Amazon has been working to tackle one of the most difficult logistics challenges in the world, rural India. The company is building a logistics network from the ground up, and trying to turn India, a place with little experience with online shopping, into its next success story. Eric Bellman reports in The Wall Street Journal: Last year India’s rural shoppers accounted for more than $400 billion of retail sales. Investment bank Barclays PLC estimates Amazon in India recorded more than $7 billion in gross merchandise volume, an e-commerce measure of the amount of business transacted, in the … [Read more...]
Junk Bonds Get Trashed
Investors are running from junk bonds, with spreads widening to the highest levels since 2016, and junk bond funds losing suffering withdrawals of $11 billion over just the last six weeks alone. At Bloomberg, Kelsey Butler reports on the rout: Pummeled by expectations of slower growth, outflows and dropping oil prices, junk bonds are poised for their worst returns in more than seven years. High-yield bonds are returning -2.64 percent in December, on track for the worst month since September 2011. The asset class has lost 2.59 percent so far this year, set for the biggest loss since returns … [Read more...]
Buybacks Can’t Save the Market
Buybacks can't save the market from falling. The buyback boom has been symptomatic of the Fed funded liquidity bubble, and therefore can't be an anti-cyclical counterweight when the liquidity is removed. Lu Wang reports in Bloomberg: In a quarter where U.S. firms have announced plans to spend more money buying back shares than almost any other period in history, the S&P 500 is down 15 percent, the biggest drop since the 2008 financial crisis. At its worst point this week, the index was within two points of entering a bear market. The futility can be framed in various ways. Critics of … [Read more...]
Does this Explain the Bear Market in Stocks?
Stocks had their worst Christmas Eve on record. The S&P 500 was down 2.71% narrowly avoiding the accepted definition of a bear market (20% drop based on closing prices). However, on an intra-day basis the index did indeed fall into a bear market. The losses in stocks have been swift as they often are in a bear market. Since hitting a high on September 20th, the S&P 500 is down 19.8%. With unemployment at some of the lowest levels on record, economic growth running in excess of 3%, profit growth getting a big boost from the corporate tax-cut, and interest rates still at historically … [Read more...]
Is Manhattan Real Estate the Canary in the Coal Mine?
November saw a big drop in Manhattan real estate prices. Prices for real estate fluctuate of course, but the drop was the biggest since February of 2009. Is it an anomaly, or a canary in a coal mine? Justina Vasquez reports on the price drop in Bloomberg, writing: Prospective Manhattan home buyers had plenty of options in November, and their wallets were thankful for it. The average price of condos, co-ops, townhouses and single-family homes on the market dropped 3.3 percent from a year earlier to $1.1 million, according to the November 2018 StreetEasy Market Reports released Wednesday. … [Read more...]
Can Amazon Get Groceries Right?
Amazon is working hard to make its purchase of Whole Foods pay off, but it turns out translating groceries in ecommerce is more difficult than many imagined. Spencer Soper reports for Bloomberg: Amazon.com Inc. continues to struggle in the $840 billion grocery market, more than a year after it spooked the industry with the $13.7 billion acquisition of Whole Foods. The number of Amazon Prime members who shop for groceries at least once a month declined in 2018 compared with 2017, according to the results of an annual consumer survey released Wednesday by UBS analysts. The drop was … [Read more...]
Can Facebook Survive Accountability?
This week Krista Gmelich and Sarah Frier reported for Bloomberg that Facebook "said a software bug gave outside developers broader access to the photos of millions of users, another privacy misstep by the world’s largest social network." The question is, how can a company that makes its money by selling access to its users' data remain profitable if rising calls for accountability over privacy force it to alter its business model? Is there a path forward for Facebook? The reporters continue: As many as 6.8 million users and up to 1,500 apps were involved, according to a blog the company … [Read more...]
Apple’s Biggest Failure Today
Apple is failing dismally in the world’s most important growth market for smart phones. India is the largest untapped market for smart phones in the world. There are 1.3 billion consumers in India and only 24% of them own an iPhone. There is lots of potential for smartphone makers in India. So how is Apple doing in this must-win market? Apple’s market share in India is a whopping 1%. And to add salt to the wound, that number is down about 50% over the last year. What is Apple doing wrong? Price is a major problem. After Apple’s latest price hike, its base iPhone Xs is offered at … [Read more...]
Will Amazon Finally Cut the CRaP Products?
For years Amazon has operated its retail business with little or no profit. A big reason for that has been what Amazon insiders refer to as CRaP products. The acronym stands for "can't realize a profit." Now Amazon may attempt to trim some of those products form its sales. Laura Stevens, Sharon Terlep and Annie Gasparro write for The Wall Street Journal: Now, as Amazon focuses more on its bottom line in addition to its rapid growth, it is increasingly taking aim at CRaP products, according to major brand executives and people familiar with the company’s thinking. In recent months, it has been … [Read more...]
Tax Cuts are About to Get A Lot More Popular
Here come the tax refunds. Many Americans haven't really seen what the Trump tax reform is going to do for their returns. With big checks possibly coming back to many families, the retail sector could be buoyed for longer than anticipated. Bloomberg's Matthew Townsend reports: Polling shows that many Americans don’t like the landmark tax overhaul passed a year ago, but maybe that’s because they haven’t received a bulk of the benefits yet. The law cut tax rates for some individuals, but lots of Americans haven’t seen all those savings flow through to their paychecks, according to Wells … [Read more...]
- « Previous Page
- 1
- …
- 104
- 105
- 106
- 107
- 108
- …
- 218
- Next Page »