ever endure that fate again.
Unfortunately for some companies and shareholders alike, these three companies’ management teams have not learned from the past. They too, much like Apple of the 80’s and the tech stocks of the tech bubble 90’s, have decided to disregard their shareholders to pursue their own objectives. While some of those objectives may be admirable, such as attempting to push technology further than anyone ever has, some objectives are rather self-serving.
Here are the three huge momentum tech stocks that will be crushed in 2015 due to their failure to maintain value for shareholders.
Google- Google is one of the best and brightest tech companies in the world. The debate between Google and Apple fans over which has the superior product has been going on for the better part of the past decade. Google has lost site of the value proposition they need to create for shareholders.
In 2014 Google conducted a stock split issuing an entirely new class of share for the general shareholder. These new shares have effectively zero voting interest in matters of actual importance to the tech giant. Google also has very lofty fundamental valuation metrics with a P/E north of 26, a Forward P/E of 16.7, a P/S of more than 5, and a PEG of 1.22.
The lofty valuation is paired with some projects that are costing shareholders additional revenue by way of increased costs. Google’s driverless cars and wearable tech (smart watches specifically) do not add additional profit to the balance sheet. At this point both of these items cost Google money to develop, test and produce. While R&D is required, and Google is determined to keep pushing the technology envelope, Google is in desperate need of a game changer in terms of creating value for shareholders. At this point, the only option they may have is issuing a dividend to their shareholders.
Twitter- Twitter is the most popular source of news for individuals of 34 years and younger. The social media news outlet still has an impressive growth rate, although beginning to slow on a year over year basis as shown in the last two earnings conference calls.
Where Twitter has faltered is in their inability to manage their own market capitalization correctly. Twitter was given an astronomical market capitalization, or valuation by the market, because of the growth rate and expected ability of management to monetize the social media business. Twitter had a perfect model to follow in Facebook, who also had an above market value market cap.
Facebook used that market cap to acquire other companies to broaden their user base, expand user growth and expand product offerings. Twitter failed to successfully accomplish any of those tasks with their lofty market cap. Subsequently, Twitter’s stock has fallen from $70 per share to less than $40 per share.
Twitter’s stock still has plenty of room to fall unless they turn things around. Either Twitter needs to make a sweeping change at the senior management level or Twitter needs to use what market cap they have left to start making acquisitions to broaden the user base and product offerings.
Amazon- Amazon’s fundamental valuation metrics are unfathomably high. The current P/E isn’t even applicable, which is never a good thing because it means it is that overvalued. Amazon has a Forward P/E of more than 300. You read that right, 300! They also have a PEG ratio of -8.7!
These metrics simply don’t measure up, or add up for investors to rationalize giving the consumer tech company such a lofty valuation. Next we add in the thought process of Jeff Bezos. To preface this statement, it is not our own but rather Jeff Bezos’s himself. Jeff Bezos does not want to push technology further than anyone has before (a la Google). Jeff Bezos does not want to connect the world (a la Facebook and Twitter). Jeff Bezos wants to “rule the world.” To accomplish that goal he has pushed shareholder concerns aside to pursue what he believes will best serve that interest. Amazon Now, the 1-hour delivery service Amazon just unveiled , is yet another illustration of Amazon’s disregard it’s shareholders.
While Amazon Prime may have enjoyed a successful holiday season with 10 million new members signing up, that will hardly put a dent in the valuation deficiency of the share price. Even with Amazon less than 10% above their 52-week low, the stock will endure a great deal more pain before Jeff Bezos realizes he needs to relinquish control of the business to a more astute individual or team.


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The historic Neir’s Tavern in Woodhaven is getting a much-needed cash infusion to help it stay afloat as the city begins its post-COVID reopening.
The 191-year-old bar and grill, one of the oldest establishments in the five boroughs, is one of 25 historic and culturally significant restaurants across the United States to be recognized with a $40,000 grant from American Express and the National Trust for Historic Preservation.
“Neir’s Tavern is so grateful to be included as an American Express and National Trust for Historic Preservation grant recipient,” Neir’s Tavern owner Loycent Gordon said. “As the oldest establishment on the list, we appreciate that these organizations are spotlighting the need to preserve historic small businesses across the country.”
Established in 1829, Neir’s Tavern survived the 1918 Spanish Flu pandemic, two world wars and the Great Depression, but nearly went out of business in 2020 until the de Blasio administration helped broker a new deal to keep the doors open. The COVID-19 pandemic created new challenges for the establishment as it draws closer to its bicentennial.
“As we struggle to survive our second pandemic, this grant will ensure that Neir’s Tavern’s outdoor area is not only maintained but enhanced,” Gordon said.
The “Backing Historic Small Restaurants” funding will help each of the 25 historic establishments enhance restaurant exteriors, build new outdoor seating areas, and upgrade online businesses to help mitigate operating costs as they work to recover from the pandemic.
“Historic small restaurants are cultural treasures that strengthen their communities and carry their legacies and traditions forward in deeply meaningful ways,” National Trust Chief Preservations Officer Katherine Malone-France said. “These restaurants have demonstrated their resiliency for decades, and even while dealing with the financial impacts of the pandemic, they have continued to support their communities in many ways.”
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Gordon established a customer community group called Neir’s 200 to feed hundreds of community members, conducted antibody testing and cardiovascular screenings for people who were avoiding medical facilities.
“We are honored to play a role in supporting these historic small restaurants that have served their communities for decades,” American Express Chief Corporate Affairs Officer Jennifer Skyler said. “This program expands our legacy of backing small businesses by helping to preserve these iconic restaurants and support their recovery from the pandemic so they can continue to welcome customers for years to come.”
As part of the grant program, American Express’ partners will also provide support to the historic small restaurants in areas their businesses need most.
“We’re thrilled to be part of this outstanding initiative and support these historical small restaurants with innovative products and services that will help them pivot to doing business in new ways,” AT&T National Business & Channels President Stacey Marx said. “These are places just down the street where our communities come together, and we’re honored to help them build brand loyalty through a digital customer experience.”
Neir’s Tavern served as the original location for the Martin Scorcese crime classic “Goodfellas” and Ben Stiller’s “Tower Heist.” It was also frequented by Mae West, who got her start in the old ballroom.
“Like all small businesses, these restaurants and their employees represent the backbone of the U.S. economy and are at the hearts of our neighborhoods,” Dell Technologies Senior Vice President Erik Day said. “In a year when so many businesses have been tested, we’re standing alongside these historic restaurants and providing them solutions that will help them upgrade their digital business capabilities, drive efficiencies and improve their customer service.”


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UK government announces new nuclear power facilities
The UK government has today confirmed plans for eight new nuclear facilities across the country but surprisingly these ventures will be taken on by the private sector. In what is a long-term cost reduction programme the UK government has announced that the new expanded nuclear program will be administered by the private sector and ultimately reduce any liabilities in the short term for taxpayers. However, will the long-term liabilities also disappear for UK taxpayers?
There is concern that the UK government will eventually foot the bill for nuclear cleanups in the future despite the fact it is looking to transfer ownership and management of this project to the private sector - with UK taxpayers at least relieved of the initial investment required. However, when you look back at nuclear power in the UK the cost to cleanup old nuclear plants has been well in excess of the initial investment required to build and operate these ventures.
This also comes at a time when the UK government had initially been very keen on green energy but has today announced the cancellation of a £30 billion green energy venture across the Severn estuary. Quite how the government can justify a reduction in green energy investment yet still maintain that it is looking for cleaner, greener and cheaper energy in the future is a mystery.
Mitsubishi announces £10,000 off electric car
The award-winning Mitsubishi i MiEV electric vehicle will now be available with an additional £10,000 reduction from the original cost price. The vehicles will now retail at £28,990 although when you take into account the UK government's £5,000 green incentive this figure falls further to £23,990. There is no doubt that the Mitsubishi i MiEV is one of the most eagerly awaited electric cars to...Read More
Asda takes price promotions to a new level
UK supermarket giant Asda has today revealed that customers will be refunded the difference if they find their groceries cheaper at any rival supermarkets. In a bid to grab back the company's falling share of the supermarket sector Asda has set up a website whereby customers type in their receipt details and can compare the cost of their goods to those sold by the likes of Tesco, Morrison, etc. If...Read More
UK train network in disarray
As we have reported over the last few weeks, a number of UK train franchises are under significant financial pressure as the economic downturn continues to hit both costs and passenger numbers. However, National Express has attracted fury from consumer groups after announcing the introduction of reservation charges on its East Coast and East Anglia franchise. Those looking to reserve a single tick...Read More
Have You Protected Your Income?
A survey by the Yorkshire Building Society has laid bare the full hardship which many in the UK will experience if they were ever to lose their jobs. It seems that the vast majority in the UK are totally unprepared for the possibility that they may see their income disappear if they were unable to work. In a nightmare scenario it is forecast that the average Briton would only last 52 days in the...Read More
Energy firms 'hoarding customer money'
Up to six out of ten Britons could be giving gas companies more money than they are due.New research suggests that with 61 per cent of energy customers paying their bills through direct debit, utility firms are amassing a £490 million cash float by failing to reflect gas price falls in consumer tariffs.Moneysupermarket says that it can take energy companies up to six months to rectify the discrep...Read More


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Troubled home sales dwindling in area
Foreclosed properties, short sales and government-owned properties are accounting for fewer central Ohio home sales than they did a year ago, according to a report released yesterday by the Columbus Board of Realtors.
The report provides another sign that real estate is slowly returning to normal, but it also shows how far from normal the market remains.
During the fourth quarter of 2012, such “distressed” properties made up 31 percent of home sales in central Ohio, down from about 35 percent a year earlier.
In the same period, the total percentage of homes for sale in central Ohio that are distressed fell from about 25 percent to 21 percent.
Despite the declines, such properties continue to occupy a far-larger share of the market than they would during a healthy market. Experts say in a normal market, about 5 percent of sales would be foreclosures, short sales or government-owned.
The number of distressed properties varies widely throughout central Ohio.
In the Groveport Madison school district and in Whitehall, such properties accounted for more than 40 percent of all listings and sales during the fourth quarter. In Grandview Heights and Downtown, on the other extreme, they accounted for less than 8 percent of sales and listings.
The report also reveals that distressed properties come at a huge discount. While central Ohio homes sold in a traditional way fetched $161,500 on average last quarter, distressed homes sold for $67,000.
Such homes also sell more quickly, in an average of 61 days compared with 92 days for conventional homes.


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Audi Selects Mobileum for Connected Car Testing
July 7, 2021—Audi announced earlier this week it is partnering with Mobileum to test and monitor its line of connected cars.
Mobileum, an analytics-based network services testing and monitoring service, will help Audi remotely test its internet-compatible vehicles' connections and "improve the connected car experience," according to a news release.
"By implementing Mobileum's Connected Car Testing solution, Audi ensures that its customers will experience the best online infotainment, safety, navigation, and communication capabilities while they are in the car," according to the release.
A report from CounterPoint shows around 75 percent of new vehicles will have some form of internet connectivity by 2025. Audi currently has more than 5 million connected cars in 74 countries.


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If your organisation is a member of the RSN through the SPARSE, Rural Assembly, RSP or RHCA you can book your free place at the National Rural Conference now and join rural specialists to debate key issues. We have over 600 bookings already so book your place now!
The government’s commitment to levelling up is incredibly important, and timely
The countryside and rural communities are a key part of British life – literally fuelling the country with the fantastic food this land produces and contributing more than £120 billion to the national economy.
We would have struggled, especially through the pandemic, without our iconic countryside to escape to and our farmers keeping supermarket shelves full. A recent NFU survey showed that 87% of people said visiting the British countryside during this time had improved their wellbeing, and the value of this can’t be underestimated.
And there is so much more rural Britain can deliver for the nation, from producing more climate-friendly food to improving our health and wellbeing – if it is allowed a place within the government’s levelling up agenda.
To truly level up the country and rural Britain, government departments need to address issues that span across society, geography and policy. One of these issues is broadband provision. Access to sufficient mobile and broadband is key for future growth, yet 60% of NFU members have said their broadband is not sufficient for modern business needs. If rural businesses are to deliver more green growth and jobs and boost the rural and national economy, we need access to this fundamental tool.
Another area that can deliver huge benefits for the country, if granted more accessible funding, are farm diversifications. Around 65% of all farm businesses in England run other enterprises such as farm shops, camp sites, wedding venues and B&Bs. These businesses are extremely valuable to the social fabric of our country as well as the economy, generating more than £740 million in 2019.
And at the heart of many rural limitations is the lack of rural proofing. Rural proofing should ensure that government policy agendas work well for everyone. However, it has only really been implemented in Defra.
Yet people living and working in the countryside also have issues with affordable housing, planning, health, education and transport, so other government departments are just as relevant. That is why we need a dedicated strategy which ensures all government departments consider rural matters from the outset.
If the government is serious about levelling up the country then a revolutionary approach to rural Britain is needed; one which maximises the potential of a community which covers 70% of the country and plays such a core role in our national prosperity – something we can all get behind.
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FDI in retail will increase unemployment: BJP
New Delhi: Opposing the government`s move to allow foreign direct investment in multi-brand retail, BJP on Friday said it will create unemployment in the country and adversely affect thousands of traders in the sector.
"FDI is not required in retail sector. Cold storage facility is not rocket science that you need FDI for it," BJP spokesperson Prakash Javdekar told reporters outside
Parliament House today.
The Union Cabinet yesterday allowed 51 percent FDI in multi-brand stores and 100 per cent FDI in single brand stores in the country. Government has maintained that farmers will get higher remuneration and the FDI will help developing logistics and cold chains in the country.
Rubbishing government`s claims, Javdekar said, "On the contrary it will create unemployment and adversely affect thousands of traders in the sector. We are against FDI in retail sector and we will oppose it."
He said in the absence of power and roads, cold chains cannot be developed.
BJP leader SS Ahluwalia said, "Two Standing Committees have given reports against the FDI in retail sector. But still the government went ahead with FDI. It must be withdrawn."
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General Studies Destination For IAS, Sate PCS and One Day Examinations
Maharashtra launches SMART initiative for Agribusiness, Rural Transformation
Maharashtra, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis has launched a unique initiative called “SMART” to transform rural area.
SMART stands for State of Maharashtra’s Agribusiness and Rural Transformation.
This World Bank assisted project aims to revamp agricultural value chains, with special focus on marginal farmers across 1,000 villages.
As per State Chief Minister, this initiative is a step towards doubling farmers’ income by 2022. He added that it will also support post-harvest value chain and bring efficiency to benefit economy at large. Stimulating small and medium enterprises within the value chain, the project seeks to establish partnership between the various stakeholders in the agri-business segments including farmer organisations, start-ups, SMEs and large corporates along with women’s self-help groups.
The project will entail an investment of 300 million US dollars of which World Bank would contribute 210 million US dollars. Almost 50 Memorandum of Understanding, involving top corporate houses like Amazon and Tata were signed on the occasion.


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|End-of-day quote - 06/17|
GRAIN HIGHLIGHTS: Top Stories of the Day
|10/29/2020 | 04:35pm|
Wheat Down For Fourth Straight Session
Wheat for December delivery fell 0.8% to $6.03 3/4 a bushel on the Chicago Board of Trade Thursday in reaction to more rain in major wheat-growing areas in the U.S. and Russia. Corn for December delivery fell 0.8% to $3.98 1/2 a bushel. Soybeans for January delivery fell 0.4% to $10.50 1/2 a bushel.
Precipitation in the U.S. Plains and Russia pressured CBOT wheat futures Thursday, marking the fourth consecutive session that wheat lost ground. "Showers are more promising Friday through the weekend as a system gets cut-off and meanders in the area," agricultural weather firm DTN said.
Archer-Daniels-Midland 3Q Revenue Misses Estimates, Adj Earnings Beats
Archer-Daniels-Midland Co.'s revenue fell 9.6% in the third quarter and its profit slipped.
The company's bottom line was $225 million for the quarter, which was lower than its profit of $407 million a year prior. Earnings were 40 cents a share, ADM said Thursday, down from 72 cents a share.
Biden Win Could Put Ethanol Demand in Question -- Market Talk
11:01 ET - If Joe Biden, who's leading incumbent Donald Trump by nine points in the presidential race, according to data from FiveThirtyEight, prevails come Election Day next week, then grains traders may become concerned that a Biden Administration could affect domestic corn demand. "The spring shutdown of the economy slashed ethanol demand by 50% at the time, and we are still paying the price for that," Arlan Suderman of StoneX says. "Trump has stated that he will not do that again, while Biden has hinted that he might, and that has the corn and ethanol industry very nervous." Corn futures on the CBOT are down 0.1%. (email@example.com; @kirkmaltais)
STORIES OF INTEREST:
Kraft Heinz Tags Food Affordability As Growing Issue -- Market Talk
09:27 ET - Food affordability is a rising issue for many consumers, executives at Kraft Heinz tell analysts on a call about 3Q results. That focus, coming after the coronavirus-related economic shock left millions of people out of work in the US and elsewhere, could pose a threat to demand for pricier branded products at Kraft and other packaged-food items if shoppers opt for lower-cost private-label brands offered by retail chains. Kraft executives say consumers want to buy big, trusted brands during recessions, as well as some private-label lines, but smaller food brands don't perform as well amid downturns. Shares up 1% ahead of the market open. (firstname.lastname@example.org; @MicahMaidenberg)
Dunkin' Talks Continue with Inspire -- Market Talk
0653 ET - Dunkin' Brands says talks continue with Inspire Brands as to an acquisition, and declines to comment further in a 3Q earnings release. "There is no certainty that any agreement will be reached," the coffee and ice-cream chain says. Dunkin' said Sunday that it was in preliminary discussions by private-equity backed Inspire for a possible deal. Dunkin' says it will defer issuing a decision on dividend until 4Q given the talks. Dunkin' up 33% this year. (email@example.com; @heatherhaddon)
Hog Futures Finish Lower as Export Sales Weaken -- Market Talk
15:27 ET - Weaker export sales reported by the USDA Thursday appear to have dragged down lean hog futures on the CME, with the most-active contract finishing the day down 1.1% to 65.625 cents per pound. In its report Thursday, the USDA said that export sales of US pork for the week ending Oct. 22 totaled 29,000 metric tons - which is down 24% from the prior 4-week average. Sales of US pork to China totaled only 2,500 tons, only a sliver of total US pork exports. "Mandatory price reporting data, which is limited, has been signaling a slowdown in pork export sales and the update released this morning confirmed that," says Steiner Consulting Group. Meanwhile, live cattle futures finished up 3.2% higher to $1.07975 per pound. (firstname.lastname@example.org; @kirkmaltais)
(END) Dow Jones Newswires


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LONDON -- Daytraders are a rare breed in the U.K., but starting this week they will be able to ply their trade in U.S. stocks.
, the U.K. division of Dallas-based online brokerage
, announced it was offering a version of its Direct Access service, which U.S. daytraders use to deal directly with market makers, to British investors interested in trading American shares.
The Direct Access system will give U.K. traders Internet access to a
Nasdaq Level II
quote screen, the same screen traders from big institutions like
see when they trade.
For those Americans who think the country has far too many daytraders as it is, that's bad news. It's also a sign that there are still too many impediments to trade in the U.K. stock market.
InvestIN's service will cost $300 per month for the software, which is refunded if a person carries out more than 75 trades during that time. Trade commissions will range between $12 and $16, plus 1 cent per share. The commission on 100 shares of IBM, the company says, would cost $13, which compares favorably with the $29.95 fee the U.K. arm of
would charge. By comparison, many U.S. online brokers charge single-digit commissions.
Not only is Schwab's $29.95 commission indicative of the high costs U.K. Internet traders suffer when buying U.S. stocks, but online traders in British shares are further penalized by a mandatory 0.5% tax on all share purchases. There is no U.S. equivalent of this "stamp duty," as it is known.
Ben Ensor, an analyst at the London-based consultancy
, also points out that the U.K. market is still wedded to the costly certificate-based system of share and fund ownership -- stockholders get certificates proving their ownership -- unlike the ubiquitous trustee system in the U.S. Stephen Coles, a director of InvestIN Securities, says the practice of issuing certificates is declining, but there are still many people who prefer it.
Finally, for traders to deal directly with each other they must be members of the
London Stock Exchange
. Therefore, retail investors who are not members of the LSE are forbidden from broadcasting their bids without the aid of a broker.
Fletcher's Ensor says financiers in the City of London appear to be trying to recreate the same environment that contributed to the high stock valuations seen in U.S. by limiting the amount of publicly traded shares in initial public offerings, such as those of
. Such illiquidity fosters the highly volatile conditions that are well suited to daytraders.
Yet any bull run in the market similar to that seen in the U.S. is unlikely to occur because of the structural impediments that effectively bar the daytrader from entering the market.
Coles says he knows of some daytraders in the U.K., but their numbers are low because of these barriers, and as such InvestIN has received a large number of inquiries since Monday about the Direct Access service.
"We're hearing from the new investor who wants to trade in U.S. stocks, and there's been a good response from investors who are already trading in the U.K. market and want to trade in U.S. stocks," Coles says.
While many see daytraders as the pariahs of the U.S. stock market, their numbers are few -- there are an estimated 100,000 active daytraders in the U.S. -- and they represent only the extreme example of the online trader, who is generally seen as a good thing for the market.
And with more and more firms such as Freeserve and
beginning to offer online-trading services, more retail investors may be exactly what the U.K. needs. Perhaps the presence of the much-maligned daytrader is a necessary evil.


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Stunning clothing belonging to the late Vogue Italia editor Franca Sozzani goes up for sale two years after her death – including opulent gowns by Valentino and monogrammed designer bags
- Late Vogue Italia editor Franca Sozzani's wardrobe to go on sale on February 11
- 397 ready-to-wear and haute couture pieces and 190 accessories to go on sale
- The proceeds will go to her charity Franca Sozzani Fund for Preventive Genomics
- She passed away from lung cancer in December 2016 after 28 years as editor
The coveted wardrobe of late Vogue Italia editor Franca Sozzani will go on sale next week, it has been revealed.
Sozzani tragically died of lung cancer in December 2018 aged just 66, having spent a record-breaking 28 years at the helm of the fashion bible in Italy.
Despite her tragic death, her fashion legacy lives on and will be resurrected when her vibrant collection of 397 ready-to-wear and haute couture pieces, and 190 accessories, goes on sale on online retail platform Yoox on February 11.
Proceeds from the sale will go to the new Franca Sozzani Fund for Preventive Genomics at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital at Harvard, which was founded by her son Francesco Carrozzini, 36.
The coveted wardrobe of late Vogue Italia editor Franca Sozzani will go on sale next week, two years after she died from lung cancer in 2016. Pieces include the vibrant Valentino dress she wore at the amfAR Inspiration Gala New York 2014 (above)
The collection will reflect Sozzani's career, which spanned almost three decades, in five categories: The Eclectic, The Black Tale, The Londoner, The Unconventional and The Dream Dimension.
Pieces from her collection include a Miu Miu checked coat she wore during Paris Fashion Week in 2015, a personalised Louis Vuitton bag and a pair of velvet Manolo Blahnik pumps.
As well as her contribution to the fashion world, Sozzani was an active campaigner in the charity world, raising awareness on AIDS, sustainable development initiatives and supporting the European Institute of Oncology.
Despite her tragic death, her fashion legacy lives on and will be resurrected when her vibrant collection of 397 ready-to-wear and haute couture pieces and 190 accessories goes on sale on online retail platform Yoox on February 11. She is seen, left, in Valentino in 2014, which will go on sale next week
Sozzani tragically died of lung cancer in December 2018 aged just 66, having spent a record-breaking 28 years at the helm of the fashion bible in Italy. A Miu Miu checked coat, which she wore during Paris Fashion Week in 2015, left, is among the items up for sale
Her only son Francesco reportedly decided to donate the private collection towards cancer research after losing his mother to the disease, and speaking to Federico Marchetti, founder of Yoox.
Sozzani's career began with Vogue Bambini in 1976 after graduating in literature and philosophy at Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore in Milan.
She was appointed editor-in-chief of Vogue Italia in 1988, around the same time as Anna Wintour was appointed editor of US Vogue.
Proceeds from the sale will go to the new Franca Sozzani Fund for Preventive Genomics at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital at Harvard. One of the accessories up for sale is the Louis Vuitton bag seen above, which has been monogrammed with her initials
The late Franca Sozzani seen attending the Versace show as part of Paris Fashion Week Haute Couture Fall/Winter 2015/2016, above. The Ermanno Scervino dress she wore is also up for sale
Not afraid to touch on controversial issues, she released a 'makeover' issue in 2010, dedicating an entire issue to the boom in plastic surgery.
Another memorable issues of the magazine under her helm included 'The Black Issue' in 2008 - focusing solely on celebrating black women's beauty.
Just months before her death she was honoured by the British Fashion Awards this year, who gave the editor the Swarovski Fashion Award For Positive Change.
Sozzani's 190 accessories will go on sale on online retail platform Yoox on February 11, with her velvet Manolo Blahnik shoes, seen above, among them
A vibrant Prada coat that Franca wore during her reign as a Vogue Italia editor is among the items going on sale next week
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ASICS EMEA has reported its 2022 financial results, with revenues increasing by 14.2 per cent* versus 2021 and an operating income margin of nine per cent.
ASICS EMEA saw profitable growth across all its categories in 2022, including Performance Running, Tennis, Indoor and SportStyle. In wholesale channels, ASICS reported year-on-year growth of 15 per cent with significant increases in Benelux (53%), France (21%), Germany (16%), Iberia (30%), Italy (36%), Sweden (14%), UK and Ireland (14%) versus 2021.
ASICS EMEA, Chief Executive Officer, Carsten Unbehaun, said: “Despite the challenges of global supply chain congestion in early 2022, ASICS EMEA has ended the year in a very strong position. These results are a testament to the strength of our brand, the superiority of our products and the collaboration with our partners. We remain committed to building strong relationships with our wholesale partners, and I want to thank them for their continued support.
“As we look ahead, I am optimistic about 2023 despite the market circumstances. We are driving innovation across the entire business with game-changing product introductions planned throughout the year. We recently launched the GEL-NIMBUS™ 25 running shoes and have received extremely positive reviews of the most comfortable running shoes.
“Lastly, I want to reinforce that at ASICS, our five letters have meaning, ‘Anima Sana In Corpore Sano’, which translates to a Sound Mind in a Sound Body. Our goal is to continue to support more people to achieve a Sound Mind in a Sound Body through our innovative products and services that get people moving and keep them moving.”
Supporting more people to move for body and mind.
Throughout 2022, we continuously brought our Sound Mind, Sound Body purpose to life through research and campaigns that championed the link between exercise and the mind. Through our products, partnerships and programmes, we supported more people to move for positive mental health.
Blast on. Blast off.
During 2022, we championed our product innovations featuring FF BLAST™ technology. From the GEL-NIMBUS™ 24 to GEL-KAYANO™ 29 and finally NOVABLAST™ 3 running shoes, we demonstrated how our purposefully crafted products deliver positive energy to body and mind, helping all runners to feel uplifted.
More top athletes chose to run in ASICS.
From Richard Ringer winning at the European Championships in METASPEED™ SKY+ shoes to Eilish McColgan, who had an incredible year competing in three major championships and winning gold and silver at the Commonwealth Games – more and more top athletes chose to run in ASICS in 2022.
COURT FF 2 Novak voted Shoe of the Year.
For the second year in a row, COURT FF™ NOVAK, the only Tennis shoe designed with Novak Djokovic, was voted shoe of the year. Chosen by Tennis players and fans, ASICS prevailed over 27 other models in head-to-head voting.
Iga Świątek wears ASICS during historic year.
ASICS athlete, Iga Świątek became the world’s number-one Tennis player in 2022 Świątek’s successful season saw eight tournament wins, including two Grand Slam titles. She won 67 matches and registered a 37-match winning streak from February to July, the longest undefeated stretch in women’s Tennis since 1990.
Sneaker brand of the year.
Influential HYPEBEAST declared ASICS the Best Footwear Brand of 2022, describing ASICS as one of the year’s most fashionable and sought-after sneaker brands.
Crafts for Mind.
Through its Crafts for Mind programme, ASICS partnered with renowned brands and designers, Kassl Editions, Helen Kirkum and Cecilie Bahnsen, creating limited edition sneakers to raise funds for mental wellbeing organisations.
*Excluding Onitsuka Tiger


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NEW YORK (AP) — FedEx Corp. says the global economy is stalling, and it’s going to get worse next year.
The conditions are shrinking earnings at the world’s second-largest package delivery company. Factories are making fewer items for FedEx to ship and customers are opting for cheaper delivery options to save money.
FedEx on Tuesday cut its outlook for global growth and industrial production while slashing the forecast for company earnings. And CEO Fred Smith suggested trade has slowed to levels seen during the last two significant economic downturns.
It’s more evidence that the global economy has a way to go to a full recovery. Several countries in Europe are in recession and the U.S. is struggling with high unemployment and weaker manufacturing growth. And Smith said some experts have underestimated the severity of the slowdown in exports from China, where FedEx has invested heavily over the last several years, adding new planes to export goods and expanding its hubs and network.
FedEx’s forecasts are closely watched for signals of future economic health. Its results provide insight into the global economy because of the number of products it ships and the number of countries in which it does business. Bigger rival UPS said in July that it expects the global economy to get worse before it gets better. UPS also cut its earnings forecast.
The slow pace of economic recovery is hurting FedEx because it relies on sharp spurts of demand to feed its air network. Demand for air freight is usually strong coming out of a period of slow economic growth, because retailers have whittled down their inventory and need to replenish quickly when demand picks up. The current recovery in the U.S. is the slowest since World War II.
FedEx lowered its expectations for U.S. economic growth to 2.2 percent in 2012 and 1.9 percent next year. Those are mostly in line with economists’ views.
Economic growth around the globe has slowed over the last several months. Output has declined in Japan, China and elsewhere in Asia. U.S. industrial production last month fell by the largest amount in more than three years, as factories produced fewer cars, pieces of furniture and other goods.
Meanwhile rising gas prices and high unemployment kept consumers from spending freely.
Smith said a continued slowdown in the developed world combined with high fuel prices will keep trade volumes trailing growth in the world’s economies, mimicking a trend seen in the last two recessions.


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In a turn of events that seems like the results of a MadLibs game gone awry, there are spiders in Austria that might be giving people boners.
According to TMZ, an Austrian location of the grocery store chain Netto had to temporarily close its doors after there were reports of a Brazilian Wandering Spider on the property. The Brazilian Wandering Spider’s bite is pretty gnarly, causing excruciating pain, an increase in blood pressure, and yes, a raging hard-on.
Is there a way to order one of these? https://t.co/S6QKUX1fok— tally (@tallywyte) August 11, 2023
There’s a whole bunch of science explaining why exactly this happens. There was even some talk a decade ago about the spider having some medicinal benefits as a Viagra alternative (they just had to figure out how to get rid of the “excruciating pain” part, presumably).
But no matter the reason, the idea of a bunch of rock-hard Austrians running through the streets of Krems an der Donau was apparently too much for local authorities, who ordered the store to close. They also haven’t found the spider yet, meaning that there’s an Austrian out there who may soon be getting an unexpected Ständer in the near future.
My man needs to shop there i see https://t.co/mxTOhLx4WB— Liz (@Vega969) August 11, 2023
This isn’t the first time that people have found these spiders outside of their natural habitat. In 2017, a British woman claimed to have found eggs from the spider while eating a banana. A similar thing happened in the country a year prior. And lest you think boner spiders are solely a European problem, they’ve been spotted in the United States as well, with a dude claiming he found one in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
All this said, we can’t be certain if the spider those spooked Austrians saw was, in fact, a Brazilian Wandering Spider. Apparently, the spider gets misidentified a lot. Still, if you happen to live in Krems an der Donau, keep an eye out. And avoid sweatpants.


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The French-Japanese carmaking alliance announced it planned to strengthen synergies in four core divisions and to launch new convergence projects to boost efficiency and revenue.
After eight months of struggle over power throughout last year, the two automakers reached a compromise in December that supposedly balanced the control of the French government within the alliance. And now it is high time to put all this behind, focus on the future and improve the profitability, Carlos Ghosn – CEO of both Nissan and Renault said in a recent statement. “The auto industry is rapidly evolving, requiring Renault and Nissan to leverage the alliance as a pragmatic business tool. The road ahead is one of more convergence, working more closely together,” he added. The alliance is expected to generate 5.5 billion euros (6 billion dollars) of synergies in 2018 by planning to share more resources and to integrate more divisions within the partnership. Such convergence helped Renault and Nissan to raise more than 4 billion euros in annualized synergies in 2015.
During a convention of top executives around the world, Renault-Nissan announced that it is strengthening synergies in Engineering, Manufacturing Engineering and Supply Chain Management, Purchasing, and Human Resources. These functions converged in 2014 and already have Alliance executives managing the units. The two automakers expect to start implementing the cost-saving plan on April 1. Renault and Nissan share an industrial footprint with numerous cross-manufacturing projects in France, South Korea, India and Russia and have a combined annual R&D and capital expenditure fund of 10 billion euros.


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The Chinese sports sector is expected to expand to 7 trillion yuan by 2025, 2 trillion more than the central government's 5 trillion target.
That's according to the local governments, after they reported their goals for their sports sectors. Earlier this month, a senior sports official claimed that China’s sports industry is expected to account for 0.7 percent of GDP with an added value of 400 billion yuan in 2015 and by 2020, the total business scale of the Chinese sports industry is expected to exceed 3 trillion yuan.
But with the boom in China's Sports industry, there are also concerns.
"It takes time to reach perfection and it can only happen gradually. I believe more people getting involved in the industry will help it develop. The biggest issue at present is that government regulations are not separate from management," Zhang said.
"Only when the government hands over control to the sports industry to market itself, and makes nationwide fitness a core objective, can we really reach the essence of sport."
Although the market itself may be imperfect right now, many still believe that there will be a long period of rapid development well into the future.
Proofread by John Devlin


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Carl’s Jr. and Hardee’s mobile loyalty program to drive in-store traffic
CKE Restaurants Inc.’s Carl’s Jr. and Hardee’s restaurants are driving consumers in-store via Happy Star Rewards, a GPS-enabled loyalty program that rewards users for checking in at the fast-food chains’ locations across the United States.
The application, available for iPhone and Android smartphones, combines location-based check-in technology with rewards. Hardee’s and Carl’s Jr. claim the application is the first of its kind for the fast-food industry.
“The app was created as part of our ongoing social media strategy to meet our customers in their preferred platforms,” said Jenna Petroff, public relations and social media manager at Hardee’s Food Systems Inc. “We launched The Wheel of Awesome loyalty application first on Facebook.
“Both the Carl’s Jr. and Hardee’s Twitter streams regularly tweet contests and challenges and reward our Foursquare mayors to provide additional incentives,” she said. “And, while we’ll continue our efforts with loyalty programs on all of these platforms, we’re also looking to the future of marketing and attempting to reward as many of our loyal customers as we can.
“Happy Star Rewards is an extension of our social media program, but also simply a new and easier loyalty card, one that you don’t have to carry on a key chain or worry about getting lost. Granted, since it’s from us, of course it’s going to be bigger than just a simple rewards card.”
The application is not just a GPS-driven check-in app to keep track of customer visits digitally. It also offers guaranteed rewards, a restaurant locator, a social media interface, streaming videos, menus and nutritional information.
The first check-in and every subsequent fourth check-in earns the user a spin on The Wheel of Awesome, a unique Carl’s Jr. and Hardee’s rewards application already present on both brands’ Facebook pages.
Once the wheel has been activated, users spin it with their finger for a chance to win discounted and free menu items, branded gift cards, prizes and merchandise from participating partners.
Partner prizes currently include Sony electronics and movie tickets to the upcoming film The Green Hornet. These partners and prizes will be updated throughout the year.
“In addition to the over 25 different food deals we’re able to offer over both the breakfast and lunch/dinner dayparts, guests can win some major prizes from rotating partners like Sony electronics including newly released DVDs, Blu-Ray Players,” Ms. Petroff said. “These partners and prizes will be updated throughout the year. We’ve also integrated a restaurant locator, a social media interface, streaming videos, menus, nutritional information and more.
“It’s a robust app intended to provide a dynamic customer experience beyond a simple coupon offer or snazzy badge,” she said.
When a user checks in but has not earned a wheel spin, they can receive a coupon for a currently featured item, such as $1 off Hand-Breaded Chicken Tenders. Reward offers increase in value with the frequency of use. The more a user checks in using the application, the higher value offers they will be able to receive on The Wheel of Awesome.
After users receive a coupon, they have the option to save it for seven days, or redeem immediately either in-store or at the drive-thru.
If the user selects the “redeem” button, they have 30 minutes to present the coupon displayed on the screen to a cashier.
After presenting the coupon, users press “done” to complete the process. Then they have the option to share the experience with friends by posting on Facebook and Twitter.
For non-coupon prizes, the user is prompted to enter additional information in order to set up delivery of the prize.
Additionally, fans now have the option to transfer coupons from The Wheel of Awesome app on Facebook directly to their mobile phone to redeem.
72andSunny created the application for Hardee’s and Carl’s Jr. The company is CKE’s agency of record.
“Part of our ongoing strategy has been to meet our customers where they are,” Ms. Petroff said. “That’s why we’ve been working with Facebook, Twitter and Foursquare from the beginning from the application’s inception to ensure integration and promote sharing since our customers were already using those platforms.
“But, increasingly, even within those platforms, users are accessing them via their smartphones,” she said. “So, naturally, mobile made sense as the next evolution in our program.
“Ultimately, for us, a mobile rewards program offering coupons and high-end prizes will steadily increase stores traffic, redemption rates and most of all, sales. Mobile is where our customers are now and where they are going to be.”


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Russia will soon have its first contactless ATMs capable of performing transactions — including cash withdrawals and more — via a smartphone with Apple Pay, Samsung Pay and Android Pay.
According to a press release, Sberbank and Russian Standard Bank launched the NFC-enabled ATMs in a pilot test this fall; it is expected that the two banks will be joined in 2019 by leading Russian financial institutions such as VTB Bank, Credit Bank of Moscow, Bank Otkritie Financial Corp. and others.
In Europe, cardless ATM technology has taken hold slowly and gradually, starting with Spain in April 2011 and peaking in 2017 with adoption by Barclays. Latvia and Estonia in the Baltic region were the last EU countries to launch contactless ATMs in the EU, the release said.
Now, the cardless experience is being adopted by the leading players in the Russian financial sector, according to Alexei Okhorzin, director of the retail product department at Credit Bank of Moscow.
“The introduction of contactless banking instruments is a promising way of development in terms of the payment service format, which meets CBOM corporate goals to provide customers with high-tech and comfortable solutions for everyday life and business,” Okhorzin said. “Today, over 80 percent of the bank’s customers use various contactless payment services. CBOM is interested in developing contactless operations using smartphones and expanding the capabilities of its mobile bank using popular services such as Apple Pay, Google Pay and Samsung Pay.”
According to the Mastercard, since the beginning of this year contactless payments via card or smartphone have accounted for more than half of all transactions in Russia. The Central Bank of the Russian Federation estimates that the present share of noncash payments in Russia is nearly 50 percent.


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Even as federal safety regulators expand the ongoing recall of defective Takata airbags, four major automakers continue to install some of the defective devices on their newest vehicles, according to a new Senate report.
A number of manufacturers also are using defective Takata inflators as replacements for older airbags in about 2.1 million recalled vehicles. Federal regulators have approved that move as a temporary measure due to a shortage of replacement parts using newer, safer designs.
The four manufacturers that acknowledge they are continuing to use non-desiccated Takata inflators in new products are Fiat Chrysler, Mitsubishi, Toyota and Volkswagen, according to the report released Wednesday by U.S. Senator Bill Nelson, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Commerce Committee.
Responding to the Senate report, FCA US said by e-mail that, “FCA US is not equipping any new vehicles with components that are currently subject to recall.”
Technically, that is correct, but FCA still is using a Takata airbag that is not equipped with a desiccant, a chemical designed to absorb moisture and reduce the risk of a malfunction by one of the supplier’s ammonium nitrate inflators. NHTSA has indicated that it ultimately does plan to recall all such airbags by 2018, but does not necessarily consider them an immediate safety threat.
"Toyota is phasing out the use of Takata air bag inflators without desiccant in vehicles currently under production," a spokesperson for Toyota said on Wednesday. "Importantly, these non-desiccated inflators are not subject to a current recall."
"Volkswagen Group of America issued a voluntary recall in February 2016," a spokeswoman for the carmaker said in an email. "We are following the guidelines, as established by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, to replace affected Takata airbags equipped with SDI or PSDI-5 inflators.
“What’s troubling here is that consumers are buying new cars not realizing they’re going to be recalled,” Nelson said in a statement accompanying the new report. “These cars shouldn’t be sold until they’re fixed.”
Last October, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration ordered the recall of 24 million vehicles equipped with Takata airbags. The inflators used in the device were found to have been manufactured improperly and could inflate over-aggressively when triggered by a crash. That can result in metal and plastic shrapnel being spewed into the passenger compartment.
So far, at least 13 deaths have been linked to the defect worldwide, including 10 in the U.S. The latest fatality involving a 17-year-old Texas girl killed in what police described as an otherwise survivable crash. More than 100 people also have been injured.
While the defect was originally thought to be exacerbated by high temperatures and humidity — with most of the initial fatalities occurring in regions like Southern Florida — new evidence shows Takata airbags can malfunction in other environments. As a result, NHTSA in March ordered the recall of as many as 40 million more of the devices. The exact number of vehicles recalled is uncertain because some use several of the targeted airbags.
The Takata problem has become the largest recall in automotive history, and has proven especially vexing to address, said an aide to Sen. Nelson, noting, “There are not enough replacement bags.”
According to the latest NHTSA figures, about 8.4 million Takata airbags have been replaced, but that covers only slightly more than 4.7 million vehicles, or roughly a quarter of those involved in the original recall.
The Senate report, citing NHTSA data, said that as of May 20, 2016, “nationwide recall completion rates for each automaker range from 0.16 percent to 57.1 percent.” About 20 automakers have so far been impacted by the Takata recall.
But even among those that have been repaired, it turns out, many vehicles will have to be brought back in for additional fixes later. Some automakers, it turns out, are ripping out older Takata airbags and replacing them with newer inflators of the same design.
The logic is that ammonium nitrate, the chemical used to inflate Takata airbags, breaks down over time, so the newer replacements are less likely to malfunction and are relatively safe to install as a temporary fix until inflators using a new design are available.
But, eventually, at least 2.1 million airbags will have to be replaced for a second time.
Parts shortages are also to blame for the decision by at least four manufacturers to keep installing recalled airbags in their newest vehicles. While Fiat Chrysler, Toyota, Volkswagen and Mitsubishi have acknowledged this policy, only two brands provided details to Senate investigators, listing these models:
- 2016 Mitsubishi i-MiEV
- 2017 Mitsubishi i-MiEV
- 2016 Volkswagen CC
- 2016 Audi TT
- 2017 Audi R8
Honda initially told investigators it had also used recalled airbags. But the Japanese maker subsequently reversed itself and said no new models have been or will be built using the defective airbags.
A key problem for the auto industry is that Takata cannot produce replacement inflators fast enough, a situation worsened by the embattled supplier’s financial woes. It is currently working with restructuring firm Lazard and is rumored to be negotiating a sale to buy-out firm Kohlberg Kravis Roberts.
Several automakers, including Toyota and BMW, have contracted other suppliers to provide replacements for the defective Takata airbags, but the production ramp-up process has been slow.
Read More from The Detroit Bureau
- Senators Pressuring Automakers to Improve Seat Safety
- Eight Automakers to Recall 12 Mil Vehicles for Deadly Takata Airbags
- What's New for 2017: The Hottest New Cars, Trucks and Crossovers, From Alfa to Jaguar
- What's New for 2017: The Hottest New Cars, Trucks and Crossovers, From Kia to Volvo
- Increasingly Desperate Takata Seeking Financial Bailout
Toyota is phasing out the use of Takata air bag inflators without desiccant in vehicles currently under production. Importantly, these non-desiccated inflators are not subject to a current recall.


text:
by Deirdre Kelly
photography by Mike Ford
When, in March of last year, an NFT made international headlines after selling for nearly US$70 million at an online Christie’s auction, digital art suddenly became the least-understood thing everyone wanted to talk about.
Conversations typically began and ended with questions like “What is a non-fungible token anyway?” and “Who are these multi-millionaires (their identities concealed by video game–esque pseudonyms like MetaKovan and Twobadour) spending astronomical sums on what, to the uninitiated, looks to be as fleetingly faddish as a game of Candy Crush?”
The answers could be found easily on the web, where “nifties” (as the digital assets are colloquially known) have been proliferating over the past year. But with all the newfangled jargon that surrounds the burgeoning internet sensation, it still wasn’t easy to grasp what all the fuss is about.
NFTs represent a shift in how we view ownership and patronage in visual art
Telling someone that NFTs are non-interchangeable digital representations of artworks, sports cards and other collectibles that use certificates to verify ownership and authenticity didn’t help matters. Add in the fact that NFTs are sold in virtual marketplaces, using the same blockchain ledger technology as cryptocurrencies, and bewilderment only increased.
“NFTs represent a shift in how we view ownership and patronage in visual art,” says Tobias Williams (MFA ’13), a Toronto artist and academic who has minted his own NFTs on the artist-oriented Foundation platform. “We won’t really know the long-term impact of the phenomenon for years to come.”
NFTs are not just unfamiliar – they’re also intangible, so (to borrow a phrase from Gertrude Stein) it’s like there’s no there there. The payback is largely speculative, driven more by the siren-call of rarity than anything else.
Yet NFTs are a real thing, as evidenced by the huge impact they are having on culture, the economy and people’s buying and collecting habits. While quite literally a flash on the screen, subject to disappearance should the technology ever falter, they’ve captured the public’s imagination. They’re happening. Crypto speculators have taken to NFTs en masse, collectively spending close to a trillion dollars this past year alone on a bet that the assets will increase in value. The market is volatile, however, much like cryptocurrency itself. Prices have already dropped 70 per cent since U.S. graphic designer Beeple (a.k.a. Mike Winkelmann) sold his digital mosaic Everydays: The First 5000 Days for a record-setting US$69.3 million in March of last year.
Says Andrew Remington Bailey (MA ’17), a PhD candidate in York’s Visual Art & Art History department who is writing his dissertation on video game art with a section devoted to digital assets, “NFT prices have already had a tremendous number of ups and downs, which I think reflects their status as a trend in many people’s eyes.” But demand is far from over.
With eBay now allowing sales of NFTs on its platform, and even legacy-media stalwart Time magazine releasing a March 2022 issue as an NFT, digital assets are going mainstream, attracting people of even modest means who want in on the trading frenzy. For these, let’s say, average buyers, NFTs aren’t esoteric. They’re an updated version of an old-time phenomenon.
An NFT is a digital version of a collectible, not much different from the baseball cards I used to trade as a kid
“Basically, an NFT is a digital version of a collectible, not much different from the baseball cards I used to trade as a kid,” declares Henry Kim, director of the Blockchain.Lab at the Schulich School of Business. “What’s novel is the technology. Using the blockchain, you can always prove the authenticity of the certificate of ownership. The collectible and the certificate are basically the same thing. It’s an efficient way to collect.”
Certainly, it’s a craze gone crazy.
The Toronto Star reported in March of 2021 on 21-year-old Alberta art student Jonathan Wolfe, who struck it rich when he auctioned off one of his digital paintings, Living in my Head, for 24.43 units of Ethereum, the equivalent of US$55,555.55.
That’s a drop in the bucket compared to the prices paid for CryptoPunks, a randomly generated set of 10,000 rare digital characters that routinely sell for more than a million each. The highest paid for a CryptoPunk so far is US$7.5 million, a record price for a non-art NFT collectible.
Given the heaps of money involved, York University marketing professor Russell Belk, a leading expert on consumer spending habits, views the assets as a digital-era luxury good. It’s an “alternative status system,” as he calls it, and it has been developing ever since Vancouver-based venture studio Dapper Labs launched CryptoKitties, a popular online trading game, on the Ethereum platform in 2017.
Considered the original NFTs, the digital cats have since birthed an ever-expanding litter of digital assets in the form of GIFs, audio files, virtual real estate and tweets – like the one Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey sold last year at a digital memorabilia auction for an astonishing US$2.5 million.
The fact that the NFT market remains shrouded in secrecy (anonymity remains a major part of its appeal) has raised a few eyebrows as well. As reported in Nature, 10 per cent of NFT traders conduct 85 per cent of all transactions – a figure which suggests that, rather than the end of gatekeeping in media, NFTs have simply relocated it to a new forum. That’s not to mention the possibility of even more nefarious activities: thanks to sellers’ anonymity, there’s speculation that NFT sales are being used to launder black-market money, exchanging ill-begotten cryptocurrency for spendable USD under the guise of large (or numerous) sales of jpegs, memes and tweets.
Things can get messy by the fact that NFT sellers may not be the holders of the underlying rights of the works they are selling
But what does it mean to “own” a tweet? Pina D’Agostino (BA ’96, LLB ’99), a Canadian law professor and lawyer who teaches intellectual property law at Osgoode Hall Law School, asks an important question.
While a buyer might “own” the only screenshot of a tweet minted on a blockchain and digitally signed by its creator, anyone with access to the seller’s Twitter account can view, retweet or screenshot the tweet themselves. As the purchaser of an NFT, she says, your rights are, in fact, quite limited:
“Unless there is an explicit agreement to the contrary, the original creator retains the exclusive intellectual property rights, and therefore the rights to reproduce, display or make copies of the work. Things can get messy by the fact that NFT sellers may not be the holders of the underlying rights of the works they are selling. Examples include the sale of basketball highlights, where the underlying rights belong to the NBA, and Emily Ratajkowski’s sale of an image of herself standing in front of a piece of artwork she owns but may not hold the underlying copyright to.”
But despite the lack of regulations, more people than ever are buying into NFTs, motivated by FOMO, pent-up pandemic boredom or a firm belief that crypto goods are the way of the future.
In fact, art sales now account for a minority of NFT sales; the majority of sales, at least in terms of the number of transactions, are now connected to collectibles, gaming and the metaverse. It’s possible that, one day soon, it will be commonplace to reserve your unique outfit in multiplayer games like Fortnite or your personal avatar within Facebook’s digital world on the blockchain, ensuring nobody else can mimic your appearance.
Up until now, NFTs were only available to a super-savvy crypto crowd
Even collectibles – which already accounted for 38 per cent of the NFT market by the end of 2020 – are destined to move to the blockchain. At least, Stevan Cvjetkovich believes so.
A non-graduated York alum better known as the masked pro wrestler Kobra Kai, the B.C. resident has launched LuchaCoins, billed as the world’s very first NFT digital trading cards inspired by lucha libre, a high-flying Mexican style of professional wrestling (and the kind he practises). Augmented by virtual reality, each asset depicts a gladiatorial warrior cast in bronze. Another series, called BlockChamps, is linked directly to a real-life wrestling star who has pledged to give a social media shout-out to anyone who purchases one of their licensed NFTs. With prices starting at $25, they appear as a unique, and wholly accessible, form of fan engagement.
“I’ve made a niche for myself in the market by being the very first wrestling sports trading card NFT set of all time,” says Cvjetkovich, who created LuchaCoins with special effects expert and fellow Vancouverite Angus Wakefield. “The reason that I became involved is because, up until now, NFTs were only available to a super-savvy crypto crowd.
“My mission statement, and the mission statement of LuchaCoins, is to make them accessible to fans so all people can engage with them. There is a huge market for large $6 million to $10 million sales in the NFT market, for sure. But most of us are working within a $50 to $1,000 price range.”
Artists can also use NFTs to engage directly with their followers, without the need for a third-party representative in the form of an art gallery or dealer. Of extra appeal to them is that many NFTs have a built-in feature granting the artist a percentage of any resale of the work, something unheard of in a regular art auction situation.
From this perspective, NFTs are a status-system disruptor; they are pushing the art world into new territory.
“I don’t think they are a replacement for the traditional gallery system by any means,” says Williams, the Toronto artist who has minted his own fine art NFTs, “but they could potentially be a way for artists, particularly artists working with digital media, to connect with their audience and generate some income, as well as the prestige that comes with selling their work.”
In fact, the digital transfer of currency may prove to be an ideal way for people to support their favourite artists, a modern take on the patronage of old. Fans can already contribute through sites like Patreon or by buying merchandise; in the future, unique or limited-edition NFT sales could enable artists and musicians to supplement their income while giving their supporters something special to hold onto – at least virtually – in return.
The massive blockchains and crypto mining companies minting the cryptocurrency used to purchase them do leave a massive carbon footprint
We’ve already begun to see what this could look like. In March of this year, notorious Russian performance group Pussy Riot raised $6.7 million for Ukraine’s war effort, and a slew of smaller transactions raised an additional $54 million, through the trade of NFTs. (A single CryptoPunk transferred directly to the Ukrainian government’s Ethereum account, for example, brought in over US$200,000.) While the funds raised are effectively donations, they’re transacted in a way that both streamlines the process of transferring money internationally and offers contributors something of value in return.
The same model could allow people around the world to raise money for worthy causes – to crowdsource funds for community projects, for example, or to further expand the micro-loan model already helping small-scale entrepreneurs to get their ideas off the ground from Bolivia to Malawi to Thailand. Whether you consider it an investment or a donation, buying NFTs can be a simple way to help contribute to worthy causes around the world.
What are the drawbacks? A biggie is that NFTs are incredibly energy-hungry, making them potentially hazardous to the environment. According to the Digiconomist website, a single Bitcoin transaction consumes more than 1,208 kWh, more than an average Canadian household uses in a year. The resulting carbon footprint is around 570 kilos, equivalent to 1,263,405 Visa transactions or 95,007 hours of watching YouTube. As a new consumer habit, the trade in NFTs is mightily wasteful.
Much of it isn’t to my taste and, arguably, not even what might be called contemporary art
“Although NFTs themselves are actually clean and do not cause much damage to the environment, the massive blockchains and crypto mining companies minting the cryptocurrency used to purchase them do leave a massive carbon footprint, and that’s worrying,” states Cvjetkovich, who, to mitigate some of the damage, used a carbon calculator to ensure his LuchaCoins produce less than a kilogram of organic waste. As well, Cvjetkovich works with Ottawa-based Tree Canada to plant a tree for every NFT he creates. “This allows us to offset our carbon footprint a hundred times over,” he adds.
A lesser evil, but for some still a concern, is that NFTs, when presented as works of art, aren’t always aesthetically pleasing. One person’s Uncle Bernie’s Trillion Dollar Superteat (to name just one of the images in Beeple’s Everydays collage) is another person’s trash.
“A lot of the work I see when browsing the NFT marketplaces looks to me like Tumblr content redesigned for software engineers,” Williams shares. “There’s been a rather unseemly rush by some larger established artists and institutions looking to cash in on a wildly speculative market. Much of it isn’t to my taste and, arguably, not even what might be called contemporary art.”
On the other hand, he has also seen creators whose work he does admire succeed on the NFT market. They include such established mid-career Toronto artists as Jonathan Monaghan and Rafaël Rozendaal, as well as emerging ones like Trudy Elmore and Malik McKoy. These fellow creators give Williams hope that something good might actually come out of NFTs after all. The future is uncertain, Williams says, “but I’m optimistic that NFTs will represent a new way to support and nurture artists who might not fit the traditional art world models.”
In other words, it’s early days. NFTs are still in their infancy. The digital space they occupy is fluid and continually evolving. Who knows yet what the future may bring? If there’s an NFT bubble, as some have warned, it hasn’t popped. Not yet, anyway.
“If the crypto market doesn’t recover quickly enough, high-priced NFTs may never come back,” says Kim, “but I do still think there will be a market for relatively inexpensive NFTs like baseball cards or Instagram influencer cards.” ■
With files from David Agnew


text:
Vodacom, South Africa’s biggest mobile network by subscribers, has been fined 945million Tanzanian shillings (R5.42m) for registering SIM cards without demanding identity cards among others, the Tanzania Communications Regulatory Authority said. The fine was also as a result of Vodacom Tanzania registering SIM cards with unauthorised identity cards, registering SIM cards without taking photos of subscribers, registering SIM cards without the subscriber’s confirmation of particulars by signing; and for registering SIM cards using other person’s identification documents.
ALSO READ: MTN faces fines in Rwanda
“Malpractice in SIM card registration in this era when more criminals go digital, national security must be taken with great concern,” it said. Vodacom Tanzania’s counterparts Airtel Tanzania, Tigo and Halotel were also fined following an investigation in December. The companies have until October 14 to make the payments.


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Amid all the talk of recession and bailouts, foreclosures and bankruptcies, unemployment and deflation, bear markets and capitulation…finally a story to lift the human spirit from the never-ending “doom and gloom.” On Thursday, Captain Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger III heroically landed his US Airways plane in the Hudson River after engine failure, saving the lives of 150 passengers and five crew members in the process. So, while Pandit (Citigroup), Lewis (Bank of America), Thain (Merrill), Wagoner (NYSE:GM), and many others shirk responsibility over corporate (and shareholder) losses, let’s not forgot that true heroes still exist and their leadership is not measured by the value of their portfolios or size of their (missed) bonuses. Thank you, Sully.
As Barack Obama prepares to take the historic oath of office as the 44 th President of the United States, he faces the worst financial and economic crises since the Great Depression. He intends to hit the ground running and put his personal touches on the much discussed stimulus package (with or without a new Treasury Secretary who is working through IRS issues). Dems in Congress revealed their plans for the stimulus which has grown to $825 billion and includes $275 billion in tax cuts. For good measure, the Senate approved the release of the next $350 bln of TARP money, but only after Obama pledged to place restrictions on banks that will be receiving funds. Bank of America, fresh on the heals of its first quarterly loss in 17 years, emerged as the initial beneficiary of new TARP dollars (and loan guarantees) to help absorb Merrill into its corporate umbrella (where it joined forces with another failing institution, Countrywide). While BofA seemed to be embracing the “financial supermarket” concept made famous by Citigroup, the latter took the opposite approach and sold part of its Smith Barney brokerage unit to Morgan Stanley and divided its remaining operations into two entities. Citi lost over $8 billion last quarter, despite its personal government bailout and initial TARP money. Deutsche Bank warned of a $6 billion quarterly loss of its own, revealing that the financial debacle is not limited to the States. JP Morgan-Chase recorded a slight profit last quarter, but added to its loan loss reserves as its CEO expressed “disappointment.” (Even “good” news turns negative in a hurry.)
Year Close (2008)
Qtr Close (12/31/08)
|Dow Jones Industrial|
|10 yr Treasury (Yield)|
While the financials reported earnings (losses) early to avoid the painful waiting, the news from other sectors was not any better. Alcoa kicked off the season by announcing worse than expected results, while Intel lived up to its dire outlook by reporting a 90% drop in profits. Though Thomson Research predicted a 14% decline in earnings (S&P 500) for the quarter, that forecast may look optimistic after the initial reports. In other corporate news, Nortel filed for bankruptcy; Yahoo found a new CEO; Circuit City moved closer to liquidation; and Apple will continue without Steve Jobs for the foreseeable future. Oil plunged below $35/barrel for a bit as OPEC and International Energy Agency reduced their projections for global demand in 2009. Equities resumed their downward spiral (before rebounding slightly late in the week) as the banking sector proved that TARP was no easy fix and earnings season could be disastrous. A horrific retail sales report (see below) added to the economic woes as investors searched long and hard for something to believe in. Thanks again, Sully, for the welcome relief (no matter how temporary).
Weekly Economic Calendar
|January 13||Balance of Trade (11/08)||Best showing in 5 years|
|January 14||Retail Sales (12/08)||More than twice the loss the Street was expecting|
|Fed Beige Book||Broad-based negativity throughout the economy|
|January 15||PPI (12/08)||5 th straight monthly decline in wholesale inflation|
|Initial Jobless Claims (01/10/09)||Higher than expected post-holiday claims|
|January 16||CPI (12/08)||Lowest annual increase since 1954|
|Industrial Production (12/08)||Twice the decline analysts expected|
|The Week Ahead|
|January 19||Martin Luther King Day|
|January 20||Inauguration Day|
|January 22||Housing Starts (12/08)|
|Initial Jobless Claims (01/17/09)|
Alas, a Bernanke sighting. During the week, Dr. B. expressed his belief that a new stimulus package could provide a “significant boost” to the economy and confirmed that policymakers will “do their part” to promote recovery. The Fed’s Beige Book depicted a domestic economy growing weaker by the day as conditions deteriorated within virtually all sectors across virtually all regions. Fearful of a weakening labor picture, consumers disregarded the available (deep) discounts provided by the nation’s retailers and contributed to a very dismal holiday season. In fact, retail sales plunged by 2.7% in December, more than twice the expected decrease in activity, and suffered the first annual decline on record (since 1992). While the trade deficit dropped to its lowest level in five years, exports also fell as our international trading partners have lost their unlimited appetites for US-made goods and services. This bad news for domestic manufacturers will surely be reflected in corporate earnings in the quarters to come. On that note, industrial production dropped by 2% in December, a far worse showing that analysts expected. On the housing front, 30-year mortgage rates fell below 5%, though home purchases are still rare and borrowers with less than stellar credit face difficulties in refinancing loans in this environment.
The inflation picture offered a bit of a reprieve from the negativity (though naysayers continued touting deflation or worse). Wholesale prices plummeted for the fifth consecutive month and experienced their first annual drop since 2001. In December, gasoline prices fell by another 25% and even food costs suffered their largest decline since early 2006. The less volatile core PPI (excludes the food and energy components) rose slightly in December, though most economists expect that the lower energy costs will soon impact other sectors of the economy as well. CPI data reflected another large decline in retail prices and the smallest increase in annual inflation since 1954. Unfortunately, few analysts even speak of the stimulus package that Americans have received at the pumps over the past few months as gas prices have plummeted well over 50% since mid-summer (and this one won’t cost taxpayers a penny down the road).
On the Horizon… Traders and investors alike take a much-needed vacation on Monday to celebrate MLK day as the markets will be closed. Some may even extend the holiday a day to watch history in the making as President Obama takes the oath of office on January 20 th. The honeymoon ends immediately as the galas come to a close and pressing issues like the stimulus bill and bailout money take precedence. Congress will begin grilling Treasury Secretary nominee Tim Geithner over his failures to pay certain taxes (especially since the position oversees the IRS). A light week on the economic calendar gives way to more earnings reports as investors move beyond (depressed) financials and focus on other key corporate releases: IBM (Tuesday), Google (Thursday), Microsoft (Thursday), GE (Friday). Expectations are incredibly dire so any positive earnings surprises (no matter how low) should be well received. The new (improved?) Citibank will be worth watching as some analysts expect its downward spiral to continue and anticipate a similar fate as Lehman. Any more bailout money available within that $350 billion?
By Ron Brounes, www.ronbrounes.com


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OpenTable is making its way into the increasingly crowded party for group buying, testing a discount program that offers deals similar to those of Groupon, Restaurant.com and DealOn. A report in the San Francisco Business Journal, confirmed by OpenTable, said the online-reservation service is testing a pilot program in New York and Boston, in which users can purchase discounts on Wednesdays for certain restaurants. So far, participating restaurants in the Spotlight program include Gordon ...
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