text:
Caudalie, a spa and skin-care line rooted in the French wine country of Bordeaux, is sprouting new branches in New York with the opening next week of a boutique at Lexington Avenue and 74th Street. A second, larger store is also on the way, scheduled to open downtown in Greenwich Village at the end of November.
The strategy of Caudalie’s founders — Mathilde and Bertrand Thomas — is to use the shops as consumer recruitment and awareness builders for their main base, the 8,000-square-foot Caudalie Vinothérapie Spa at the The Plaza, which opened in 2008.
Caudalie has 10 spas in the world and a global volume of 100 million euros, or $129 million at current exchange, according to industry estimates.
The boutique that is expected to open next week measures about 300 square feet. The second store, located at Bleecker and Grove Streets in the Village, has 500 square feet of space, which Mathilde Thomas proudly calls “the worldwide flagship of Caudalie.” Bertrand Thomas noted more than once that the couple’s intention is not to open a new vein of retail distribution. In addition to The Plaza spa, Caudalie’s 60-stockkeeping-unit face- and body-care range is already carried in 500 U.S. specialty stores — Sephora, Blue Mercury, Space NK, Nordstrom and 120 independent boutiques.
The goal is to connect with new customers and tell the story of Caudalie and its derivation from the wine-growing process. “We want them to feel the story, to feel the values of the brand,” Bertrand Thomas said, noting that the couple is putting its toe in the retail waters with a sense of humility and modest commercial hopes. The most prominent wall space is devoted to a display called the history wall.
“You’ll be able to understand how we produce the active ingredients,” Bertrand Thomas said. “We think the new customer, they vote with their dollar. They buy the product if they agree with the values of the brand. We want to tell people there is a genuine story, there is a doctor, there is a woman who is committed behind each formula.”
Another prominent feature is a countertop island, whose sides are clad in the same oak wood used in the cooperage at the couple’s Bordeaux vinery. It therefore has been dubbed the “beauty barrel.” A video wall will flash images from their Bordeaux estate.
Bertrand Thomas points out that a very small percentage of the space is dedicated to actually selling product.
To win over customers, licensed aestheticians in the boutique — generally the manager — will give shoppers quickie facial treatments. Bertrand Thomas noted, “We know that if we tell you, ‘Give us two hours,’ you are going to say, ‘No.’ We know if we tell you, ‘Buy this product, it’s great, in two months you’ll see a result,’ you are not going to buy it. This is a showcase for Caudalie. [If we] say, ‘Come learn more about our history and if you can give us seven, eight, 10 minutes of your time, we will make our best effort to meet your expectations.’”
While the owners’ primary objective is not profit, at this point, clearly there is little appetite for losing money. No projections were provided, but industry sources calculate — based on size and location — that Caudalie’s average break-even point is $1 million a store.
The owners have created what they call “urban spas” within existing spas around the country, where five signature Caudalie treatments are offered. While the Thomases say they are not interested in opening more boutiques in this city or country, the company is on the verge of opening units in shopping malls in São Paulo, Brazil, and Hong Kong. “That proves the goal is not to roll out all over the U.S. and try to be better than all the retailers,” said Bertrand Thomas. “The goal really is to establish the brand awareness.”
“What he has done at Vuitton is really exceptional,” said @gameofthrones’ actress Gwendoline Christie on @mrkimjones’ final show for @louisvuitton. “He has rebooted luxury in terms of making it commercial, viable and contemporary. And most importantly artistic. He has never compromised his artistic vision for the sake of commodity.” (📷: @zefashioninsider)
After seeing a demand for men’s wear from its customers, British contemporary women’s wear label @ariesarise has added a men’s wear component and will launch a unisex collection with @mrporterlive. The 20-piece collection includes jackets, denim, logo T-shirts and more with deconstructed ‘90s vibes. Set to launch on January 18, you can shop the pieces on Aries’ website and on mrporter.com. #wwdfashion
“And so spending so much time with a character who thinks like that, inevitability you try and analyze yourself and go back and think about your own demons and dark chapters that you had in your life,” says @thedanielbruhl of his role in TNT’s “The Alienist.” The show, set in the Gilded Age of New York, also stars Dakota Fanning and Luke Evans. Head to WWD.com to read about how 39-year-old Brühl prepared for the role and why he thinks the show is so relevant to today #wwdeye ( 📷: @Eriktanner)
Now that Celine Dion’s collection has topped $10 million in sales, the pop superstar, fashion icon and newly-minted industry player is eyeing growth in Asia. Read the full report by @tiffanyap, link in bio. #wwdnews #celinedion
“My personal philosophy to beauty is paying attention to oneself. I love to be outdoors, lots of fresh air, trying to take care of yourself as best you can. I always notice that comes through,” says Felicity Jones, the global face of @shiseido-owned @cledepeaubeauteus, which launches today. Head to WWD.com to read more about the actress’ love for beauty and how she prepared for her new role in “The Basis of Sex,” playing the young Ruth Bader Ginsburg. #wwdbeauty (📷: @dandoperalski)
Among the familiar faces at @off____white’s show was a surprise figure: Japanese artist @takashipom, pictured here on Wednesday morning. Other show-goers included @jerrylorenzo, who spoke about his upcoming project: a @nike collaboration for back to school, with designs inspired by his childhood on the West Coast. Sitting in the front row were Future, Don Crawley, @miguel and more. See the rest of the photos on WWD.com #wwdeye (📷: Stephane Feugere)
According to @laurentsai, former “Terrace House: Aloha State” cast member, she didn’t know she was auditioning for the Japanese version of “Real World.” “I was telling a couple of my friends and someone’s like, ‘That sounds a lot like Terrace House.’ I was like, ’No it can’t be.’” Turns out, it was. But Tsai isn’t just a reality star — she’s an illustrator who has worked with Starbucks Japan and most recently, she’s dipping her toes into the fashion world. Head to WWD.com to read about her time on the show, modeling and her art. #wwdeye (📷: @danieldorsa)
More changes are coming to New York Fashion Week: Beginning with the spring 2019 collection, @alexanderwangny will move his New York show to June from September, adopting a biannual schedule with collections shown in June and December. Additionally, the @cfda is planning for an official summer/winter fashion season taking place as soon as June and December 2018. Read more about the upcoming changes on WWD.com. #wwdnews #wwdfashion (📷: @slovekinpics)


text:
Wednesday 11 May 2022 12:38 PM #NewProfilePic: Warning issued over viral app which hoover data and sends it to ... trends now
A new phone app which offers users a free digital avatar is taking facial-recognition quality photographs and sending them to Moscow, prompting major concerns within the cyber security community.
Tens of thousands of people have already uploaded their photographs to the servers of the New Profile Pic app in return to the free avatar. However, many will be unaware that the company behind the app, Linerock Investments, is based in an apartment complex overlooking the Moscow River, beside Russia's Ministry of Defence and just three miles from Red Square.
Jake Moore, Global Cybersecurity Advisor, ESET Internet Security told MailOnline that people have to be incredibly careful when uploading photographs or personal data to a brand new website.
He said: 'This app is likely a way of capturing people's faces in high resolution and I would question any app wanting this amount of data, especially one which is largely unheard of and based in another country.'
Internet users have been warned against using a free new photo avatar creator because the company which developed it is based in Moscow
The website for for the company is registered in Moscow, Russia, according to the who.is database
The firm offers high quality digital avatars if people are willing to upload a photograph to their computer servers
The developers use special recognition technology to pinpoint required facial key points to apply the effect to the photograph
The company behind the App is called Linerock Investments Ltd, who according to the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists Offshore Leaks data base, is registered in Moscow.
It has a shareholder based in Panama City, while a director is based in Russia.
In 2017, a St Petersburg-based company released FaceApp, which allowed users to upload a photograph which would be aged using Artificial Intelligence. A viral challenge prompted warnings from security experts about the amount of data the app was sending to Russia.
According to the new app's promotional material: 'The world around us is fast-paced and always evolving. In this ever changing world, why stick to one profile pic on your social media? Let it be different, always new and… made by AI!
'The NewProfilePic app lets you change your user image style as often as you want. Dare to be different, with a profile pic that reflects your current mood or state of mind. Impress your friends on social media and keep them interested in what's coming next! ;)'
By agreeing to download the app, users are willing to share their location, details about the device they are using as well as other photographs on their social media feeds.
The company's data policy is clear that 'we collect certain personal information that you voluntarily provide to us'.
It continues: 'We collect your name, email address, user name, social network information and other information you provide when you register.'
They also collect data on the user from other companies and combine it with their own

domain: news


text:
Staring down the barrel of a likely bankruptcy, General Motors is doing everything it can to remain afloat--slashing production, selling up brands and cutting thousands of jobs, but still the hits just keep coming. Now, one report says GM will soon lose its title as the world's largest automaker, and could fall behind Ford in the number of cars it builds, too.
A new study has found that Toyota will surpass GM in U.S. market share sometime next year, while Detroit rival Ford is expected to pass it in North American production as early as this year.
The findings, from influential auto industry research firm IHS Global Insight, paint a negative image for GM, which will have to struggle even harder not just to recover what it's lost but to maintain what it has. As things sit, the study puts GM's U.S. market share at 19.2%, down 2.7%, while Toyota's is down just 0.3% to 16.1%. That means Toyota saw a relative rise in share compared to GM even as it too lost sales. If this trend continues, Toyota will be selling more cars in North America than GM as early as next year.
Ford, on the other hand, is still a ways back from GM in sales but is already set to exceed it in North American output by the end of the year. An estimated 1.9 million Ford vehicles will roll out of factories in Canada, the U.S. and Mexico this year. GM will only turn out about 1.7 million vehicles by the IHS's count.
As for Chrysler, with almost all of its plants shuttered through the bankruptcy period and faith in the company at an all-time low, the struggling automaker is soon to be passed in both North American production and sales by Honda as well as Toyota.
Last year the battle for global sales leader between GM and Toyota was intense, and if you thought the situation couldn’t get any worse German auto giant Volkswagen is also starting to pose a threat on the world stage. The fight for the drastically downsized U.S. market may soon take a back seat to the global struggle as automakers form a new, post-crunch hierarchy.
[IHS, via Automotive News]


text:
Reliance Industries launches JioMart to take on rivals. Uber and Postmates sue California over gig worker law.
Setting Up Shop: Reliance Industries, in a bid to take on rivals such as Amazon and Walmart, as well as online grocery-specialists such as BigBasket and Grofers, has rolled out its new ventured called JioMart.
Taglined 'India ki nayi dukaan', JioMart is currently available in Navi Mumbai, Thane and Kalyan. JioMart will be an aggregator where it will partner local grocers and equip them with points of sale (PoS) terminals, low interest working capital, inventory management skills, and GST compliance. ET Retail
Pushback: Ride-hailing company Uber Technologies and courier services provider Postmates have asked a US court to block a California labour law set to go into effect on Wednesday that could force the companies to treat their drivers as full-time employees, arguing the Bill violates the US Constitution.
The complaint, which includes two gig workers as co-plaintiffs, was filed in US District Court on Monday, two days before Assembly Bill 5 (AB-5) is due to go into effect on January 1st. It asks for a preliminary injunction against AB-5 while the lawsuit is under consideration.
The complaint argues that AB-5 violates several clauses in the US and California Constitutions, including equal protection because of how it classifies gig workers for ride-sharing and on-demand delivery companies compared to the exemptions it grants to workers who do “substantively identical work” in more than twenty other industries. Reuters
Hand-curated Business News from Top Publishers & Platforms, Richly Crafted to Fit into One Wholesome Email. Subscribe Now to receive a nuanced 360 Degree account of key events from the World of Business and Finance every day


text:
GAINESVILLE, TX — IFS Coatings recently announced the opening of a new powder coating warehouse in Montreal, Québec. The warehouse will serve the east coast of Canada. The new facility will provide access to a large selection of powder coatings. Customer-specific stock program products will be held at the warehouse, ensuring quick, flexible delivery and easy access for IFS customers.
Jean-Marc Blon, Sales Development Manager at IFS Coatings, Canada, commented, “This is an exciting step and a clear signal of our dedication and commitment to the Canada coatings market. With a strong sales and technical service team in place, and this new warehouse, we are excited to even better serve Canadian powder coaters with the unparalleled service and product that is part of the IFS Coatings mission.”
IFS powder coatings has seen significant growth in the North American coatings market over recent years due to a combination of custom focus, flexibility and excellent service.
Blon continued, “With an exciting architectural and general industrial powder coating portfolio and focus, quality product, years of experience and a true focus on solving our clients problems and coatings needs, we are looking forward to supporting our customers in their powder coating operations in Canada.”
Learn more at www.ifscoatings.com.
Report Abusive Comment


text:
The country's second-largest carmaker by sales sold 252,254 vehicles in September, up from 235,424 units a year earlier. The gains were driven by robust demand for SUV models such as the Stonic and Soul boxcar, the company said in a statement.
Domestic sales jumped 25 percent on-year to 48,019 units in September from 38,300. And overseas sales climbed 3.6 percent to 204,235 from 197,124 over the same period, it said.
In the January-September period, Kia's sales declined 6.1 percent to 2.01 million autos from 2.14 million in the year-ago period, the statement said.
Sharp sales declines in China have driven down the carmaker's sales, the company said, citing political tensions between Seoul and Beijing over the deployment of the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense system in South Korea.
In March, China banned the sale of group tours to South Korea as part of its retaliations against the THAAD installation. Chinese campaigns against South Korean products also weighed on Kia's sales in the world's largest automobile market.
Seoul and Washington have argued THAAD is purely aimed at countering missile threats from North Korea. But Beijing has opposed the system, arguing it could spy on its military. (Yonhap)


text:
Godiva Belgium chocolate opens first Australian store
Belgium chocolatier Godiva has opened its first Australian store, located in Melbourne city.
Godiva was founded in Brussels in 1926 and has a presence in more than 100 countries. There is more than 700 Godiva boutiques located in the United States, Europe and Asia.
In 1968, Godiva was appointed an official chocolatier to the Royal Court of Belgium.
The first Godiva Melbourne store will sell both Godiva café and boutique products under in the one roof. Visitors will be able to purchase both Godiva chocolate boxes, bars and cookies, along with ice creams and beverages.
Yannick Chevolleau, Godiva Chef Chocolatier, who is in Melbourne for the opening, said he is excited to share Godiva’s products with Australian customers.
“I am passionate about continuing the vision of Godiva’s first Master Chocolatier, Pierre Draps, so I am always looking for ways to evolve our expertise and craftsmanship to satisfy the modern palate,” Chevolleau said.
Godiva’s first Australian store is located within the Emporium shopping centre in the Melbourne CBD. There is no news yet on whether Godiva has any plans to open more stores within Australia any time soon.
- Unilever Magnum launches into confectionery and chocolate in Australia as part of a global brand extension
- Lindt joins the westward rush of Australian food retailers
- Guylian chocolate plan to expand retail presence
The Royal Australasian College of Physicians (RACP) is calling on the Federal Government to apply he...
PepsiCo Australia & New Zealand has launched a new snack range aimed at school-aged children.
Coles has come under pressure over a notice requesting employees to take pizza in lieu of remunerati...
Domino’s Pizza is the first company to pay penalties for alleged non-compliance under the Franchisin...
Workers at Woolworths’ Victorian and New South Wales distribution centres may go on strike in the co...
A record avocado harvest in Australia is set to drive prices down for manufacturers and consumers.
The Retail Food Group has rejected allegations that it is not supporting its franchise partners.
The Independent Brewers Association (IBA) has launched its own seal of independence to help consumer...


text:
Is Facebook Privacy Once Again an Issue with Graph Search?
Facebook's newly announced Graph Search may make it easier for members to utilize their friends' recommendations for movies, restaurants and other activities. But, as with many new Facebook offerings, questions are being raised about privacy.
The new functionality allows a user to search, as an example, for "Chinese restaurants in New York City visited by my friends," or other criteria. Uploaded content that is made public is searchable by anyone, while content limited to your friends is only searchable by them. Some information that isn't available internally on Facebook can be searched on the Web through a partnership with Microsoft's Bing search engine.
In its announcement Tuesday, Facebook noted that Graph Search "makes finding new things much easier, but you can only see what you could already view elsewhere on Facebook."
'Privacy in Mind'
Having been burnt many times by adverse member reactions, the management of Facebook is certainly aware that some users will have privacy concerns. The company said that it "built Graph Search from the start with privacy in mind," but some observers are aware that Facebook has continually revised -- and sometimes complicated -- its definition of privacy and the tools needed to protect it.
One issue, for instance, is that a photo of you in, say, a less than flattering light in a given restaurant can be searchable by all if someone uploaded it and made that public.
A user could untag oneself from that photo, or request the person who uploaded it change its access settings. As Graph Search rolls out, Facebook is asking that users review access settings to their personal content. It points out several tips for doing so, such as the audience selector through which a user can see which things are shared, the activity log to see and review what's been hidden from the timeline, and the About section to edit info about you.
Graph Search is in beta and, for the moment, participation requires an invite. The company said that as it rolls out, participating users will see a prompt encouraging them to review the access settings for their content.
Some privacy advocates note that, even though content is as limited or as accessible as it ever was, now there is a tool that gives greater and easier access to that content.
The Electronic Frontier Foundation's Adi Kamdar, for instance, told news media that content that users had made available to friends or to the public prior to Graph Search was "thought to be too hard to find," but now it can be found easily. This can mean, for instance, that an ancient and potentially embarrassing "like" in your past comes back via someone's search.
Previous changes in functionality on Facebook have prompted massive member backlash, but the reaction among privacy advocates so far indicates that the level of unease about Graph Search may not rise to that point.
The most likely reaction, according to the Electronic Privacy Information Center and other Facebook-watchers, is that members will now be incentivized to be more aware of the access settings for all of their content, and more encouraged to better manage their content history.


text:
- Share this article on Facebook
- Share this article on Twitter
- Share this article on Email
- Show additional share options
- Share this article on Print
- Share this article on Comment
- Share this article on Whatsapp
- Share this article on Linkedin
- Share this article on Reddit
- Share this article on Pinit
- Share this article on Tumblr
Discovery Communications has acquired the Golf Digest magazine brand for $35 million to add to its content partnership with Tigers Woods and the PGA Tour, which includes the GolfTV streaming service.
The Golf Digest acquisition extends the cable channel group’s growing multiplatform distribution and reach in the golf game worldwide. “Through our investments with the PGA Tour, the European Tour and our partnership with Tiger Woods, we wanted to bolster GolfTV’s international offerings with Golf Digest’s award-winning journalism, broad consumer reach and deep content library while also creating the largest U.S. digital golf business,” Discovery CEO David Zaslav said in a statement.
Discovery’s GolfTV offers exclusive carriage of the PGA Tour and other global pro tours outside the U.S., in addition to a content partnership with Tiger Woods, who recently won the U.S. Masters tournament. Despite the PGA Tour airing on CBS and NBC in the U.S., the Golf Digest acquisition offers a domestic advertising play for Discovery’s expanding global golf ecosystem and partnership with the PGA Tour.
Sales teams for Golf Digest and the PGA Tour are set to jointly sell ad inventory in the U.S. market for their respective media platforms. “The organizations will deepen their partnership and join forces to create the largest digital network in golf with a one-stop activation platform, now including Golf Digest, for advertisers to engage with fans and players,” Discovery said in a statement.
The deal for Golf Digest also extends Discovery’s broader strategy to create consumer ecosystems for “superfans” around other sports like cycling, or consumer interests like food and home and gardens.
“GolfTV is another example of where we have strengthened our content offerings with the best talent, most valuable IP and strong global programming…. The sport of golf is on fire globally, and our timing couldn’t be better,” Zaslav said last week on an analyst call after the release of his company’s first quarter results.
Sign up for THR news straight to your inbox every day


text:
Imagine a cupcake. We'll wait a second. You probably pictured a small, delicate, sprinkle-covered baked delicacy wrapped in foil or a liner. Not anymore.
, a New York–based cupcake-making factory has re-imagined the cupcake, and they've rolled out a line of baked goodies targeted specifically at men. To get the picture, just take the "Driller" -- a maple cake topped with crumbled bacon
and loaded with milk-chocolate ganache.
"Simply put," says Butch Bakery's founder David Arrick (pictured), a former securities lawyer on Wall Street, "Our cupcakes are more manly. They're bigger, and they incorporate guys' food."
The idea behind Butch Bakery's slogan, "Where Butch Meets Buttercream," occurred to Arrick as he walked past a line outside Magnolia Bakery on Manhattan's Bleecker Street that wrapped around the block. Noticeably absent: men. "I joked to a friend," Arrick tells Asylum, "'Where are the guys?''"
That observation became Butch Bakery. Now the company has an entire line of treats that answers the age-old question, what would happen if cupcakes met steroids?
Some of the other popular cupcakes
have been the "Tailgate," a caramel cake with a salted-caramel-swirl filling with vanilla buttercream, and the "Sidecar," a brandy-soaked lemon cake featuring an orange and white chocolate ganache filling. Personally, we're interested in the "Beer Run" cupcake, which incorporates beer-infused buttercream and crushed pretzels.
A majority of Butch's customers so far have actually been women, buying the snacks for men.
"A lot of the orders have been gifts, for congratulations, for Valentine's Day, that sort of thing," says Arrick. "We're expecting a lot of orders for Father's Day
too. And a lot of calls have been businesses sending them to their clients."
For now, Butch Bakery is operating out of rented space at a commercial bakery in Queens, where the cupcakes are produced and then shipped out. "In next couple months," says Arrick "we're probably going to set up a storefront somewhere downtown, maybe in Tribeca or the West Village."
And if you listen closely, you can already hear the pitter-patter of men's feet lining up for the bacon-filled cupcakes.


text:
Wholesalers ask for “consistency, clarity, equality and simplicity”
Bidfood CEO Andrew Selley has reiterated the need for direct government support to maintain the foodservice wholesale sector as it battles the triple threat of Covid-19, EU exit and uncertainty over festive season demand.
He also called on product suppliers to help caterers with simplified ranges and standard products “with a Christmas twist” rather than exclusively Christmas lines.
Speaking in the FWD’s Countdown to Christmas debate, Selley said: “What we need from the government is clarity, consistency and equality. The rules for hospitality are so complicated even the Prime Minister recently got them wrong.
“Support needs to be equal too – we have the business rates debacle of Tesco receiving £900m when wholesale continues to struggle. It’s not right and it needs to be fixed.”
Planning for the triple threat is the responsibility of the entire supply chain and one that requires not only government intervention but close co-operation and communication between wholesalers and their suppliers.
“Christmas is a challenge as our customers don’t yet know what demand will be,” Selley said. “Our request to suppliers is to keep it simple and our recommendation to customers is to go with a menu of standard items with a Christmas twist, rather than specifically Christmas items. Wholesalers won’t want to expose themselves to high levels of excess Christmas-related stock if there’s a chance consumers won’t be eating out. We expect customers to go for more frozen options.
“We’ve enjoyed a lot of support from suppliers but there isn’t a one-size-fits-all solution. We talk about Covid as if it applies equally across all sectors and all parts of the country. Some parts of our business are performing better than last year, while others remain fundamentally closed. We’re looking at what we can do by customer sector and by geography that’s different. That’s why it’s all about communication.
“Within the wholesale sector we have fantastic teams of resilient people. We have some innovative customers – the way they’ve transformed their business, to retail, home delivery or takeaway, we’ve seen some perform better than expected because they changed their business model.
“There’s an understanding that everyone in the supply chain has their own challenges but when consumers go out at Christmas, they will want something special and it’s for all of us to ensure we provide them with that special experience, without creating problems for ourselves of stockholding or unfulfilled promises.”
The next FWD Bringing Wholesale Together session is on 28 October at 2pm. These sessions are for FWD’s wholesaler, supplier and service provider members.Andrew Selley Bidfood Christmas coronavirus covid-19 Foodservice FWD hospitality suppliers


text:
Rubí Orozco shows Mexican-Americans a traditional way to eat better(Read article summary)
In a poor area of El Paso, Texas, Rubí Orozco has pushed aside the junk food and reintroduced fresh, nutritious traditional Mexican dishes.
Courtesy of Lauren Villagran
El Paso, Texas
It’s a Sunday morning and the Mercado Mayapan in El Paso, Texas, is bustling with activity. People order breakfast – variations like eggs scrambled with onion and nopales, or cactus; bowls of steaming pozole, a spicy soup with fat kernels of white hominy corn; black beans and handmade flour tortillas.
Spanish is the dominant language as customers order; cooks set plates on the glass counter and friends greet each other among the wood tables and benches.
Rubí Orozco pauses between bites of her breakfast burrito to describe the food revolution at hand in the Mercado Mayapan and in the community it serves. A traditional Mexican food market, paired with a cafeteria, museum, and cultural center, the Mercado Mayapan was created in 2009 as a center for hope in one of the poorest zip codes in America, where education levels are low, unemployment is high, and health challenges such as obesity and diabetes are widespread.
Ms. Orozco says she believes that healthy eating can be as simple as returning to one’s roots. Here, just blocks from the southern US border, that means going back to the natural foods of Mexico.
Grains of amaranth, corn, dry beans, and herbs adorn a small table Orozco has set up at the market. The foods are accompanied by explanations in Spanish and English about the health benefits of a Mesoamerican diet – what indigenous Mexicans ate before the Spaniards arrived.
That traditional style of eating is reflected in what the Mercado Mayapan serves in its cafeteria and at a daycare center that serves 40 area children – thanks to Orozco’s efforts over the past year.
So she has instituted workshops on pre-Hispanic foods; she has pushed the Mercado’s cafeteria to cook healthier, more traditional fare; and – perhaps most importantly – she has created a healthy, culturally sensitive foods program for Mercado Mayapan’s daycare center.


text:
For the third year running, sneaker marketplace GOAT is asking the users of its platform to get their creative juices flowing for a chance at winning credit with the latest #GOATDIY custom contest.
To participate, contestants are asked to customize a pair of sneakers however they like. This includes adding different panels to an existing design or giving your favorite silhouette a unique colorway. The customs will be judged by a handful of notable creatives and artists including Davide Perella, Gab Bois, Tega Akinola, and Walnut Illustrations.
“#GOATDIY was created to connect with our community and invite individuals to express their creativity,” said Diane Abapo, the Director of Content at GOAT. “It’s been incredible to see this event become an annual gathering of passionate creatives from around the world, as they bring their visions to life and showcase their customized sneakers. We look forward to seeing the unique designs from each participant and most of all, connecting with our global community.”
After the pair has been created, contestants must follow @GOAT on Instagram and upload a photo of their custom sneakers with the hashtag #GOATDIY in the caption. The contest is currently live and will run until June 27. Winners will receive $1,000 in GOAT credit and will be notified through Instagram.


text:
The result has been a viral campaign under the hashtag #droptheplus, encouraging people to see models as models, and women as women.
When a model wears a size greater than a 10 or 12, she is usually considered “plus size,” even though the average woman wears a size 14. But a group of activists is hoping to change that, for the sake of women everywhere.
Several models in Australia are banding together around #droptheplus, a campaign to ban the term “plus size” from the modeling world and the retail world. They were spurred to action after seeing several thin and trim models get slapped with the label in so-called “body positive” ad campaigns. In general, plus-size models are far thinner than the typical plus-size customer.
Robyn Lawley, who wears a size 12, was hailed as the first plus-size model to grace the pages of Sports Illustrated, but even she was reluctant to embrace the label. “I don’t know if I consider myself as a plus-size model or not,” Lawley told Time. “I just consider myself a model because I’m trying to help women in general accept their bodies.”
Stefania Ferrario, the face of Dita von Teese’s lingerie line, called out the modeling industry for referring to her as “plus” size, when she’s likely thinner than the average woman:
@stefania_model “The fashion industry labels me as ‘plus’ size! And we wonder why so many girls have body image issues. We need to get real! #droptheplus”
“We are all women. Many shapes and sizes,” Ajay Rochester, the former host of The Biggest Loser in Australia, wrote on Instagram. “It’s not us vs. them. We are sisters!” After she posted her photo, she shared images of women writing similar messages, encouraging the world to drop labels.
If the campaign works, it can help women focus on what really matters: their self-confidence. “Sexy is a state of mind, not a dress size,” Ferrario wrote on Twitter. “The sexiest thing anyone can possess is confidence. Don’t let society dictate to you what’s beautiful, embrace what makes you different.”by
Leave a Reply


text:
When last month in a go, three companies came up with their middle budget phones, then Google fans were wholeheartedly waiting for Pixel 4a and Pixel 4a XL, the successors of Pixel 3a, and Pixel 3a XL respectively. The predecessors stepped up in the market last year in April only at Google’s annual I/O conference, which is not happening this year due to COVID 19 pandemic.
Google Pixel 4a Release Date can be May, June or Later
It is expected that when Motorola, Samsung, Apple have already revealed their mid-budget phone, Google should soon come up with its awaited phones in the category. However, the speculations for release is quite difficult this time, firstly because of the uncertain situation and secondly because we can only take reference from the launch of 3a and 3a XL.
A German site’s informer had claimed that possibly the Google Pixel 4a Release Date could be May 22, which is obviously turned out to be wrong. The next speculated launch date, which seems possible, is June 3, the day on which Google is planned to announce its Android 11. The date also seems possible because a company does not usually launch two of its product months apart on two different events.
But for the worst that could happen, it is speculated by some like Android Police’s David Ruddock that the launch could be pushed back to July or after that.
The Price Detail of Google Pixel 4a
Samsung’s Galaxy A51, the latest of company’s A-series, is priced for $399, and the same is chosen by Apple’s iPhone SE while Moto G Power and G Stylus from Motorola became first from the company in sub-$300 categories. The experts suggest that $399 is the price that appeals consumers most when it comes to the mid-budget section.
Pixel 4a’s predecessor has stepped in with $399, £399, and AU$649 in the market while another phone 3a XL was marked at $479, £469, and AU$799. Experts suggest that the upcoming Google Pixel 4a Price would be $399 only.
The reasons behind not increasing the price are reported to be two. First says that going beyond $399 could demotivate consumers and could decrease the expected sale greatly while another reason spoke in favor of experts that $399 seems appealing to customers.
Well, there is something more to this as 9to5Google’s Stephen Hall had once tweeted that the price for 4a could be only $349. Well, what’s better than this, and it could turn out to be correct if the upcoming phone is signing off from some premium features.
Expected Android Version on Google Pixel 4a: 10 Or 11?
A beta version of Android 11 already has a launch date on its name as reported above, so possibly Pixel 4a, which is speculated to come with Android 11 or after, could possibly have this updated Android version. But again, the short timeline could be the next problem here.
So, the next possibility is that Pixel 4a reached to fans with old Android 10 and later got updated to Android 11. This seems optimistic as the same has happened with previous phone Pixel 3a, which came up with Android 9 of 2018 and later on updated for Android 10, which was launched with the phone only.
Google Pixel 4a is Coming with 5G Connectivity!!!
Well, if Pixel 4a is coming up with 5G connectivity, then it would not be a surprise as Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 765 chipset could make it possible in the cheap category phones though some believe that 5G connectivity would be debuted with flagship Pixel 5, which is expected in October this year. We do already have a cheap 5G phone in the market, and these are Coolpad Legacy 5G and the TCL 10 5G.


text:
Regency Design, the design and manufacturing business, has launched a bespoke series of automatic hand sanitising stations which come in a variety of sizes to help prevent cross contamination challenges as schools and universities reopen.
Complying with the Equality Act, the automatic hand sanitising dispensers have been created to accommodate schools and pupils of all sizes, from nursery and pre-school to senior and secondary schools.
To teach younger children especially about the importance of hygiene, Regency Design has created a specific nozzle that dispenses sanitiser in a foam bubble, to make the concept of hand sanitising more fun.
Zak Manhire, Chief Commercial Officer at Regency Design, says that the team has used innovation and imagination to make the sanitising units suitable for schools: “We have adjusted the heights of our sanitising units as well as creating a variety of nozzles to make dispensing the sanitiser fun and interesting,” he says. “They can also be fully customised with a school’s coat of arms or colour schemes, to make them an integral part of the environment.”
As well as schools and early education facilities, the sanitising units are also being delivered to colleges and universities, with positive feedback already received from campuses in Sunderland and Edinburgh.
The sanitising units are 100% Made in Britain, which as well as supporting the UK economy, also means they are quick to manufacture and deliver.
Along with their hand sanitising units, Regency Design has created a full range of PPE, including face visors, which can help keep teachers and children safe when interacting in the classroom.


text:
As of A March 14 update, Apple released a seventh iOS 9.2 Beta version. This version is thought to be the last one before it gets a public release.
However, Pangu, a Chinese development team, has offered jailbreak versions for iOS 9, 9.0.1 and 9.0.2 last year, causing Apple to sit up and take notice of vulnerabilities when the device is connected to public networks.
Pangu’s jailbreak answer for the noted softwares was quite surprising. However, for people who wanted it, it was a great surprise. The release allowed for the public domain of the vulnerability, which led to Apple breaking the jailbreak down and fixing holes that were create for security measures.
With the release of both iOS 9.2 and 9.2.1 early in 2015, Apple fixed a number of jailbreak exploits, making it harder for Pangu and other hacker jailbreak teams to release additional public jailbreaks. Some hackers have claimed they’ve successfully broken these updates but have no plans to publicly release it.
During March, Pangu released the iOS 9.1 jailbreak for those 64-bit devices still with this operating software. A late release means anyone that updated for 9.2 or 9.3 cannot use it. Apple is no longer making 9.1 or 9.2 available to ensure the technology runs smoothly and is kept up-to-date.
Some users feel Pangu is wait for the release Apple’s final iOS 9.3 version before the jailbreak on iOS 9.2.1 and 9.3 phones is available. Another reason for the late release on the latest jailbreak. Currently, Apple is behind several stages.
On March 21, Apple released a public statement saying it would publicly release the final version for iOS 9.3. Despite the fact that jailbreaks are possible for 9.1 and the potential for 9.3 to be jailbroken exists, nothing’s been addressed for iOS’ 9.2 or 9.3. If you want to use the jailbroken versions, you may want to avoid any updating of the latest iOS versions.


text:
Report: AT&T Eyeing $40B DirecTV Purchase
May 1, 2014 8:00 AM
comment(s) - last by
Deal would likely face regulatory scrutiny
Communications giant AT&T is looking at making a big purchase that would secure it one of the most popular satellite TV networks in the U.S. AT&T is said to be considering a purchase of DirecTV in a deal that could be worth $40 billion.
If AT&T buys DirecTV, it would make the combined company roughly the size of Comcast. Comcast earlier this year
announced its intentions to acquire Time Warner Cable
for just over $45 billion. A combined TWC and Comcast would have around 30 million subscribers. If AT&T and DirecTV combined, they would boast 26 million TV subscribers including the 6 million people on the AT&T’s U-Verse TV service.
The AT&T and DIRECTV deal would likely face stiff regulatory scrutiny – just as Comcast is
expected to receive
-- thanks to the size of the combined entity.
No official comments from AT&T or DirecTV have been offered at this time.
This article is over a month old, voting and posting comments is disabled
5/1/2014 11:50:35 AM
Why do they want to get into that business? Would make more sense if they bought Charter or something. Shoot even dish so they can get access to their 50MHz of wireless spectrum which AT&T could REALLY use.
5/1/2014 12:35:28 PM
They already are in the TV space through a program called U-Verse. From what I can tell, its way over priced, but this buy up makes a little sense in that context.
That said, its a WAY more boring topic than T-Mobile + Sprint.
"Paying an extra $500 for a computer in this environment -- same piece of hardware -- paying $500 more to get a logo on it? I think that's a more challenging proposition for the average person than it used to be." -- Steve Ballmer
U.S. States to Help DOJ Assess Comcast's TWC Acquisition
March 19, 2014, 12:35 PM
Confirmed: Comcast Acquires Time Warner Cable for $45.2 Billion
February 13, 2014, 10:51 AM
Google's Gleaming Glass HQ Gets Mountain View Snub, LinkedIn Gets the Love
May 7, 2015, 6:58 AM
Tech's Tax Day Fortunate Few: Qualcomm, Xerox, GE, et al. Pay Little or No Taxes
April 15, 2015, 11:30 AM
LinkNYC Terminals to Blanket New York City With Free WiFi, Free Calls, and Ads
November 17, 2014, 6:50 PM
Microsoft is Open-Sourcing Most of .NET, Adding OS X and Linux Support
November 12, 2014, 8:27 PM
Home Depot Lost 53 Million Emails, Blames Windows, Buys Execs New Macs
November 9, 2014, 5:00 PM
Former NSA Lawyer: If Google, Apple Encrypt User Data, They’ll Wither on the Vine Like Blackberry
November 6, 2014, 12:15 PM
Most Popular Articles
Free Windows 10 offer ends July 29th, 2016: 10 Reasons to Upgrade Immediately
July 22, 2016, 9:19 PM
Top 5 Smart Watches
July 21, 2016, 11:48 PM
2017 Porsche Panamera: I’ll Take Three of These.
July 24, 2016, 6:44 PM
Latest Blog Posts
Sceptre Airs 27", 120 Hz. 1080p Monitor/HDTV w/ 5 ms Response Time for $220
Dec 3, 2014, 10:32 PM
Costco Gives Employees Thanksgiving Off; Wal-Mart Leads "Black Thursday" Charge
Oct 29, 2014, 9:57 PM
"Bear Selfies" Fad Could Turn Deadly, Warn Nevada Wildlife Officials
Oct 28, 2014, 12:00 PM
The Surface Mini That Was Never Released Gets "Hands On" Treatment
Sep 26, 2014, 8:22 AM
ISIS Imposes Ban on Teaching Evolution in Iraq
Sep 17, 2014, 5:22 PM
More Blog Posts
Copyright 2016 DailyTech LLC. -
Terms, Conditions & Privacy Information


text:
Report of the Director of Markets & Consumer Protection.
Members received a report of the Director of Markets & Consumer Protection relative to a Deep Dive of CR20 Air Quality. The Director noted that air quality was improving in the City, both due to the City’s 2019-24 Air Quality Strategy and other factors. The emission reduction bill and environment bill which were going through parliament would have further impact. The risk had been de-escalated from red to amber.
The Director noted that most particles measured within the City come from outside the City’s boundaries. Traffic management schemes had had a notable impact, and the business engagement programme had been effective in securing pledges from City businesses to reduce emissions caused by buildings and staff transport, as well as raising awareness amongst staff. The impact of COVID-19 had reduced the workforce presence in the City which contributed to improved air quality; the new transport strategy created more space for pedestrians and once workforce returns, it was anticipated that there would be less vehicle traffic. It was further noted that whilst initiatives had focused on promoting fully electric vehicles, and whilst the government had plans to transition to electric vehicles by 2030, it was noted that hybrid vehicles would be a good alternative.
RESOLVED, that – the report be received and its contents noted.


text:
Consumer group releases list of 'dangerous toys' for 2014
Tue, 10 Dec 2013 20:51:05 GMT —
As your kids make their holiday wish list, make sure to check it twice. A consumer group is out with its list of dangerous toys this year.
According to the New York Public Interest Research Group (NYPIRG), there are 14 toys on this year's Treacherous Toys List. The list is designed to put pressure on toy manufacturers to make toy safety a top priority when they are producing toys.
From November 22 through December 4, a team of NYPIRG field study participants identified 14 potentially unsafe toys and children's products in 35 stores across the state. Seven toys posed a choking hazard, three toys and children's products tested positive for toxic substances and two toys posed an impact hazard.
This year's list includes the Max Steel Interactive Steel With Turbo Sword, which the group says can cause facial or other impact injuries. NYPIRG also warns against the Disney Baby Snow White made by TollyTots Limited, which could create a choking hazard. They also raise concerns about the Nerf N-Strike Jolt Blaster which they fear could cause eye injuries.
Click here for a link to the full report and a list of this year's Treacherous Toys.
You can report unsafe or hazardous products by clicking here.


text:
Here's something that should surprise you: rumors are swirling that Nintendo will unveil a new console at E3 in June. The company has already shot down the rumors, telling GameSpot that the reports of a next-gen console from Nintendo are not true.
The rumors started off with a "third-party publishing source" claiming that Nintendo was planning to unveil new hardware, playable at the show in LA in June. The hardware would reportedly be a next-gen console, a successor to the still-fresh Wii U console. It's an interesting rumor, something I would've expected to have Nintendo shoot down, but could we maybe see a new device that is capable of VR?
- > NEXT STORY: Killzone developer rumored to be unveiling new IP for PS4 at E3 2014
- < PREVIOUS STORY: Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare announced, stars Kevin Spacey


text:
No Disaster Recovery Plan? No Excuse
For those looking for tighter integration between appliance and cloud service, CTERA offers several storage products sized for small and branch offices that work with its proprietary service portal. As Rani Osnat, CTERA's VP of marketing, puts it, the portal software, which is typically deployed by software-as-a-service providers or ISPs, acts as middleware between data locally stored on a CTERA appliance, which otherwise looks like a standard NAS box, and cloud services. Files are automatically and securely (using AES for the data and SSL for transport) backed up to the cloud, and the product offers automatic data compression and deduplication, features not always found on entry-level products, to increase usable cloud capacity and reduce transport time. Another nice touch is the ability to do bare-metal system restores to Windows, Mac, and Linux hosts.
Venrock partner Ray Rothrock interviewed on issues of data security:
"Collaboration in the cloud is happening as we speak, we have another company, CTERA, which is all about coordinating that data across the cloud and across physical sites within a corporation. So managing that data, encypting it and controlling it is very important."
A 100% increase in the proportion of buyers looking at cloud replication has the cloud firmly planting its feet into the future of backup, according to Info-Tech Research Group's Cloud Backup Gateways Vendor Landscape 2012. The report ranked CTERA Networks Ltd. as the Champion in a market that's predicted to grow significantly.
Hybrid cloud storage product comparison
Ctera Networks' Cloud Attached Storage appliances provide up to 24 TB of local cache storage using 3 TB SATA drives. Each appliance has two GbE NICs for local and cloud network connectivity. The Ctera devices support NAS and iSCSI protocols for file- and block-based storage.
Cisco Live: Cisco virtual cloud router enables cloud bursting (requires registration)
The Cloud Connector technology is based on an open architecture, which enables cloud providers to host their own platforms on the ISR G2, according to Praveen Akkiraju, senior vice president and general manager of Cisco's services routing technology group. "Cloud storage provider CTERA developed a connector that runs on the ISR G2 that interacts with their storage services in the cloud to understand what's happening in the network, so that we can optimize the network backup that it initiates," he said.
"Over the past few months, we've been seeing a lot of demand for what's been coined an 'enterprise Dropbox' application from enterprise customers," says Rani Osnat, VP of marketing at CTERA Networks. "File sharing is nothing new … what people realize, though, is there is an easier way to do so, and Dropbox has showed them the way and now they want this."
CTERA Networks offers an enterprise cloud storage enablement product that allows organizations to access mobile devices for storage, backup, and file sharing. "We built these capabilities based on specific customer demands and requirements, and not on hope that they will come," says Osnat.
As the consumerization of IT converges with the cloud storage services market, many channel partners are seeking new ways to help customers protect business data — both on premises and in the cloud. This week I had the opportunity to speak with Rani Osnat (pictured), VP of marketing at CTERA, about those risks and challenges. CTERA has addressed secure mobile access in its offerings
Cloud storage’s missing link: Editorial
There’s no question that backup led the cloud storage charge, but non-backup uses having been gaining ground steadily if not dramatically over the past couple of years. More than a quarter of our survey respondents say their companies use the cloud for non-backup purposes. Approximately 12% use the cloud to store primary data and 11% use it for nearline data. Those are still smallish numbers, but they’ve nearly tripled in only two years.
Who's the real "Dropbox of the enterprise"?
Finally, it's worth noting that hybrid cloud solutions are also attractive to some companies for the purposes of data retention, local backup and speed. For example, companies such as CTERA ... specialize in offering hybrid-cloud solutions for enterprise and small business customers, wherein on-site storage is synced with an external cloud. The local cloud allows speedy LAN access to shared files, while the external cloud allows these same files to be accessed remotely.
CTERA: Cloud Storage Gateway for The SMB (and the ISP!) (in Italian)
The gateway is paired up with a management portal that is the real icing on the cake, especially for a service provider who decided to distribute this offering using its cloud storage backend!
Cloud storage provider CTERA Networks this week unveiled mobile Apple (NSDQ:AAPL) iOS and Android apps targeting business users looking for secure access to files and data backups. The new apps, available to CTERA users free of charge, give customers the ability to securely access data stored in the cloud via the CTERA cloud storage appliance, said Rani Osnat, vice president of marketing for the Palo Alto, Calif.-based company.
The channel-friendly company sells its products to private and public cloud service providers (CSP). Public CSPs can brand the mobile apps themselves and sell them on as an own-label mobile cloud access app to consumers and business users. SwissCom IT services is currently doing just that.
CTERA Launches Mobile App for Secure File Access
Cloud storage enablement firm CTERA Networks has launched its CTERA Mobile app, which allows clients to access files and backups from any device.
Cisco Helps Back Cloud Storage Start-up CTERA
Four-year-old CTERA Networks, which sells a hybrid cloud storage enablement suite to SMBs and enterprise branches, has gotten a third funding round, this one led by the ever chi-chi Venrock with a strategic investment from Cisco and participation by existing backer Benchmark Capital.
CTERA Networks, a company that provides managed cloud-based storage and data protection for SMBs, has raised an undisclosed round of funding led by Venrock, with a strategic investment from Cisco Systems and participation of existing investor Benchmark Capital. Venrock partner Ray Rothrock will join CTERA’s board of directors.
Object-Based Storage, Cloud Gateways Best Suited for Archiving/Backup (requires registration)
Sonia R. Lelii
Object-based storage is considered a leading emerging technology, and many of its features are deemed ideal for cloud storage. However, drawbacks such as lack of standardization and performance limitations often relegate object storage to archiving and backup, and even then it can only be used with cloud gateways.
Swisscom is using the company’s Cloud Attached Storage solution because of its unified management platform. The IT services provider can deliver different services to multiple business customers through a single console. That includes delivering storage services to mobile device users within enterprise business networks, remote offices and virtualized hosted servers. The Cloud Attached Storage solution also integrated easily into Swisscom’s existing object storage datacenter infrastructure.
Cloud computing offers many benefits to small businesses, but one of the most compelling is flexibility, says Rani Osnat, vice president of marketing at CTERA Networks, which specializes in data storage and protection.
CTERA’s Director of Channel Sales for North America, Donald Fuller, and I had a wide ranging conversation about CTERA’s “Cloud Attached Storage” devices, what resellers had to do to be prepared to deliver their products as cloud services, and what it takes for a start up to take its place on the industry radar screen.
Using Cloud Attached Storage For Backups
George Crump, Senior Analyst
Storage Switzerland continues its test drive of the CTERA Cloud Attached Storage appliance. We have had the unit in our labs for almost 4 months now and have found no significant issues with it. Now seems like the ideal time to test more of the system’s extensive feature set, this month focusing on agent backup.
Rani Osnat, vice president of marketing for CTERA Networks, adds that SMEs also need to accommodate for rapid growth. An SME’s key goals are security, accessibility, and implicity when it comes to NAS solutions. As the SME grows, so does the NAS that supports the organization, and managing that growth and making sure the data is always available to the organization is critical for success.
As well as cloud and remote management, the CTERA appliance contains storage, making it a hybrid approach that sends remote data into the cloud for storage while at the same time keeping the most recent data in the appliance to provide the fastest possible recoveries. "Enterprise IT managers are likely to go for this in a big way because it allows them to provide the same level of protection to remote sites as they do to the data they keep the data center."
The solution CTERA proposes for business is a hardware-based appliance that mitigates the communications bottlenecks between the cloud portal at the data center, and the data pool at each branch level. "The user interacts with the appliance, and then the appliance interacts with the cloud," Osnat describes, "creating a transparent buffer between the user and the cloud, giving the user the feeling that he's working with a local device and not something that's 'out there.'"
CTERA has a clear goal to support hybrid cloud environments. So when a telco with more than a million subscribers like Bezeq adopts the CTERA portal, the message is very clear: The company’s strategy is working.


text:
Earlier this month, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said that a test Chevrolet Volt vehicle used in its NCAP crash test in May caught fire three weeks later, causing the agency to question the safety of lithium-ion battery powered electric-cars.
The NHTSA now says that it has opened a formal safety defect investigation to assess the risk of fire in Volts that have been involved in a serious crash.
“Since that fire incident, NHTSA has taken a number of steps to gather additional information about the potential for fire in electric vehicles involved in a crash, including working with the Department of Energy and the Department of Defense-in close coordination with experts from General Motors-to complete rigorous tests of the Volt’s lithium-ion batteries,” NHTSA said in a statement.
Click here for more news on the Chevrolet Volt.
A snippet from NHTSA’s statement:
In an effort to recreate the May test, NHTSA conducted three tests last week on the Volt’s lithium-ion battery packs that intentionally damaged the battery compartment and ruptured the vehicle’s coolant line. Following a test on November 16 that did not result in a fire, a temporary increase in temperature was recorded in a test on November 17. During the test conducted on November 18 using similar protocols, the battery pack was rotated within hours after it was impacted and began to smoke and emit sparks shortly after rotation to 180 degrees. NHTSA’s forensic analysis of the November 18 fire incident is continuing this week. Yesterday, the battery pack that was tested on November 17 and that had been continually monitored since the test caught fire at the testing facility. The agency is currently working with DOE, DOD, and GM to assess the cause and implications of yesterday’s fire. In each of the battery tests conducted in the past two weeks, the Volt’s battery was impacted and rotated to simulate a real-world, side-impact collision into a narrow object such as a tree or a pole followed by a rollover.
NHTSA is not aware of any roadway crashes that have resulted in battery-related fires in Chevy Volts or other vehicles powered by lithium-ion batteries. However, the agency is concerned that damage to the Volt’s batteries as part of three tests that are explicitly designed to replicate real-world crash scenarios have resulted in fire. NHTSA is therefore opening a safety defect investigation of Chevy Volts, which could experience a battery-related fire following a crash. Chevy Volt owners whose vehicles have not been in a serious crash do not have reason for concern.
While it is too soon to tell whether the investigation will lead to a recall of any vehicles or parts, if NHTSA identifies an unreasonable risk to safety, the agency will take immediate action to notify consumers and ensure that GM communicates with current vehicle owners.
– By: Omar Rana


text:
- 69% of global shoppers place price as top consideration in their buying journeys
- Yet, despite cost-of-livings pressures, 73% remain ‘sustainably-minded’ shoppers
- Next day delivery or fast format fulfillment tops ‘sustainable’ shoppers’ eco vices
- 45% would pay more for fast fulfillment, but 26% would pay more for carbon-neutral deliveries
SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA – Media OutReach – 15 May 2023 – A price versus principles paradox is creating a new cohort of ‘Conflicted Shoppers’, who are simultaneously demanding value for money as well as products and services from retailers that tap into their sustainable values, the latest research from
Asendiathe leader in international e-commerce and mail delivery solutions, reveals.
Original research of over 8,000 global shoppers in Asendia’s
‘How To Sell Direct In The Age Of The Conflicted Shopper’ Report showed that price now tops consumers’ key considerations for 55% in their buying decisions, closely followed by value for money (54%). Price was most important for shoppers in Canada (68%), followed by the UK (56%), while German and Spanish consumers were most influenced by value for money (62% and 61% respectively). Yet, despite cost-of-living pressures, almost three quarters (73%) of global shoppers considered themselves to be sustainably-minded in their consumption habits.
Reduced consumption is both price and environmentally motivated
While 69% of global shoppers said they planned to cut back on spending in 2023 due to economic uncertainty, rising to 77% in France, consumers are also re-evaluating how and what they buy to minimize their environmental impact.
A further half (50%) plan to consume less but more sustainably by purchasing pre-loved or second-hand items in 2023, rising to 62% in Germany and 61% in France, while a further third (32%) intend to buy less by extending the life of the products they own by using retailers’ repair or upcycling and circular retail initiatives.
Renaud Marliere, Global Chief of Business Development of Asendiacommented:
“There’s little doubt that cost-of-living pressures are forcing consumers to weigh up what values, such as sustainability and greener consumption, they can afford to maintain. But while household budgets remain squeezed, shoppers aren’t prepared to put price entirely before principals in their consumption habits.”
“This is creating what we’ve coined the conflicted shopper; consumers who seek value for money – acting with price-sensitivity and spending-caution – on one hand, but want to consume in line with their values on the other, opting for eco -conscious decisions across their buying journey, from product choice to fulfillment methods.Despite this seeming paradox, it means retailers now need to cater for both polar ends of the conflicted shoppers’ value spectrum if they are going to win custom, loyalty and lifetime value ,” Renaud Marliere continued.
The value paradox
While 73% of global shoppers consider themselves to be sustainably-minded, rising to 76% in the US and Spain, the same consumers who are mindfully shopping ‘green’ – with 47% buying organically, 41% buying eco-friendly products and 27 % choosing low-carbon goods – are also displaying sustainability ‘vices’ within their consumption habits.
Almost a quarter (23%) were still choosing next day deliveries or fast fulfillment options, while a further 20% of Millennials and 23% of Gen Z who identified as sustainably-minded shoppers admitted to still buying fast fashion, despite being renowned for its damaging impact on the planet. Almost two fifths (17%) of ‘green’ Gen Z consumers were also choosing to buy denim, widely considered to be an environmentally-poor fashion choice.
Delivering on sustainability demands
And this value paradox is being exhibited not just in what consumers buy, but also in how they want their orders to be delivered. Global shoppers’ top consideration around international fulfillment was knowing where their order is being shipped from to better understand the cost and distance (carbon impact) of the product reaching them (33%).
When it came to improving deliveries, preparing orders with reusable-only packaging topped global shopper demands across international and domestic fulfillment (40% and 39% respectively), followed by offering 100% carbon-neutral deliveries (30% for international and 31% for domestic orders). While 45% of the global shoppers polled would pay more for faster fulfillment, 26% would pay more for 100% carbon neutral deliveries, while 19% would pay more for greener fulfillment options, even if the item took longer to arrive.
In 2022 Asendia announced it had
achieved 100% carbon neutrality through its carbon offsetting projects. It now offers carbon neutrality across all shipments carried out for international retail customers via its e-PAQ solution, a specialist range of international packet and parcel services designed for online retailers.
For further information on how brands can address demands around value and build international consumer relationships that better meet the needs of today’s conflicted shoppers, download the full report:
‘How To Sell Direct In The Age Of The Conflicted Shopper’ Report,.
Asendia is committed to putting the customer at the center of everything it does, which is why it stands for trust, friendliness and ease of use as the key pillars representing its core values.
Original research of over 8,000 global shoppers in the UK, US, Canada, Germany, France, Spain, Switzerland and Hong Kong. Each individual market polled had a sample size of over 1,000 shoppers.
The research was conducted via online polling by Savanta on behalf of Asendia in February 2023.
The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.


text:
The Los Angeles Lakers made headlines this week when they announced a new global marketing partnership with Bibigo, a Korean food company.
Bibigo will replace Wish as the Lakers jersey patch this season and the company will also be involved with LA in other marketing campaigns and local community service.
Such a shift for a global brand like the Lakers couldn’t have been cheap, and LA Times Bill Shaikin reports that Bibigo will pay the organization $ 100 million over five years, which is the richest jersey patch deal in the NBA:
The five-year deal is worth more than $ 100 million, according to people familiar with the deal but not authorized to publicly disclose its terms. NBA jersey patch deals have sold for an average range of $ 7 million to $ 10 million per year, according to The Athletic.
Wookho Kyeong, Marketing Director of CJ CheilJedan, which is Bibigo’s parent company, explained why it made sense for them to pay such a large fortune to partner with the Lakers:
âThe Lakers are the # 1 team in the sport,â said Wookho Kyeong, marketing director of CJ CheilJedang, Bibigo’s parent company. âThe Lakers are more than just a basketball team. The Lakers around the world are a cultural icon, especially for young people. “
The Lakers aren’t just one of the biggest brands in the NBA, but in sports in general, so it makes sense that a global company like Bibigo would want to partner with them.
LA is expected to launch the new uniforms with the Bibigo logo on them when the team takes the field for its opener against the Brooklyn Nets on Oct. 3 at Staples Center.
LeBron James # 6 jerseys now on sale
Lakers biggest star LeBron James has decided to change number 6 this season, which is the number he wore with the Miami Heat and Team USA.
James No. 6 jerseys are now officially on sale, possibly with the Bibigo logo replacing Wish on all future purchases.
Have you got subscribed to our YouTube channel? It’s the best way to watch player interviews, exclusive event coverage, participate in live broadcasts, and more!


text:
CRM Vendor Predicts December 12 Will Be Biggest Shopping Day Ever
October 10, 2007
After analysis of previous years' holiday sales figures, CRM and eCommerce vendor Volusion predicts that the biggest shopping day of the year will break the typical pattern seen in most years this decade.
From 2000 to 2005, the biggest online spending day of the year fell on a Monday, the vendor's research has found -- "Shoppers tend to spend time browsing in stores on the weekends and then buy gifts online when they return to work, where they usually have the fastest internet connections. This pattern held true in 2006 as well when on Monday, December 11th, consumers spent $556 million online."
This was the biggest online shopping day in history, until Wednesday, December 13th, when consumers spent a whopping $667 million.
The biggest online spending day this year will be Wednesday, December 12th, 2007. "The Monday halfway between Thanksgiving and Christmas has been biggest spending day of the year every year this decade with the sole exception of 2006," Volusion officials say:
"Merchants will be pushing their free and discounted shipping promotions that won't end until the 17th or 18th, and consumers will respond to these later promotions by waiting to purchase on Tuesday and Wednesday instead of Monday. Expect sales to exceed $750 million on December 12th, 2007."
In early October Volusion announced the release of the newest version of its e-commerce product. Most of the over 40 new features, including new CRM tools, "had at one time been requested by a current Volusion store owner," company officials say.
Among the new innovations are enhanced site features and functionality, advanced product and category management tools, advanced order processing features, new CRM tools, design improvements and additional integrations. A major upgrade to V5 will also be seen in the form of new shipping functionality, which includes true shipping integrations, company officials say.
With the new version, merchants can now retrieve negotiated live rates from every major shipper and those live rates will take into consideration package dimensions, products shipping separately and orders shipping from multiple warehouses.
A major feature request was also filled with V5's ability to offer full "per product" dimensional shipping support for UPS, company officials say.
Last year Volusion announced that they had developed free software called Volusion Live Chat, which the called "a 100 percent hosted live chat software, which meaning there's nothing to install on your servers."
And if that's not good enough, it's free to any and all PC users, even non-Volusion customers.
David Sims is a contributing editor for ContactCenterSolutions. To see more of his articles, please visit his columnist page.


text:
The growing number of influential Weibo commentators are increasingly opening their own online shops or promoting products.
(Page 2 of 2)
Niche players like SmarterKids could be vulnerable, says Williams, since Amazon and other high-volume sellers have added more specialty goods. To keep customers on board, many toy sites are ramping up personalization and customer loyalty programs, as well as adding new products and services. “Our theme in 2000 is increased personalization,” says Mark Reese, chief e-commerce officer at Toysmart.com. “Last year was the year we found out who our customers are.”
Along with more promotions aimed at birthdays and newborns, Toysmart plans to learn which categories of toys appeal to which customers, then target promotions accordingly. Reese expects to see Toysmart’s Disney Babyshop, which opened with about 700 products in January, becoming a key differentiator, too. “Users will have a unique way to view and buy all our nursery products,” he says, “and we’ll have a lot of interactive tools.” Shoppers can view all Winnie-the-Pooh theme nursery products at once, for instance.
Other e-retailers, including KBkids, will reward repeat business. The site will unveil a loyalty program early this quarter but hasn’t announced details. “Repeat custom-ers will be treated extremely well,” says Marty Smuin, vice president of business development, “with dis-counts, coupons and special offers.”
Leonard calls these targeted promotions “a welcome trend,” that results from mining data that many e-retailers already collect but haven’t tapped in the past. “Many of these features didn’t exist six months ago,” she says. “Now, they’re able to more proficiently weed through infor-mation on a customer-by-customer basis.” But outside awarding frequent-flier miles, she’s skeptical about sales incentives. “Offline loyalty programs don’t work well online,” she says.
Whatever the marketing and merchandising distinctions among competing sites, basics like fulfillment and customer service still offer the most mileage with customers. That’s especially true as Internet merchants carry more and more products, blurring the distinctions from store to store, points out Annette Gleneicki, BizRate’s director of client research solutions. “When products become commodities,” she says, “differentiation happens with customer service.”
Christine Blank is a freelance writer based in Orlando, Fla.


text:
The basic idea is to take the HTML code behind every web page and strip out the cruft: over-sized images, scripts that run redundantly in the background, and other junk that contributes nothing to the reading experience.
The results can be impressive—see how fast this post can pop onto your phone in AMP form?
At last year’s I/O, Google news head Richard Gingras said AMP pages load four times faster and use a tenth of the data of a non-AMP page. At aWednesday evening presentation here, AMP lead Malte Ubl said better compression techniques allow images on AMP pages to need half as much data as a year ago.
The AMP project only debuted inOctober of 2015, but now Google says more than 900,000 domains serve up over 2 billion AMP pages. At a“State of the Mobile Union” keynote Wednesday afternoon, Google product-management vice president Rahul Roy-Chowdhury noted recent support for the format by Twitter (TWTR) and China’s social-media platforms Weibo and Tencent. Tumblr, owned by this site’s parent firm Yahoo (YHOO), is joining them.
“We’re bullish,” e-mailed Jason Kint, CEO of online-publishing trade groupDigital Content Next. “Google AMP is a very promising as a strategy to protect the open web from the suffocation of Facebook’s closed platform business model.”
Kint, however, voiced wariness about how Google can push AMP pages before others, even if they may be svelte in their own right. Its mobile news search displays AMP pages first in a carousel of thumbnail previews you can easily flip through.
“Google Search on mobile nearly requires participation in AMP if you want to be discovered,” he noted.
An optional AMP feature yields another complication: a Google caching service that delivers pages even faster leaves them appearing at a google.com or ampproject.org address that can confuse users. For instance, my post about the upcoming Android O release appears not at the usual finance.yahoo.com domain name but at a much longer address that starts with “www.google.com/amp/s/www.yahoo.com.”
At aWednesday evening presentation, Google representatives acknowledged this frustration and said AMP pages served from the company’s cache now include a banner with the correct address, which you can tap and hold to copy for sharing elsewhere.
Google software engineer Michael Kleber explained how AMP ads can’t move around on a page or block its content, can’t hold up the rest of the page from loading, and can’t play video automatically. They also must run in a “sandbox” that quarantines any hostile code and can be closed by the page if it bogs down everything.
This doesn’t limit AMP ads to being simple banners. A demo showed how this stripped-down code can allow for an ad in which the content changes as you scroll down the page, highlighting various parts of a car.
Kleber also cited studies showing that AMP ads get seen and clicked through more. He cited a series of ads from the firmTripleLift on Time, Inc. (TIME) sites that were three times lighter and six times faster to load than non-AMP versions, and which generated 13% more revenue.
As somebody who writes for a variety of ad-supported sites, that sounds pretty good.
But remember that the AMP spec doesn’t ban ads that are light, efficient and repellent. You can use this format to crank out sleazy “around the web” clickbait ads (if you want to make your eyes bleed, readAmanda Hess’s New York Times recap of clicking through dozens of them) and spam people withcreepy “retargeting” ads trying to get them to complete purchases contemplated on other sites.
AMP also can’t force desktop sites to shape up their act, even if well-done AMP sites start to make them look like hot garbage in comparison. Memo to web designers and publishers: Mobile users aren’t the only people online who don’t want their time or bandwidth wasted.
TechDailyTimes is a web blog devoted to technology, science, research and development and everything related to new technological breakthroughs. Our aim is to cover technology news on a daily basis. Articles on technology contained in this blog may concern science news, tech news, applied technology, gadgets, devices etc. All blog entries are published 'as is'. TechDailyTimes waives any responsibility, expressed or implied, in regard to any material, published in the blog. Opinions expressed by our authors may contradict with the official standings of TechDailyTimes administration.


text:
USAN Launches New Commercial Kubernetes Application on Google Cloud Platform Marketplace
USAN’s solution gives customers the ability to quickly connect Dialogflow Enterprise Edition to existing corporate telephony networks leveraging Google Cloud Platform and Kubernetes
Atlanta, GA, [July 24th, 2018] —USAN, a cloud customer experience technology company, today announced it is introducing a commercial Kubernetes application to all users of the Google Cloud Platform Marketplace. The new offering will provide customers with the ability to quickly re-use their existing phone numbers and telephony infrastructure with Dialogflow Enterprise Edition, enabling cutting edge conversational experiences for their customers. For the first time ever, commercial Kubernetes applications are available to deploy with one click to Google Kubernetes Engine with a usage-based pricing model. Commercial Kubernetes applications can be deployed on-premises or even on other public clouds through the Google Cloud Platform Marketplace.
GCP Marketplace is based on a multi-cloud and hybrid-first philosophy, focused on giving Google Cloud partners and enterprise customers flexibility without lock-in. It also helps customers innovate by easily adopting new technologies from ISV partners, such as commercial Kubernetes applications, and allows companies to oversee the full lifecycle of a solution, from discovery through management.
Today’s customers demand effortless service that they can speak to just like the assistant on their smartphone. Companies would like to adopt this technology yet face long integration cycles and reworking of the telephone numbers that their customers know and have printed on cards or collateral.
USAN’s Dialogflow Telephony Bridge makes the adoption of natural conversational speech IVR solutions quick, easy and with less risk. By adopting this USAN solution, companies can connect their existing telephony systems and IVRs via industry standard SIP to Dialogflow Enterprise Edition for the portions of their voice traffic that they would like to use for a POC or limited initial functional launch. In this manner, they can innovate quickly and grow to full production easily. The solution manages the necessary media server capabilities to surface the full Dialogflow feature set including transfers of voice and data back to the enterprise as necessary.
“Dialogflow Enterprise Edition makes it easy for companies to set up and start using a cloud-based conversational IVR,” said Steve Walton, President and CEO of USAN. “By leveraging Google Cloud Platform, marketplace customers gain access to enterprise-scale features with minimum configuration expense and delay. Availability on the new Google Cloud Marketplace enables USAN to be a value-added provider to an exciting new self-service solution that provides the experience that consumers expect.”
“To remain competitive and deliver on user demands, organizations adopting cloud need ready access to trusted, tested and portable applications that can run across their entire infrastructure. At Google Cloud we strive to make it as easy as possible for customers of all sizes to deploy, purchase and manage leading solutions in the cloud,” said Jennifer Lin, Director of Product Management Google Cloud. “The availability of commercial Kubernetes applications from providers like USAN is a critical part of extending enterprise investments and can simplify adoption of container-based infrastructure no matter what environment they operate in, either on-premises or in the public cloud.”
For more information
Visit our Google Cloud Marketplace listing
Visit our Product Page
USAN helps companies profitably engage customers and deliver amazing omnichannel experiences with an industry-leading cloud and hybrid customer engagement solution. From traditional telephone interactions to web-based communications including chat, email, and social, USAN’s portfolio of contact center applications gives businesses broad flexibility in the way they engage customers across channels.
Share This On:


text:
South Africa’s election is likely to overshadow most domestic economic news this week, but economists and investors will still keep an eye on a number of events overseas. Over the coming days, the European Central Bank (ECB) and Bank of England will announce their latest policy decisions, the United States and China will update on trade and global markets will continue to monitor the escalating crisis in Ukraine. Here is your guide.
South Africa’s data diary is packed this week. Monday will bring April’s manufacturing purchasing managers’ index readings, first quarter labour force statistics from Statistics South Africa (Stats SA) and housing price data from Absa and FNB.
Economists and investors will be on the lookout for the South African Chamber of Commerce and Industry’s April business confidence index, April’s reserve figures from the South African Reserve Bank and March’s manufacturing data from Stats SA on Thursday, as well as Wesbank’s fourth quarter vehicle market index on Friday. Standard Bank and Absa will release April housing price indices the same day.
Egypt will report April’s consumer inflation readings on Thursday. Following their decision to leave rates unchanged at their April 28 meeting, officials at the Central Bank of Egypt said that the “upside risks to the inflation outlook continue to be contained”.
On Friday, officials at the Bank of Zambia will announce their latest rates decisions. Citing inflationary concerns stemming from the weakening kwacha exchange rate, Zambia’s monetary policy committee raised the country’s benchmark interest rate by 50-basis points in February and by 175-basis points in March.
More policy tightening may be on the cards. Inflation continued to climb in April, reaching its highest level in 43-months. The Central Statistics Office attributed the increase in overall consumer inflation rate, which rose to 7.8% from a year earlier last month – to non-food items.
Elsewhere on the continent this week, Namibia and Uganda are expected to report March money supply figures. Ghana will release March gross reserves. Morocco will release first quarter unemployment statistics. And Tanzania and Senegal will provide April inflation updates.
America’s economic calendar is comparatively light this week. First up, on Monday, the Institute for Supply Management’s non-manufacturing index is expected to show further improvement. The composite index climbed 1.5-points in March and is expected to have edged-up a further 1.1-points into expansion territory in April.
On Tuesday, government data is likely to show that America’s international trade gap narrowed to $40.5-billion in March from $42.3-billion in February.
On Wednesday, Federal Reserve chair Janet Yellen will testify on monetary policy and the central bank’s outlook for the US economy before Congress’s joint economic committee. Data released last week showed that America’s economic growth slowed to an annualised rate of 0.1% in the first quarter.
Weekly jobless claims figures will take centre stage on Thursday. Consensus is that initial claims for unemployment benefits likely dropped to 330 000 in the week ended May 3 from the prior week. Claims figures have been extremely volatile of late, probably as a result of seasonal adjustment factors.
Finally, on Friday, the US labour department’s job openings and labor turnover survey report is forecast to show that there were 4.125-million job openings on the last day of March, down slightly from 4.173-million at the end of February. Wholesale inventories data is likely to show that stock levels rose 0.5% from February to March.
The European Commission will publish its spring economic forecasts for the 28-member European Union on Monday as eurozone finance ministers meet to discuss wrapping up Portugal’s bailout programme. The group is also expected to discuss the possibility of direct recapitalisation of the region’s banks by the European Stability Mechanism.
Later in the week, attention will turn to policy decisions from the European Central Bank (ECB) and Bank of England. Both institutions will make their announcements on Thursday.
The Bank of England is widely expected to leave its benchmark rate on hold at a record low 0.5% and the size of its asset purchase programme unchanged at £375-billion. No change in rates is expected from the ECB either.
Data released last week showed that inflation in the eurozone rose less than economists had expected to an annual rate of 0.7% in April from 0.5% in March. The ECB targets inflation at slightly less than 2.0%.
Consensus is that the ECB will soon take action to stimulate Europe’s moribund economy, by cutting rates further and/or through more unconventional policies. The banks deposit rate currently sits at zero while the lending rate sits at 0.25%. Despite a near universal expectation that action will occur shortly, most economists believe that it will come next month rather than this week.
Mario Draghi – the ECB’s chief – has recently indicated that the central bank is considering the same sort of asset purchase programme – called quantitative easing – used by the US Federal Reserve to push down interest rates. Some analysts believe that policymakers may lower rates once more, however, before resorting to a large bond-buying programme.
Asia Indonesia will release first quarter growth figures on Monday. Consensus is that gross domestic product expanded 1.33%, quarter on quarter, after contracting 1.46% in the three months ended in December 2013. Attention will shift to Australia on Tuesday for the release of the country’s latest trade data and a rates decision by the central bank. Analysts widely expect the Reserve Bank of Australia to leave the country’s benchmark rate on hold at 2.5%.
More trade data – from Malaysia and Taiwan – are on tap Wednesday along with Australia’s March retail trade figures. Economists expect Australia’s retail sales rose 0.5% on a monthly basis, up from a 0.2% gain in February. China – the world’s number two economy – will release last month’s trade data on Thursday. Both exports and imports fell more than expected in March amidst Chinese Premier Li Keqiang’s attempts to stabilise the country’s economy.
Analysts at 4CAST expect that exports rose 3.55% from a year earlier and that imports rose 3.31% over the same period last month, raising the country’s trade surplus to $19.2-billion from $7.7-billion in March. Thursday will also bring rates announcements from Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines. All three central banks are expected to leave rates on hold at current levels.
Asia’s economic week will close with trade figures from India and the Philippines, a rates decision in South Korea and inflation data from China on Friday. Analysts are anticipating a slight moderation in China’s consumer inflation to 2.1% from a year earlier in April from 2.4% in March. Producer price inflation is expected to remain in negative territory.


text:
- Subscribe NowLimited Time Offer
Did you know Nordstrom Rack never had a website — until now?
Seattle-based Nordstrom, Inc. announced Monday the launch of the new site, which combines the outlet's offerings with the company's flash sale business HauteLook.
The discount arm of the Seattle-based upscale retailer has 150 locations around the U.S. and plans to open stores in Canada in 2017. The company operates 117 full-line stores. Nordstrom Rack generated $2.7 billion in sales in 2013, about 22 percent of the company's overall sales.
Nordstrom (NYSE: JWN) is rapidly growing its discount division; the goal is to have 230 Nordstrom Rack stores open by 2016, said company spokesperson Dan Evans. The outlet stores are easier to open, he said, because they are smaller and can sometimes fit into places where full-line stores cannot.
Online is becoming an important driver of business, Evans said, and customers have told company officials they want online and mobile options.
HauteLook — which Nordstrom acquired in 2011 — and Nordstrom Rack share a platform on the new site and use one checkout and payment system.
Rack products were available online before today, though the only presence was a type of alert system to let mobile users know about sales or products in the store.
The inventory available online will continue to grow as the site develops, Evans said.
Rachel Lerman covers technology and retail for the Puget Sound Business Journal.
- Most popular
- Alaska Airlines doesn't want to pay for Sea-Tac facility, help Delta
- Boeing insists it can sell the so-called 'terrible teen' Dreamliners
- Bill Gates reveals biggest regret, his Microsoft pet project
- Anheuser-Busch will 'use Elysian as a weapon,' Seattle brewers warn
- At Expedia, Seahawks pride is a 10-story work of art
- Alaska, Delta, vie for customer attention as Seahawks supporters
- Microsoft's new strategy: Make money by giving stuff away
- Patti Payne's Cool Pads: $1.9M condo in 'Fifty Shades of Grey' tower
- Microsoft's record hardware sales were just dwarfed by Apple's
- McNerney: SpaceX drives prices down, makes Boeing better competitor
Sign up to receive Puget Sound Business Journal's Morning Edition and Afternoon Edition newsletters and breaking news alerts.
Workforce Initiatives Specialist - Sector Strategies WA State Employment Security Department (ESD) | Olympia, WA
Finance Business Manager Vulcan Inc. | Seattle, WA
Division Controller Zetec, Inc. | Snoqualmie, WA
Buyer PCL Construction | Bellevue, WA
Economic Development Coordinator City of Lake Stevens | Lake Stevens, WA


text:
By Kenanga InvestorsTweet
US equities ended the month flattish after rallying from a new 52-week low during the month as the prolonged Chinese lockdown, the ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine and inflation concerns continued to weigh down on investor sentiment. With volatility from April bleeding into the first three weeks of the month, both the S&P 500 and the Dow Jones bottomed out on 20 May before recovering strongly to end the month’s flattish. However, the tech-heavy Nasdaq composite was down 2.1 per cent. On the back of persistently high inflation and strong labour market recovery, the Federal Reserve (Fed) announced its second-rate hike for the year with an aggressive 50 bps increase, the most in 22 years. US headline inflation jumped to 8.3 per cent YoY in April which further fuelled speculations that the economy is overheating. The Fed also announced it will begin shrinking its US$8.9 trillion balance sheet in June. The Fed Chairman Powell acknowledged that getting inflation under control won’t be easy, but he believes there is still a path to a “softish” landing for the economy as opposed to a recession. Given the Fed’s increasingly hawkish stance, the markets are now expecting another two 50 bps rate increases during both the June and July FOMC meetings. At month’s end, the yield on the 10-year US Treasury stood at 2.84 per cent.
Chinese equities rallied after Beijing unveiled a raft of support measures to cushion an economic slowdown triggered by the country’s Covid-19 zero-tolerance approach. The markets also benefitted from the announcement of the end of two-month-long Covid-19 lockdowns in Shanghai. China’s State Council released a set of 33 measures titled Policy Measure Package to Stabilize the Economy (“the policy package”), covering a wide range of mechanisms aimed at supporting businesses impacted by the pandemic. The policy package comes after Shanghai issued a set of 50 policy measures to boost economic activity in the wake of the recent lockdowns. It also coincides with the reopening of Shanghai and the gradual resumption of normal life in Beijing. China’s factory activity shrank less sharply as virus restrictions eased and some production resumed. The Caixin/Markit Manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) rose to a stronger-than-expected 48.1 in May from 46.0 in April, where it hit its lowest level in 26 months. The latest Caixin/Markit reading reflected a similar improvement in the official manufacturing PMI in May, which also beat forecasts and signalled that the worst of the country’s lockdown-related disruptions was over.
Locally, May was a volatile month for the KLCI which fell by 1.9 per cent to close at 1,570 points. The benchmark index fell from 1,600 points to a low of 1,531 points on 24th May before rebounding on the last day of trading to 1,570 points due to the MSCI rebalancing. The volatility followed global markets as market sentiment continued to be weighed down by concerns over inflation and worries that rate hikes by the central bank could tip the economy into a recession. Key news flows for the month were a stronger-than-expected 1Q22 GDP growth of five per cent, and government efforts to tame inflation and resolve forced labour allegations. The markets were also surprised by the OPR rate hike of 25 bps to 2.00 per cent, as well as the delay in plans to bring in foreign workers.
Foreign investors’ net buying fell to RM77 million (versus RM826 million in April 2022) bringing the cumulative foreign net inflows for 5M22 to RM7.4 billion as compared to 5M21 net sell of RM3 billion. The top three best-performing sectors in May were energy (+7.9 per cent), REIT (+1.7 per cent) and finance (-0.1 per cent). The top three worst-performing sectors were plantation (-9.7 per cent), healthcare (-6.2 per cent) and property (-5.7 per cent). Onto commodities, oil continued its outperformance with the Brent rising 12.3 per cent closing the month at US$122.8/bbl on the back of supply disruptions stemming from Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine and the ban on Russian oil and natural gas. CPO prices however closed lower at RM6,304/mt, declining 11.3 per cent.
Equity Market Outlook
With the US entering late-cycle dynamics and decelerating growth, rising inflation and policy tightening would weigh on economic expansion. The key focus remains on the path of central bank monetary policy, easing of geopolitical tensions, China lockdown, as well as corporate earnings.
China’s gradual re-opening and shift to more policy stimulus could lend support to its economic recovery. Increased infrastructure investment and looser monetary policy could help demand to recover and markets bottom out provided that further lockdowns remain limited. Meanwhile, ASEAN continues to benefit from the reopening, with pent-up consumer spending supporting a cyclical upturn. Additionally, higher commodity prices will benefit certain countries within ASEAN.
Equity Fund Strategy
Overall, for Malaysia we adopt a defensive strategy, focusing on companies where fundamentals remain solid. We prefer sectors such as consumer discretionary, financials, industrials and commodities. For structural growth themes such as tech, we are buyers of market weakness for its longer-term potential.
Editor’s Note: You can now download our app on the Google Play Store or the Apple Store, or write your next best-selling novel with our sister app Toolis, available on the Apple Store and Google Play Store or purchase something from us at www.tapiroo.com, yayaezzy.com or at lazybumskincare.com.au. Also, check out our rate card and media kit here if you would like to advertise with us on this website. Thank you!
Like What You Read?
Howdy! Thanks for dropping by and reading our stuff. DailyStraits.com is an independent website that covers all things business and entrepreneurship related. If you like what you read, a little donation from your good self will go a long way in helping us run this site successfully. Thank you!
Welcome to dailystraits.com. Please send all interview requests and press releases to firstname.lastname@example.org.