Amazon Plans to Build Thousands of ‘Cashierless’ Stores Across America - TIME

Amazon Plans to Build Thousands of ‘Cashierless’ Stores Across America

Posted: 19 Sep 2018 02:14 PM PDT

Amazon.com Inc. is considering a plan to open as many as 3,000 new AmazonGo cashierless stores in the next few years, according to people familiar with matter, an aggressive and costly expansion that would threaten convenience chains like 7-Eleven Inc., quick-service sandwich shops like Subway and Panera Bread, and mom-and-pop pizzerias and taco trucks.

Chief Executive Officer Jeff Bezos sees eliminating meal-time logjams in busy cities as the best way for Amazon to reinvent the brick-and-mortar shopping experience, where most spending still occurs. But he’s still experimenting with the best format: a convenience store that sells fresh prepared foods as well as a limited grocery selection similar to 7-Eleven franchises, or a place to simply pick up a quick bite to eat for people in a rush, similar to the U.K.-based chain Pret a Manger, one of the people said.
An Amazon spokeswoman declined to comment. The company unveiled its first cashierless store near its headquarters in Seattle in 2016 and has since announced two additional sites in Seattle and one in Chicago. Two of the new stores offer only a limited selection of salads, sandwiches and snacks, showing that Amazon is experimenting with the concept simply as a meal-on-the-run option. Two other stores, including the original AmazonGo, also have a small selection of groceries, making it more akin to a convenience store.

Shoppers use a smartphone app to enter the store. Once they scan their phones at a turnstile, they can grab what they want from a range of salads, sandwiches, drinks and snacks — and then walk out without stopping at a cash register. Sensors and computer-vision technology detect what shoppers take and bills them automatically, eliminating checkout lines.

The challenge to Amazon’s plan is the high cost of opening each location. The original AmazonGo in downtown Seattle required more than $1 million in hardware alone, according to a person familiar with the matter. Narrowing the focus to prepared food-to-go would reduce the upfront cost of opening each store, because it would require fewer cameras and sensors. Prepared foods also have wider profit margins than groceries, which would help decrease the time it takes for the stores to become profitable.

News of the company’s potential ambitions for AmazonGo sent shares of grocery and retail rivals lower. Walmart Inc. declined as much as 0.6 percent, reversing an earlier gain, while Target Corp. dropped about 1.5 percent and Kroger Co. slid as much as 3.1 percent.

Amazon has become the world’s largest online retailer by offering a vast selection and quick, convenient delivery. In physical stores, Amazon is emphasizing convenience over selection to win business. Amazon’s other brick-and-mortar initiatives include about 20 bookstores around the U.S. and the natural grocery chain Whole Foods Market, acquired last year. AmazonGo is the most distinctive of all of its physical stores.

At a Washington D.C. event last week, Bezos said Amazon was “very interested” in physical stores, but only if it has something new to offer. “If we offer a me-too product, it’s not going to work,” he said.

Such an expansion could put Amazon back into an investment cycle. Bezos is willing to lose money on long-term initiatives when he smells opportunity. Amazon Web Services, the company’s fast-growing and profitable cloud-computing business, was unprofitable for years and Bezos stuck with it, according to a person familiar with the matter. Amazon also routinely loses money expanding internationally.

Adding 3,000 convenience stores would make AmazonGo among the biggest chains in U.S. The internet giant is considering plans to have about 10 locations open by the end of this year, about 50 locations in major metro areas in 2019, and then as many as 3,000 by 2021, said the people, who requested anonymity discussing internal plans. Opening multiple locations in proximity, like it’s doing in Seattle, could also help Amazon reduce costs by centralizing food production in one kitchen serving many stores.

The U.S. currently has 155,000 convenience stores, with 122,500 of them combined with gas stations, according to industry group NACS. Non-fuel purchases at convenience stores totaled $233 billion in 2016, with cigarettes and other tobacco products the best-selling items.

Amazon is targeting dense urban areas with lots of young, busy, affluent residents willing to spend a little more than a typical fast-food experience for better quality food, the people said. The target locations make it less of a threat to suburban gas station-convenience store combinations and more of a threat to big cities’ quick-service eateries, such as Subway Restaurants, Panera Bread Co. and Pret a Manger. U.K.-based Pret has 450 locations worldwide, including New York, Boston and Chicago, focusing on fresh, healthy grab-and-go foods.

AmazonGo will be more of a threat to fast-casual restaurants if it is targeting cities, said Jeff Lenard, vice president of NACS. Shoppers rate location and a lack of lines as the most important factors when shopping for convenience, he said.

“AmazonGo already has no lines,” Lenard said. “The key to success will be convenient locations. If it’s a quarter mile from where people are walking and biking, the novelty of the technology won’t matter. It’s too far away.”

Tesla Says It Has Turned Over Documents to the Justice Department -

Tesla Says It Has Turned Over Documents to the Justice Department

Posted: 18 Sep 2018 01:34 PM PDT


(DETROIT) — Tesla Inc. has turned over documents to the U.S. Justice Department after statements by CEO Elon Musk about taking the company private, the electric car maker confirmed Tuesday.

The Palo Alto, California, company cooperated with the request and believes the matter should be resolved quickly once federal prosecutors review information they have received, according to a company statement.

News of a potential criminal investigation pushed Tesla stock down 5 percent in morning trading Tuesday, but the decline subsided a bit by early afternoon to 3.4 percent, at $284.89.

“We have not received a subpoena, a request for testimony, or any other formal process,” Tesla’s statement said.
Bloomberg News reported Tuesday morning that the Justice Department is running a criminal probe parallel to an investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission. The news service cited two people familiar with the matter that it did not identify.

The Justice Department generally does not confirm or deny investigations, spokeswoman Nicole Navas Oxman in Washington said. The U.S. Attorney’s Office in San Francisco took the same stance.

Tesla said it was contacted by prosecutors after Musk tweeted last month while driving to the airport that funding was secured to take the company private. The announcement raised the stock price 11 percent in one day, but it has since fallen.

Later the company admitted that funding wasn’t lined up and eventually Musk abandoned the idea.

Short-sellers, who bet against the stock appreciating, complained that Musk’s announcement was done to manipulate the stock price and cost them money.

Stephen Crimmins, a former deputy chief of litigation for the SEC, said prosecutors probably are looking at Musk’s tweets to be cautious. “It automatically becomes so high profile that the government enforcers have to be particularly conscientious in taking a look at things,” he said.

Crimmins said Musk “speaks loosely,” but his conduct probably doesn’t rise to the criminal level. Prosecutors would have to prove Musk lied in order to move the stock price, which would be difficult, Crimmins said. Any loss to short-sellers would be for a short period and wouldn’t be worth the risk of Musk intentionally manipulating the stock price, Crimmins said.

The SEC likely would pursue a civil remedy that would include a provision that someone at Tesla review Musk’s tweets on corporate matters before they are sent out, he said.

Wall Street Fears the End of an Era - Bloomberg

Wall Street Fears the End of an Era
By Alastair Marsh
September 19, 2018, 2:00 PM GMT+10
 Bank trading heads say funds now have access to trading data
 Banks’ complaints highlight scramble for profit in debt world

The masters of the corporate-bond world believe one of their few remaining preserves is slipping away. But they’re not letting it go without a fight.

Credit traders at some of the world’s largest banks are convinced hedge funds and brokers have penetrated their members-only club. The claim -- based on interviews with more than 16 bankers, including seven who head trading desks -- is that rivals and even clients are now accessing information from trading platforms that have long been the exclusive domain of the banks.

These wholesale trading venues are operated by firms known as interdealer brokers. And according to practices developed over decades, they were used solely by big banks that have served as the primary market makers for institutional investors looking to trade corporate bonds and other debt.

The platforms allow the banks to anonymously unload unwanted positions or source bonds from each other, as well as gain pricing intelligence. Effectively, this has helped the banks maintain a significant amount of control over who gets what and how much is paid in a marketplace that now trades more than $30 billion a day.

New Rules
But post-crisis regulations that curbed the banks’ ability to take risks -- while ushering in a wave of new trading venues -- diminished the banks’ role. What has followed is a brutish world where bankers, investors and smaller brokers jostle for influence and profits.

“The banks are trying to defend their turf and maintain the advantages they used to enjoy,” said Suki Mann, a debt-market analyst who previously ran credit strategy in Europe for Societe Generale SA and UBS Group AG. “But they’re fighting a losing battle.”

Caught in the middle of all of this are the interdealer firms, such as TP ICAP Plc, BGC Partners Inc. and Cie. Financiere Tradition SA. They’re fighting for a share of a shrinking pie while trying not to alienate their primary clients -- the banks.

Credit traders at 11 of the world’s largest banks -- including some that head trading desks -- said that they’re convinced that pressures faced by the interdealer brokers to boost commissions is prompting them to let investors and brokers onto platforms where dealers trade -- giving them access to a bigger universe of product and prices.

Market Conventions
The traders, who asked not to be identified because they’re not authorized to talk about their business operations, based those suspicions on trades they saw on the platforms and client queries about trades. The head of a credit trading unit at a U.S. bank also said a hedge fund client told him that they had access to the platforms.

The traders aren’t claiming any laws are being broken. But they say that -- in addition to their own profits -- it’s threatening long-standing conventions that have helped maintain market integrity and liquidity. One senior trader at a French lender said banks often try to buy or sell bonds for clients in the interdealer market, and if those investors are also present on the platforms then their ability to trade will decrease.

Spokesmen for TP ICAP, BGC and Tradition declined to comment on the bankers’ claims about their industry. Four credit brokers employed at interdealer firms spoke to Bloomberg News, asking not to be identified because they’re not allowed to talk about their business dealings. They said they hadn’t seen first-hand evidence of non-bank entities trading on their platforms.

Bloomberg LP, the parent of Bloomberg News, also offers bond-trading services to banks and fund managers.

Higher Costs
The tensions emerged after new rules intended to prevent another financial crisis forced banks to pull back from some risky trading activities. The regulations also made it costlier for them to facilitate trades by holding debt on their own balance sheets or maintaining large warehouses of securities.

As the banks’ roles were reduced, that allowed others to step in -- namely smaller brokerage firms that simply match buyers and sellers without taking assets on to their balance sheets. Investment firms, like asset managers and hedge funds, have also increased trading among themselves since they can no longer rely on deposit-taking giants to always help them enter or exit a trade.

Out of Bonds
Banks now hold far fewer corporate bonds than they did before the financial crisis

One trader at a unit of an interdealer broker who asked not to be identified because he is not authorized to speak publicly, said hedge funds should be able to trade on the interdealer platforms. Since banks provide considerably less liquidity than they used to, funds shouldn’t have to rely only on investment banks to help them find the other side of a trade, he said.

“I don’t think we should put restrictions on who can deal on what platform to favor particular groups,” said Brian Scott-Quinn, the non-executive chairman of the ICMA Centre, part of Henley Business School at the University of Reading, England. “That creates a bifurcated market and is just plain wrong. Just because the banks had privileges in the past they think they should continue to have them, but if they don’t provide adequate liquidity anymore, then those benefits should disappear.”

The interdealer firms, which earn commission for every trade they match, enjoyed their best years before the financial crisis, and also had strong trading volumes immediately afterward as banks unwound unprofitable positions. Since then, growth has stalled.

* Includes revenue from some electronic services; ** Includes revenue from hybrid platforms such as iSwap; *** TP ICAP stops reporting separate revenue numbers for ICAP and Tullett

ICAP does have a trading portal specifically for investment firms and its parent has said a division that serves asset managers and hedge funds will help the company increase revenues.

The tension spilled over earlier this year.

In May, a senior high-yield bond trader at Credit Suisse Group AG in London refused to trade through ICAP after he believed he had been the victim of a copycat trade, according to people familiar with the matter. Within minutes of making a price in a bond of a European retailer on an ICAP platform, the Credit Suisse trader was told that a trader at a brokerage firm had sent a similar price for a comparable size of trade in the same security to its customers, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the information is private.

The trader’s boycott lasted six weeks until ICAP wrote to Credit Suisse, its biggest client for European junk bond trades, saying it will not allow brokers on its platform, the people said.

“This is an inaccurate description of events,” said a spokesman for Credit Suisse. “No such trade occurred. Our traders have not stopped using this particular platform at any point.”

The spokesman for TP ICAP, which was formed by Tullett Prebon Plc’s takeover of ICAP Plc’s voice-broking business at the end of 2016, declined to comment on the incident.

“It’s not a very pleasant time, whether you’re in a bank or a hedge fund,” said Derrick Herndon, who has run credit businesses in New York and London for Credit Suisse, Toronto-Dominion Bank and UBS Group AG. “Both sides are pointing at each other, but it’s a deeper issue than banks just don’t have market clout the way they used to.”

— With assistance by Will Hadfield

A World With Fewer Babies Spells Economic Trouble - Bloomberg

A World With Fewer Babies Spells Economic Trouble
By
September 14, 2018, 2:00 PM GMT+10

Please have more babies.
Forget the prophecies saying overpopulation will starve the planet. The human race is approaching the point where it’s no longer reproducing enough to expand the global headcount. In the world’s biggest economies -- the U.S., China, Japan and Germany -- it’s already happening or will soon. Economists say these countries could see slower economic growth unless they increase their working-age populations by accepting immigrants, possibly from regions with higher fertility rates, like parts of Asia and Africa. Lower fertility rates -- the number of live births per woman -- could also threaten safety-net programs like pensions and health care.

1. How big is the dropoff?
Fertility rates have dropped globally to about 2.4 this decade, from 5 in the 1960s, according to the World Bank. That’s getting close to the rate, about 2.1, required to keep the world’s population stable in the long run. Many wealthier countries, particularly in Europe, are well below 2.1. Several nations -- Moldova, South Korea, Singapore -- share the world’s lowest fertility rate of 1.2. Most developing nations have much higher rates, with many in Africa at 5 or above.

2. Why has this happened?
Lots of reasons. With advances in agriculture and medicine, people are living longer and far fewer children are dying young. Increasing urbanization means families don’t need as many kids to work the fields. More women are delaying marriage and children for work and education. Economists have also found an association between low fertility and higher incomes. Once a country’s output per person passes $10,000 annually, women tend to give birth to no more than two children. Education and government policies, meanwhile, have sharply reduced births among teenage girls.

3. What will this do to the world’s population?
The United Nations calculated the world’s population as of 2017 at 7.6 billion people, a number it projects will grow to 11.2 billion at the end of this century, after which it could begin to fall. But a lot of countries are going to shrink before then. With a fertility rate of only 1.6, China’s population will drop 28 percent by 2100, ceding the title of world’s most-populous nation to India, the UN predicts. With a fertility rate of 1.4, Japan’s population will plunge 34 percent by 2100. The U.S.’s headcount is expected to keep growing, despite a low fertility rate of 1.8, because of large numbers of immigrants, though government policies could change that.

4. What happens when a country’s population stops growing?
Its economy can still expand, but the pace over the long run would be limited to the speed at which productivity -- output per hour worked -- is rising. Since the 2007-2009 recession, productivity gains have been relatively meager, making low fertility rates an added problem. If fewer people work, there’s less income to go around. Fewer workers also mean less tax revenue for retirement and health-care programs. And that means governments might have to cut benefits, raise taxes or borrow more, pitting the old and young against each other.

5. Where is this playing out now?
In Japan, employers often struggle to fill job vacancies. Spending on health care and pensions has swollen Japan’s public debt to more than twice the size of its economy. The International Monetary Fund has estimated that the country’s annual economic growth could be 1 percentage point lower for the next three decades because of Japan’s aging population. That means the country’s economy, forecast to expand 1 percent this year and next, may stagnate further.

6. What can governments do?
Immigration can help, but not all countries are willing to open their doors. Japan, historically wary of immigrants, under Prime Minister Shinzo Abe wants to allow more foreign workers for limited stays. Abe is also encouraging more automation and more women in the workforce. Germany’s fertility rate, at 1.5, is the highest in decades, thanks in part to a recent immigration surge but also to adoption of family-friendly policies, including raising parental-leave allowances. But in France, which for years has had pro-baby policies, such as cash bonuses and tax breaks for parents, the 1.96 fertility rate is its lowest level since 2005.

7. Can China reverse its expected population decline?
Not likely. China changed its rules in 2016 to allow two children and now may remove limits altogether. While that may encourage some families to have more babies, it won’t give a major boost to the national fertility rate, according to Chinese demographer Cai Yong. Among the obstacles: high living costs, long work hours and surging child-care expenses.

The Reference Shelf
A Bloomberg Benchmark podcast with Cai Yong.
Bloomberg columnist Noah Smith writes about Japan’s baby bust and what rich nations can do to reverse their population slide.
Bloomberg QuickTake explainers on Japan’s low birthrate and China’s reversal of its two-child policy.
The World Bank keeps track of fertility rates worldwide.
American women explain why they chose to have fewer children in this New York Times article.

US stock market mixed as trade worries return - Fox News

US stock market mixed as trade worries return
By Ken MartinPublished September 14, 2018MarketsFOXBusiness

Stocks down as Trump gives green light to $200B in tariffs on China
Nuveen Asset Management's Bob Doll on the market impact from mounting trade tensions with China.

The stock market posted mixed results Friday after a report that President Trump has told aides to go ahead with tariffs on about $200 billion in additional Chinese goods.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average erased its initial losses following the news, closing 8.68 points higher, or 0.03 percent, at 26,154.67. The S&P 500 rose less than one point to 2,904.98. The Nasdaq Composite fell 3.67 points, or 0.5 percent, to 8,010.04.

The Bloomberg News report surfaced as the market was posting modest gains earlier in the day's session. Shares had been climbing on expectations that trade tensions between the U.S. and China were easing and consumer sentiment surged to a six-month high.

But those expectations were dashed and the Dow, which had been up about 65 points, dropped approximately 120 points immediately after the report.


Ticker Security Last Change %Chg
I:DJI DOW JONES AVERAGES 26154.67 +8.68 +0.03%
SP500 S&P 500 2904.98 +0.80 +0.03%
I:COMP NASDAQ COMPOSITE INDEX 8010.0437 -3.67 -0.05%
“When the headlines hit, the knee-jerk reaction in the market is to either sell off or gain immediately,” Quincy Krosby, chief market strategist at Prudential Financial said to Bloomberg. “The president has had a couple of tweets suggesting he’s in no hurry to craft an agreement, but despite this, talks are apparently going to resume. And the question will be whether or not that leads to more negotiations.”

Shares of technology companies were leading the stock market lower.

Meanwhile, Wall Street was also paying attention to Hurricane Florence, which made landfall near Cape Fear, N.C., on Friday morning. Florence was downgraded to a Category 1 storm with winds of 90 mph moving west at only 6 mph. Heavy rain, gusting winds and rising floodwaters hammered the Carolinas, threatening millions of people in its path with torrential rainfall and widespread flooding.

More from FOX Business
Hurricane Florence: Gas stations running out of fuel Opens a New Window.
Lehman Brothers collapse: Key lessons on 10-year anniversary Opens a New Window.
Tax cuts 2.0: What you need to know Opens a New Window.
In Asian markets on Friday, Japan's Nikkei average rallied to over a seven-month high as sentiment improved on signs China and the United States could set aside their differences and resolve a heated trade dispute.

The Nikkei ended the day up 1 percent and higher by 3.5 percent for the week, the best weekly performance in two months. China’s Shanghai Composite ended Friday down 0.2 percent and down 0.8 percent for the week. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng finished the day1 percent higher.

In European trading, London’s FTSE trade up by 0.24 percent, Germany’s DAX gained 0.29 percent and France’s CAC rose 0.32 percent.

Everything to Know About the iPhone Xs’ New Camera Features - TIME

Everything to Know About the iPhone Xs’ New Camera Features

Posted: 12 Sep 2018 01:05 PM PDT


Apple’s new flagship smartphone, the iPhone Xs, has a handful of new camera features that mobile photographers will love — and one that might appall photography purists.

Here’s a snapshot of the most notable camera upgrades on the iPhone Xs:

Smart HDR
HDR, or “high dynamic range,” involves taking multiple photos at different exposures and blending them together to get a wider range of shadows and highlights than would normally be possible in a single photograph. Done well, it can help produce some stunning images — but when abused, the results can be downright garish.

The iPhone has long had an option for HDR photos. But Apple’s new iPhone Xs offers a new feature called “Smart HDR,” which the company says intelligently combines differently-exposed frames into a single image. The advertised result: Better photos with minimal work on the photographer’s part.
No Shutter Lag
iPhones and other smartphones have long suffered from a distinct lag between the time you hit the shutter button and the moment a photograph is actually recorded. The iPhone Xs circumvents that problem with a clever solution: Just like The Hulk is always angry, the iPhone Xs’ camera app is always shooting images — when it’s open, of course. Those images get sent to a buffer then instantly deleted — unless you tap the shutter, in which case they’re saved.

Depth-of-Field (“Bokeh”) Control
This’ll be the most controversial feature on the new iPhone among some photographers.

With traditional cameras, photographers select an aperture — how wide the shutter opens — before making an image. The wider the aperture, the thinner the plane of focus, helping photographers keep a subject pin-sharp while throwing the background out of focus to produce that pleasing “bokeh” effect. But photographers typically have to make this creative choice before hitting the shutter. Once you make an image, there’s no going back to change the aperture, and thus the depth of field, after the fact.

But with the iPhone Xs, users can change the depth of field of their images after they’re recorded. This is possible because the iPhone’s background blur is digitally created by software, not by the width of a physical shutter.

Many users will find this handy and fun to play around with (it’s also reminiscent of what camera maker Lytro was trying to do.) But photography purists may scoff at the idea that this particular creative choice is moving from before-the-fact to after-the-fact. Still, that’s true of lots of other decisions in photography. In film’s heyday, for instance, shutterbugs were pretty much locked into their choice of color or black-and-white, whereas many photographers now happily switch between the two in their editing software of choice depending on whatever looks better. So the purists will probably just have to get over it.

OLED Screen
While it’s not strictly a photography feature, the iPhone Xs’ 5.8-inch OLED screen should serve as a great viewfinder and way to view your images. That’s doubly true for the iPhone Xs Max and its 6.5-inch monster of a screen.


New iPhones and More: Here’s Everything Apple Just Announced

Posted: 12 Sep 2018 12:27 PM PDT


Apple on Wednesday introduced a trio of new iPhones and an upgraded, health-focused Apple Watch.

If you missed the big event, here’s a quick recap of Apple’s new gadgets and their most notable features.

iPhone Xs
The biggest news of the day was the iPhone Xs, Apple’s new flagship smartphone and successor to last year’s iPhone X.

Pronounced “iPhone Ten Ess,” the 5.8-inch iPhone Xs boasts a new OLED screen, Apple’s new A12 Bionic chip, and new camera software that lets users change the depth of field of their images after taking them. The new chip allows for faster processing speeds and other under-the-hood benefits.
The iPhone Xs will be available in gold, space gray and silver finishes and with 64GB, 256GB or 512GB of storage. It starts at $999; pre-orders start Friday.

iPhone Xs Max
Apple also dropped the iPhone Xs Max, the company’s biggest-yet smartphone. Unlike some of Apple’s previous larger smartphone variants, there’s not much notable about the iPhone Xs Max beyond the larger size — it’s basically an iPhone Xs embiggened to 6.5 inches. If you love watching TV or movies on your smartphone, or you’re often shooting photos or recording videos, this may be the model for you.

The iPhone Xs Max will be available in gold, space gray and silver finishes and with 64GB, 256GB or 512GB of storage. It starts at $1,099; pre-orders begin Friday.

iPhone XR
For those who don’t need the bells and whistles, there’s the iPhone XR, a pared-down 6.1-inch model with a less impressive LCD display and only a single rear-facing camera, limiting its photographic capabilities. Still, the screen is edge-to-edge and will look plenty nice to those upgrading from an older model. If you don’t care about having a top-of-the-line smartphone camera or the best display, the iPhone XR is a decent way to save some money — it even has the same A12 chip as the more expensive models.

The iPhone XR will be available in a variety of colors, including blue, yellow, red and more, and with 64GB, 128GB or 256GB of storage. It starts at $749; pre-orders begin Oct. 19.

Apple Watch Series 4
Apple’s foray into the wearable world received its first major design upgrade on Wednesday with the Apple Watch Series 4, a health-minded gadget with new perks for fitness fanatics.

Among the new Apple Watch’s standout features is its ability to record an electrocardiogram, or ECG, tracking the wearer’s heart health. That data can then be shared with medical professionals for their analysis. The Apple Watch Series 4 can also alert a user if their heart rate is low or otherwise abnormal, a sign of a potential health problem. Another new feature can detect if a user has fallen, and automatically call for help in the event the wearer is unresponsive after a fall.

The Apple Watch Series 4 ships on Sept. 14. It runs $399 and up for the standard version, and $499 and up for the model with on-board cellular connectivity.


Apple Unveils iPhone XS, iPhone XS Max and Cheaper iPhone XR

Posted: 12 Sep 2018 11:42 AM PDT


Apple on Wednesday unveiled a trio of new iPhone models, ranging from two high-end designs to a more affordable entry-level device.

The two higher-end iPhone models, named the iPhone XS and iPhone XS Max, feature more advanced screens using what’s called OLED technology. They will be available in gold, silver and space gray finishes. The iPhone XS has a 5.8-inch display, while the iPhone XS Max has a 6.5-inch display. The iPhone XS runs on Apple’s new A12 Bionic processor, helping apps launch faster and providing other under-the-hood benefits. Both models have two rear-facing 12-megapixel cameras, one wide-angle and the other telephoto.
The new iPhone XS models will be available with up to 512GB of storage, the most ever in an iPhone.

A new photography feature will let iPhone XS uses take a photograph, then later select the amount of background blur, or “bokeh,” they want in the image.

The battery in the iPhone XS will last 30 minutes longer than that of the iPhone X, Apple marketing boss Phil Schiller said Wednesday. The XS Max will last 90 minutes longer.

The more affordable model, the iPhone XR, has an LCD display, which are often less impressive than OLED screens. Still, the iPhone XR’s screen, which Apple calls “Liquid Retina,” is also an edge-to-edge design. Instead of 3D Touch, the iPhone XR has “haptic touch,” which offers a similar feature-set without fingerprint scanning, which is replaced with FaceID as a means of unlocking the device. The iPhone XR has a single rear-facing 12-megapixel camera. It has 90 minutes more battery life than the iPhone 8, Schiller said.

Interestingly, the cheaper iPhone XR has the A12 Bionic chip, the same processor as the more expensive iPhone XS models.

All three phones are based on the design of last year’s iPhone X, Apple’s first smartphone with an edge-to-edge screen and other design improvements.

By introducing pricey iPhone XS models alongside a cheaper entry-level model, Apple may risk cannibalizing the sales of its more expensive, and therefore likely more profitable device. But the Cupertino, Calif. tech giant could also be wagering that the higher-end iPhone XS could be seen as a status symbol, and thus attract more affluent buyers.

The iPhone XS begins at $999, while the iPhone XS Max starts at $1,099. Pre-orders begin Friday and shipments start Sept. 21. The iPhone XR will be $749 and up, and begins shipping Oct. 26.


Apple’s New Health-Focused Apple Watch Can Call for Help if You Fall Down

Posted: 12 Sep 2018 10:35 AM PDT


Apple on Wednesday introduced a new health-focused Apple Watch, called the Apple Watch Series 4, with a larger display and a thinner overall body.

“Everything about it has been redesigned and reengineered,” said Apple COO Jeff Williams.

The Apple Watch Series 4 has a handful of new watch faces to take advantage of the increase in screen real estate, including one with photos of users’ contacts that can be tapped to quickly make a call. Another face is based on Apple’s Breathe app, which guides users through a deep breathing exercise.

Thanks to a new accelerometer and gyroscope, the new Apple Watch can tell if a wearer falls. Upon detecting a fall, it will ask if the user needs help. If the Apple Watch doesn’t detect any movement for one minute, it will automatically send your location to emergency responders.
Along similar health-minded lines, the Apple Watch Series 4 can tell if your heart rate drops too low, or if you have an irregular heartbeat that may suggest atrial fibrillation. The new Apple Watch also allows users to take an electrocardiogram, or ECG. A built-in app can then check the results for potential problems, as well as record the data for users to share with medical experts.

“This is the first ECG product offered over-the-counter directly to consumers,” said Williams. The new Apple Watch has clearance from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Williams added.

Williams said the Series 4 was designed to better handle phone calls with a new speaker, microphone, and construction that lets radio waves more easily pass through the rear of the device.

The Apple Watch Series 4 has 18-hour “all-day battery life,” Williams said.

The new Apple Watch will be available in an array of stainless and aluminum options starting at $399 on Sept. 21, with pre-orders beginning Friday. An option with built-in cellular connectivity will run $499. The older Series 3 model will still be available, but at the cheaper price of $279.

The new Apple Watch may help the company capture more of the smartwatch market as we head into the typically lucrative holiday buying season. Apple has just under 20% of that market as of the second quarter, according to research firm IDC.






McDonald’s Workers Are Going on Strike Over Sexual Harassment

Posted: 12 Sep 2018 07:55 AM PDT


(NEW YORK) — Emboldened by the #MeToo movement, McDonald’s workers have voted to stage a one-day strike next week at restaurants in 10 cities in hopes of pressuring management to take stronger steps against on-the-job sexual harassment.

Organizers say it will be the first multistate strike in the U.S. specifically targeting sexual harassment.

Plans for the walkout — to start at lunchtime on Sept. 18 — have been approved in recent days by “women’s committees” formed by employees at dozens of McDonald’s restaurants across the U.S. Lead organizers include several women who filed complaints with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in May alleging pervasive harassment at some of McDonald’s franchise restaurants.
The strike comes as union-backed organizations have been putting pressure on McDonald’s on several fronts for better working conditions, including $15 an hour wages — at a burger chain that employs tens of thousands of people around the country, many of them at low pay.

Organizers said the strike would target multiple restaurants — but not every local McDonald’s — in each of the 10 cities: Chicago; Durham, North Carolina; Kansas City, Missouri; Los Angeles; Miami; Milwaukee; New Orleans; Orlando, Florida; San Francisco and St. Louis.

They said they could not predict with precision how many workers would join the strike, but noted that hundreds of workers had participated in the committee meetings at which the strike was planned.

McDonald’s, in an e-mail to The Associated Press, defended its anti-harassment efforts.

“We have policies, procedures and training in place that are specifically designed to prevent sexual harassment at our company and company-owned restaurants, and we firmly believe that our franchisees share this commitment,” the company said.

The company also disclosed a new initiative that will engage outside experts to work with the company to help “evolve” those policies and procedures. Some of the experts would come from an employment law training firm and an anti-sexual violence organization.

Labor lawyer Mary Joyce Carlson, who has been collaborating with women who filed the EEOC complaints, says the company needs to back up such gestures with tougher enforcement.

“We see no evidence there’s been any change at all,” she said. “Whatever policy they have is not effective.”

Organizers of the planned walkout say strikers will be demanding that the company improve procedures for receiving and responding to harassment complaints, and require anti-harassment training for managers and employees. Another demand will be formation of a national committee to address sexual harassment, comprised of workers, representatives from corporate and franchise stores, and leaders of national women’s groups.

Carlson is an attorney for Fight for $15, a national movement seeking to increase the minimum wage to $15 an hour. She said McDonald’s has successfully resisted efforts to unionize its employees, and suggested that workers’ anger related to sexual harassment might fuel broader efforts to gain better working conditions.

Among the strike organizers is Tanya Harrell, 22, of New Orleans, who filed a complaint with the EEOC in May alleging that her two managers at a local McDonald’s teased her, but otherwise took no action after she told them of sustained verbal and physical harassment by a co-worker. Harrell, who makes $8.15 an hour, said she and many of her colleagues were skeptical of the company’s commitment to combating harassment.

“They want people to think they care, but they don’t care,” she said. “They could do a way more better job.”

Another organizer is Kim Lawson, 25, of Kansas City, who also filed an EEOC complaint alleging that managers responded ineffectively when she reported sexual harassment by a co-worker.

Lawson, who has a 4-year-old daughter, says she makes $9 an hour. She is heartened by strong support from other workers for the planned walkout.

“Everybody’s been brave about it,” she said. “It’s time to stand up for what we believe in.”

Thus far, the nearly year-old #MeToo movement has not triggered a strike targeting a specific U.S. company. Last March, on International Women’s Day, there were broad-based calls for women to stay away from work in several countries, notably in Western Europe.

Annelise Orleck, a history professor at Dartmouth College who has written about low-wage workers, said she knows of only one precedent in the United States to the planned McDonald’s walkout.

In 1912, she said, several hundred garment workers at a corset factory in Kalamazoo, Michigan, walked off the job in a strike prompted by pervasive sexual harassment, as well as other poor working conditions. The strikers did not win all of their demands, but succeeded in winning public support and drawing attention to workplace abuses.


Here’s How to Watch Apple’s iPhone Event Live Today

Posted: 12 Sep 2018 07:09 AM PDT

Apple is hosting an event at its Cupertino, Calif. headquarters Wednesday, during which it’s likely to introduce a handful of new iPhones and, possibly, a bevy of other gadgets.

The event begins at 10 a.m. PT / 1 p.m. ET. Apple is streaming it live on its website, which you can view here. Apple recently abandoned its habit of making its event livestreams viewable only on its own Safari browser, so you should be able to load that stream on alternatives like Google Chrome or Microsoft Edge.

Apple is also livestreaming the iPhone event on Twitter. Keep an eye on Apple’s Twitter account for more details:

Join us September 12 at 10 a.m. PDT to watch the #AppleEvent live on Twitter. Tap ❤️ below and we’ll send you updates on event day. pic.twitter.com/i9mGHTKhvu

— Apple (@Apple) September 10, 2018

While nothing’s official until the event begins, Apple is rumored to be introducing two new high-end iPhones, the iPhone XS and iPhone XS Max, and a cheaper entry-level device, the iPhone XR. Apple may also unveil a new Apple Watch, a new entry-level MacBook laptop, and more.

iPhone Xs vs. iPhone Xs Max vs. iPhone Xr: Which New Apple Smartphone Is Right for You? - TIME

iPhone Xs vs. iPhone Xs Max vs. iPhone Xr: Which New Apple Smartphone Is Right for You?

Posted: 13 Sep 2018 08:51 AM PDT


Apple on Wednesday dropped not one, not two, but three new versions of the iPhone, undoubtedly leaving some people wondering: Which iPhone is right for me?

Complicating matters are the difficult-to-parse naming conventions: There’s the iPhone Xs (pronounced “ten-ess”), the iPhone Xs Max, and the iPhone Xr (pronounced “ten are”). Unfortunately, those names don’t really offer any insights into which phone does what.

Confused? No sweat. Here’s a quick guide that can help you decide which iPhone, if any, is your best bet. Note that we haven’t had extended time to use the devices yet, so this is based purely on Apple’s advertised specs. Also remember that just because new iPhones exist doesn’t mean you need to upgrade right away — many older models will still receive Apple’s upcoming iOS 12 software upgrade, and if you’re happy with your device, you might as well save the money.
iPhone Xs
Summary: The iPhone Xs is Apple’s new flagship smartphone, meaning it’s the cream of the crop. It’s got a gorgeous 5.8-inch, edge-to-edge OLED display, a dual-lens camera system with both wide and telephoto optics, and Apple’s latest and greatest A12 Bionic processor. But the iPhone Xs isn’t cheap, starting at $999 and going as high as $1,349 for the version with a (kind of ridiculous) 512GB of onboard storage.

Reason to Buy: If having the best screen technology around and a top-of-the-line camera is important to you, go for the iPhone Xs. But you could also super-size your order by going with the…

iPhone Xs Max
Summary: The iPhone Xs Max is pretty much just an embiggened iPhone Xs, measuring up at a monstrous 6.5 inches. That kind of screen size, in combination with the OLED display, is going to make the iPhone Xs Max the perfect choice for people who use their iPhone to watch a lot of TV shows or movies, or do a ton of photography or videography. But just like getting the bigger popcorn at the movies, you’ll pay even more for the extra size: the iPhone Xs Max starts at an eye-popping $1,099 and goes all the way up to $1,449 for the 512GB version, a price point that rivals that of Apple’s high-end MacBook Pro laptops.

Reason to Buy: If you want the latest-and-greatest, but with a humongous screen. Again, this’ll be a phone that appeals to photo and video buffs. But it’s wise to get your hands on the iPhone Xs Max at an Apple Store or other location before committing to something this big and expensive — you might find that, thanks to the edge-to-edge display, the iPhone Xs is perfectly big enough.

iPhone Xr
Summary: At $749 and up, the iPhone Xr is by no means “cheap.” But it’s certainly the most affordable of Apple’s newest iPhone options. There are compromises, of course: Instead of the iPhone Xs’ OLED screen, you get a less impressive, but still perfectly capable, LCD display. The camera system, meanwhile, only uses a single lens, limiting its photographic capabilities. Interestingly, however, the iPhone Xr uses the same A12 Bionic processor found in the more expensive phones, so you’re not sacrificing anything in terms of under-the-hood specs. It’s also only available in a single 6.1 inch size, putting it between the iPhone Xs and iPhone Xs Max. But that’s a nice, middle-of-the-road size that most people will probably like — and the array of color options available make it an eye-catching choice.

Reason to Buy: Of the three, this is the iPhone I would recommend to most people. OLED screens are incredibly nice, but far from a necessity. The camera will be totally fine for everyday use. And the fact that it uses the same processor as the more expensive phones means you’re not sacrificing anything in terms of performance. Unless you’re the type of person who wants the top-of-the-line gear (or you want an utterly humongous display), the iPhone Xr is probably the right choice for you.

Bitcoin crash: This man lost his savings when cryptocurrencies plunged - CNN Money

Bitcoin crash: This man lost his savings when cryptocurrencies plunged
by Michael Kaplan   @CNNMoneyInvest
September 11, 2018: 7:59 AM ET

He bet on Bitcoin and lost nearly everything
An estimated $400 billion has been wiped off the value of major cryptocurrencies since January.
Sean Russell's life savings were among them.

Russell rarely played the stock market and had little investing experience when he put around $120,000 into bitcoin in November 2017. He was stunned when that turned into $500,000 in just one month.

"I think there was one morning where I woke up, where I made about £12,000 ($15,600) in one morning on my investment and it just kept going," said Russell. "I was thinking, wow, that's mortgages paid, that's holidays that I've always dreamed of."

The dream didn't last for Russell, who works as a property developer in the United Kingdom, buying homes and fixing them up. The price of Bitcoin surpassed $20,000 in December before collapsing. It now trades at $6,300.

Russell attempted to mitigate his losses by shifting money from bitcoin (XBT) to an offshoot called Bitcoin Cash and other cryptocurrencies including Ethereum and Ripple. But that didn't work, and Russell says the paper losses on his initial investment have reached 96%.

"It was devastating, quite traumatic, really," Russell said. "I've seen stories on the news of billionaires going bankrupt, and you think how can that be? How on earth did you lose that amount of money? And yet, here I am in that position."

Sean Russell lost most of his savings when the price of cryptocurrencies plunged.
Russell is not alone.

Michel Rauchs, who researches cryptocurrency and blockchain at the Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance, said the explosive rise in prices in 2017 attracted a wave of inexperienced investors.

"Retail investors, students, housewives, even grandma was driven in by the hype," says Rauchs. "They were told by the media that this was an opportunity of a lifetime. They bought at the top and are now sitting on heavy losses."

The crash has left professional investors and enthusiasts debating where cryptocurrencies go from here.

"Clearly the frenzy that we have seen and the volatility in the price of bitcoin ... resembles a lot of other financial bubbles that happen over and over again in our economic history," said Benedetto De Martino, a behavioral economist at University College London.

The fever that gripped cryptocurrency investors has faded in recent months. JPMorgan (JPM) CEO Jamie Dimon and Warren Buffett of Berkshire Hathaway (BRKA) have warned investors to stay away from bitcoin.

Last week, bitcoin prices plunged more than 20% in two days after Business Insider reported that investment banking giant Goldman Sachs (GS) may be dropping plans to launch a crypto trading desk.

Goldman Sachs told CNNMoney it hadn't made a firm decision bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies.

The Securities and Exchange Commission blocked several proposals for bitcoin exchange-traded funds in the past few months, including plans from ETF giants ProShares and Direxion and one backed by the Winklevoss brothers.

Despite the warnings, some cryptocurrency entrepreneurs see the boom and bust as growing pains.

"Markets are cyclical and there's still a lot of opportunity for sophisticated investors," said Benjamin Dives, CEO of cryptocurrency trading platform London Block Exchange.

Before he first invested, Russell spent years tracking bitcoin and studying blockchain, the technology underpinning digital currencies. He said the learning process was like solving the plot of a murder mystery.

Despite the loss, he remains a committed investor.

"I have to be hopeful about something," he said. "I need to keep my mind occupied, because when I just focused on the money I lost, it destroyed me mentally and emotionally."

CNNMoney (Leeds, UK)
First published September 11, 2018: 7:59 AM ET

Brexit: Carney warns no-deal could see house prices plunge - BBC News

Sept. 14, 2018.

Brexit: Carney warns no-deal could see house prices plunge

The Bank of England's governor has warned the cabinet that a chaotic no-deal Brexit could crash house prices and send another financial shock through the economy.

Mark Carney met senior ministers on Thursday to discuss the risks of a disorderly exit from the EU.

His worst-case scenario was that house prices could fall as much as 35% over three years, a source told the BBC.

The warning echoes some of the Bank's previous comments.

The Bank of England routinely carries out "stress tests" to check whether the banking system can withstand extreme financial shocks.

Its latest one was conducted in November, when it said a 33% fall in house prices could occur in a worst-case scenario.

Several reports said that the Bank governor also told the Downing Street meeting that mortgage rates could spiral, the pound and inflation could fall, and countless homeowners could be left in negative equity.

Preparing for two 'no deal' scenariosBrexit papers: What no deal could mean
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May says £39bn bill linked to Brexit deal
Mr Carney, who has just agreed to stay on as governor of the central bank until 2020, has faced strong criticism in the past, with Brexiteers accusing him of being part of the Remain camp.

Analysis:
Kamal Ahmed, economics editor

It appears that the Governor wasn't providing the Cabinet with a forecast of what the Bank believes would happen in the event of a no deal Brexit. He was briefing the Cabinet on what preparations the Bank was making if that does happen, including last November's stress test.

It was not a forecast.

It was an apocalyptic test where the Bank deliberately sets the parameters beyond what might reasonably be expected to occur. The major banks all passed the test, giving reassurance that the financial system can cope with whatever happens next year.

The Governor believes that a "no deal" scenario would be bad for the economy. But not as bad as the headlines today which are based on a doomsday scenario that is not actually forecast to happen.

In August, Mr Carney told the BBC that the risk of a no-deal Brexit was "uncomfortably high".

That comment prompted leading Tory eurosceptic Jacob Rees-Mogg to call Mr Carney "the high priest of Project Fear", while former minister Iain Duncan Smith said "there is no such thing as a no-deal" and the Bank "struggled to understand how this would work".

Independent property expert Henry Pryor told the BBC that Mr Carney was "not predicting Armageddon, he was not predicting house prices would fall by a third, they are just making sure that if, for some extraordinary reason anything was to go horribly wrong, the bank is prepared."

But he warned house prices were likely to fall in the first half of the 2019 as people put off buying amid the Brexit uncertainty, while the number of sellers, "driven by death, debt and divorce" would remain about the same.

Responsible planning
Following the Downing Street meeting, the Prime Minister's official spokesman said ministers remained confident of a Brexit deal, but had agreed to "ramp up" their no-deal planning.

"As a responsible government, we need to plan for every eventuality. The Cabinet agreed that no-deal remains an unlikely but possible scenario in six months' time," the spokesman said.

The Bank of England declined to comment.

The cabinet meeting was part of a series of no-deal planning sessions designed to discuss the "unlikely" scenario that the UK leaves the EU without an agreement in place. After each meeting, planning papers are published on various subjects.

Phones and driving
On Thursday, the papers disclosed that UK car drivers may have to get an international driving permit if they want to drive in some European countries after a no-deal Brexit.

The government said that after March 2019 "your driving licence may no longer be valid by itself" in the EU, in its latest no-deal planning papers.

The papers also warned that Britons travelling to the EU may need to make sure their passports have six months left to run.

And, in an interview with BBC Political Editor Laura Kuenssberg, Brexit Secretary Dominic Raab said the government was trying to give the "reassurance that consumers need" on the issue of mobile phone roaming charges but admitted that European operators could pass on charges.

He said: "No, I can't give a cast-iron guarantee. What I can say is that the government would legislate to limit the ability of roaming charges to be imposed on customers."

Bitcoin crash: This man lost his savings when cryptocurrencies plunged - CNN Money

Bitcoin crash: This man lost his savings when cryptocurrencies plunged
by Michael Kaplan   @CNNMoneyInvest
September 11, 2018: 7:59 AM ET

He bet on Bitcoin and lost nearly everything
An estimated $400 billion has been wiped off the value of major cryptocurrencies since January.
Sean Russell's life savings were among them.

Russell rarely played the stock market and had little investing experience when he put around $120,000 into bitcoin in November 2017. He was stunned when that turned into $500,000 in just one month.

"I think there was one morning where I woke up, where I made about £12,000 ($15,600) in one morning on my investment and it just kept going," said Russell. "I was thinking, wow, that's mortgages paid, that's holidays that I've always dreamed of."

The dream didn't last for Russell, who works as a property developer in the United Kingdom, buying homes and fixing them up. The price of Bitcoin surpassed $20,000 in December before collapsing. It now trades at $6,300.

Russell attempted to mitigate his losses by shifting money from bitcoin (XBT) to an offshoot called Bitcoin Cash and other cryptocurrencies including Ethereum and Ripple. But that didn't work, and Russell says the paper losses on his initial investment have reached 96%.

"It was devastating, quite traumatic, really," Russell said. "I've seen stories on the news of billionaires going bankrupt, and you think how can that be? How on earth did you lose that amount of money? And yet, here I am in that position."

bitcoin victim 1
Sean Russell lost most of his savings when the price of cryptocurrencies plunged.
Russell is not alone.

Michel Rauchs, who researches cryptocurrency and blockchain at the Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance, said the explosive rise in prices in 2017 attracted a wave of inexperienced investors.

"Retail investors, students, housewives, even grandma was driven in by the hype," says Rauchs. "They were told by the media that this was an opportunity of a lifetime. They bought at the top and are now sitting on heavy losses."

The crash has left professional investors and enthusiasts debating where cryptocurrencies go from here.

"Clearly the frenzy that we have seen and the volatility in the price of bitcoin ... resembles a lot of other financial bubbles that happen over and over again in our economic history," said Benedetto De Martino, a behavioral economist at University College London.

The fever that gripped cryptocurrency investors has faded in recent months. JPMorgan (JPM) CEO Jamie Dimon and Warren Buffett of Berkshire Hathaway (BRKA) have warned investors to stay away from bitcoin.

Last week, bitcoin prices plunged more than 20% in two days after Business Insider reported that investment banking giant Goldman Sachs (GS) may be dropping plans to launch a crypto trading desk.

Goldman Sachs told CNNMoney it hadn't made a firm decision bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies.

The Securities and Exchange Commission blocked several proposals for bitcoin exchange-traded funds in the past few months, including plans from ETF giants ProShares and Direxion and one backed by the Winklevoss brothers.

Despite the warnings, some cryptocurrency entrepreneurs see the boom and bust as growing pains.

"Markets are cyclical and there's still a lot of opportunity for sophisticated investors," said Benjamin Dives, CEO of cryptocurrency trading platform London Block Exchange.

Before he first invested, Russell spent years tracking bitcoin and studying blockchain, the technology underpinning digital currencies. He said the learning process was like solving the plot of a murder mystery.

Despite the loss, he remains a committed investor.

"I have to be hopeful about something," he said. "I need to keep my mind occupied, because when I just focused on the money I lost, it destroyed me mentally and emotionally."

New York Is No Longer the Top City for the Ultra-Rich - Fortune ( source : Bloomberg )

New York Is No Longer the Top City for the Ultra-Rich
This Is Where the Ultra-Rich Live
Ultra-rich means you have $30 million.

By BLOOMBERG September 6, 2018
New York has lost its crown as home to the most ultra-rich people, beaten out by the rising tide of extreme wealth in Asia.

Hong Kong surpassed the Big Apple as the city with the highest population of people worth at least $30 million, according to a new report. The former British colony saw its number of ultra-wealthy increase 31% last year, to about 10,000, research firm Wealth-X found, higher than the nearly 9,000-strong population of the U.S.’s largest city. Tokyo came third, while Paris beat out London to take the European crown as Brexit weighed down the U.K. capital.

The number of ultra-rich worldwide rose 13% last year, according to Wealth-X, totaling about 256,000 people with combined assets of $31.5 trillion. Asia saw the fastest growth, driven by mainland China and Hong Kong, the study’s authors wrote. Reflecting the region’s rise, its share of the global population of people with at least $30 million rose to just over one-fourth, up from around 18% a decade ago.

“Asia-Pacific is forecast to close the ultra-wealth gap with other regions over the next five years, but is expected to remain behind Europe, the Middle East and Africa in absolute terms,” the report’s authors wrote. The number of ultra-wealthy in Asia-Pacific is expected to rise at a compound rate of 8.3% a year, they said.

Women accounted for about 35,000 of the ultra-rich last year, a record-high share of nearly 14%, the study found.

While Hong Kong topped the city rankings, nowhere in mainland China made the top 10, despite the country being third in the list of nations. That’s because China’s wealthy are widely dispersed, illustrated by the fact it was home to 26 of the 30 fastest-growing cities for the ultra-rich.

“The dynamism of wealth creation across China’s vast landscape is nevertheless staggering,” the authors wrote.

Hong Kong’s rise was also a reflection of China’s improving fortunes, with its position at the top of the global list “supported by enhanced trade and investment links with mainland China,” according to the authors.

The relative struggles of commodity markets was a factor in the Middle East posting the weakest global growth in both assets and individuals, rising 4.8% and 4.4%, respectively.

Every region saw gains, however, thanks to last year’s benign markets, the report’s authors wrote.

“Having experienced a roller-coaster ride the previous year, economic and financial markets almost without exception surprised on the upside in 2017,” they said. “On an annual basis, world real GDP expanded at its fastest pace since 2011.”


Still, the ultra-rich held more of their wealth — 35% — in liquid assets such as cash than anything else, the study found. Private holdings accounted for about 32%, while public holdings were 26%. Alternative investments such as real estate, art and yachts made up 6.6% of total assets.

The U.K.’s looming departure from the EU factored into last year’s trends, the study found. Paris’s rise over London — the City of Lights saw a 17% increase in its ultra-wealthy numbers to more than 3,900 individuals — was because London was “hampered in part by Brexit-related uncertainty in U.K. financial markets and across the wider economy,” the authors wrote.

Elon Musk Smokes Marijuana in His First Appearance Since Tweet About Taking Tesla Public - TIME

Elon Musk Smokes Marijuana in His First Appearance Since Tweet About Taking Tesla Public

Posted: 07 Sep 2018 04:12 AM PDT

Elon Musk sipped whiskey and smoked marijuana during a 2 1/2-hour podcast with California comedian Joe Rogan that touched upon everything from flame throwers and artificial intelligence to the end of the universe.

“I’m not a regular smoker of weed,” the Tesla Inc. chief executive officer said late Thursday on the podcast, which was shown live on the internet. Musk, 47, took one drag from what Rogan described as a joint containing tobacco mixed with marijuana, which is legal in California.

A Tesla spokesperson in Germany wasn’t immediately available to comment. Shares of the carmaker fell 1.4 percent in trading before U.S. exchanges opened.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk smoked weed during a live interview with comedian Joe Rogan https://t.co/Dim9ecYctj pic.twitter.com/PhnvRK9cru

— TicToc by Bloomberg (@tictoc) September 7, 2018

The spot on one of the most popular podcasts in the U.S. marks Musk’s first appearance in a public forum since he stunned the financial world last month with his short-lived effort to take Tesla private. Just 17 days after tweeting that he had the funding and investor support secured to buy out some stockholders at $420 a share, the billionaire scrapped the idea without having made a formal proposal to the board.

Along the way, Musk drew a subpoena from the Securities and Exchange Commission, which already had been scrutinizing the public pronouncements he’s made regarding manufacturing goals and sales targets. Tesla and its CEO are now also facing a litany of lawsuits claiming market manipulation, including one filed Thursday by Andrew Left, the founder of Citron Research and prominent short seller.

The episode also raised concern about Musk’s health. The chairman and CEO of both Tesla and Space Exploration Technologies Corp., among other companies, gave an emotional interview to the New York Times in which he said friends were worried about exhaustion. The newspaper said two people familiar with the electric-car maker’s board expressed concern about his workload and use of the prescription sleeping drug Ambien.

Good times with @JoeRogan …https://t.co/8uZUsEJoq1

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) September 7, 2018

The bewildering incidents have played out during a critical period for Tesla. The Palo Alto, California-based company faces concerns about its limited cash balance, maturing debt and struggle to steadily build high volumes of the Model 3 sedan, the first electric vehicle that Musk has attempted to mass-manufacture.

Musk told Rogan that running Tesla is the hardest of his several endeavors. “It’s very difficult to keep a car company alive,” Musk said.

Musk is also the founder of the tunneling startup Boring Co., plus Neuralink, which is developing brain-machine interfaces to connect humans and computers. Neuralink may have something interesting to announce in a few months, Musk told Rogan.

Alibaba's Jack Ma 'to step down and focus on philanthropy'- BBC News

Sept. 8, 2018.

Alibaba's Jack Ma 'to step down and focus on philanthropy'

Jack Ma has a net personal wealth of $40bn
One of China's richest men, Jack Ma, is to step down as executive chairman of the Alibaba e-commerce empire on Monday, the New York Times reported.

He will remain on Alibaba's board of directors but focus on philanthropy in education, the newspaper said.

Mr Ma co-founded Alibaba in 1999 and has seen it become one of the world's biggest internet companies.

With a market value of more than $400bn (£309bn), it includes online selling, film production and cloud computing.

In an interview with the Times, former English teacher Mr Ma said retirement would not be the end of an era but "the beginning of an era", adding: "I love education".

Alibaba's sales surge continues
Mr Ma, who will be 54 on Monday, has a net personal wealth of $40bn, making him the third richest person in China, according to the 2017 Forbes' China rich list.

Earlier this week, Mr Ma told Bloomberg TV that he wanted to create a personal foundation, following in the footsteps of Microsoft's Bill Gates.

"There's a lot of things I can learn from Bill Gates," he said.

"I can never be as rich, but one thing I can do better is to retire earlier. I think some day, and soon, I'll go back to teaching. This is something I think I can do much better than being CEO of Alibaba."

Mr Ma began his professional life teaching English at a university in the Chinese city of Hangzhou, in eastern Zhejiang province. He started Alibaba from his flat in Hangzhou with a group of friends.

Why Emerging Markets Are in Crisis Across the Globe - TIME Business

Why Emerging Markets Are in Crisis Across the Globe

A crisis is looming in developing economies, or what investors know as emerging markets. An economic crisis in Turkey has pushed inflation to new heights and the value of the lira to new lows. Argentina’s peso is in trouble as President Mauricio Macri reaches to the International Monetary Fund for emergency help. South Africa’s rand, Mexico’s peso and Indonesia’s rupiah are all under pressure. India and Brazil are looking volatile too.

The risk of contagion to other emerging markets is real. In part, that’s thanks to investment vehicles that allow investors to buy debt and equities of multiple countries in a single bundle. In some cases, investors–spooked by weakness in one market–sell shares in all of them to reduce risk.
It might be tempting to blame President Donald Trump for this turmoil. He’s declared trade wars on countries large and small. Looming tariffs on another $200 billion in U.S. and Chinese goods mark the latest use of heavy weapons in an escalating fight between the world’s two largest economies. He’s also battling with Europe, Canada and even Japan, while also throwing punches at vulnerable Turkey as part of a bitter political battle with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. These confrontations doubtless create uncertainty.

Yet the current crisis follows decisions taken by U.S. central bankers, not the U.S. President. Emerging markets suffer when rising U.S. interest rates boost the dollar at the expense of their currencies. The Federal Reserve will continue to raise rates in coming months, because its governors believe this policy best serves the longer-term needs of the U.S. economy.

In addition, the longer-term weaknesses that make so many emerging markets vulnerable to higher U.S. rates existed long before Trump became President. Many governments of these developing countries haven’t done enough in recent years to boost productivity. Some spend ever larger sums on various entitlements while adjusting too slowly to changes in commodity prices or the availability of cheap credit.

Crucially, there’s also the problem of populism. Leaders in Turkey, Argentina, Venezuela, Hungary, Poland and South Africa have each pushed economic policies in recent years that delivered short-term political benefits while creating long-term economic weaknesses. Many constrain their institutions, including central banks, from making the necessary adjustments the Fed is now making in the U.S.

Take Turkey. Erdogan’s various fights with Trump have led to tariffs and sanctions, but his government has badly mismanaged Turkey’s economy. As Erdogan has pressed Turkey’s central bank to keep interest rates low, he has made the lira artificially cheap while making dollars and euros more expensive. That, in turn, makes it harder for Turkish companies to pay down large debts denominated in foreign currencies and to borrow more money from overseas. Investors see Erdogan prioritizing political gains over stability.

Argentina offers another example. Here there’s no political battle with Trump to worry investors. But Macri has not yet restored investor confidence in his country’s long-term financial health. Macri has imposed enough austerity to inflict pain on Argentine voters, but some fear it isn’t enough to guarantee that his government can make its debt payments.

Vulnerable emerging markets are like houses built atop faulty foundations. It’s the threat of earthquakes that creates fear. But until repairs are made, those who built these homes must shoulder blame when frightening cracks appear.

This appears in the September 17, 2018 issue of TIME.

Hong Kong now has more super-rich people than any other city - CNN Money

Hong Kong now has more super-rich people than any other city
by Daniel Shane   @CNNMoneyInvest
September 6, 2018: 10:17 AM ET

New York is no longer the city with the biggest super-rich population.
Hong Kong overtook the Big Apple to become the top destination for the planet's wealthiest people last year, according to a study published Thursday by research firm Wealth-X. The number of ultra-high-net-worth individuals (UHNWIs) residing in the Asian financial hub rose by almost a third in 2017 to 10,000, the study said.

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New York had held the top spot since Wealth-X first started ranking cities in 2011. The firm defines a UHNWI as a person worth $30 million or more.

It said the rise in the number of ultra rich in Hong Kong was propelled by its booming stock market and growing financial links with the broader Chinese economy.

China's rapid economic growth in recent decades has helped drive a dramatic increase in the number of ultra-rich people in the region.

A view of Hong Kong skyline from Victoria Peak.
Among Hong Kong's most prominent billionaires are Li Ka-shing, whose Cheung Kong (CKHUY) empire controls ports, telecommunications networks and energy companies across the globe.

No single city in mainland China made it into Wealth-X's top 10 in terms of its number of super-rich individuals.

It said that was because Chinese wealth was not concentrated in any one area, but distributed around the country. Its wealthiest citizens include tech tycoons Jack Ma and Pony Ma who founded internet juggernauts Alibaba (BABA) and Tencent (TCEHY), respectively.

"The dynamism of wealth creation across China's vast landscape is nevertheless staggering," the report read.

Overall, the United States remains the preferred country for the world's richest and is home to almost a third of the world's ultra-high-net-worth individuals.

But Asia, and China in particular, are catching up. Last year the number of ultra-rich people in Asia rose by 20%. Rising Asian wealth has been helped by increasing consumer spending, more investment in infrastructure and economic reforms, among other factors, Wealth-X said.

"Asia-Pacific is forecast to close the ultra-wealth gap with other regions over the next five years," the report added.

For the past four years, the region's tally of people with $1 million in investable assets has been higher than anywhere else in the world, according to another study by consulting firm Capgemini. And by one estimate, China alone already has more billionaires than the United States.

hong kong ultra rich chart
But things could get tougher in 2018. China faces headwinds from its trade war with the United States and the huge levels of debt in its financial system. Chinese stocks entered a bear market this year, while its currency has plunged versus the dollar.

Globally, the number of ultra-rich individuals rose by 13% last year to more than 250,000. Their combined total wealth hit $31.5 trillion, boosted by an upturn in the global economy and good performances of stock markets.

Other cities in the top 10 for global wealth included Tokyo, Los Angeles, Paris and London.

Amazon Just Became the Second Publicly Traded U.S. Company to Hit $1 Trillion - TIME

Amazon Just Became the Second Publicly Traded U.S. Company to Hit $1 Trillion

Posted: 04 Sep 2018 09:39 AM PDT


Amazon has become the second publicly traded company to be worth $1 trillion, hot on the heels of iPhone maker Apple.

Amazon has revolutionized how people shop online and is the world’s dominant internet retailer. In two decades the company expanded far beyond its bookseller beginnings, combining its world-spanning retail operation with less flashy but very profitable advertising and cloud computing businesses.

The company’s blowout success has made its founder and CEO, Jeff Bezos, No. 1 on Forbes’ billionaires list this year.

The Seattle-based company has cemented customer loyalty through its Echo voice devices and the Prime membership program that offers fast, free shipping as well as music and video streaming perks.
Amazon’s stock rose 1.7 percent in morning trading, putting its market value at just over $1 trillion, although the stock dropped back slightly after that. Apple topped the $1 trillion mark in early August.

Amazon has also formed partnerships with many old-line retailers, selling the Kenmore washing machines traditionally found at Sears and opening stations inside Kohl’s stores where people can bring returns and look at Amazon devices.

Wall Street has grown very enthusiastic about Amazon’s other businesses. Amazon Web Services provides cloud computing services to companies and government, and Amazon’s advertising division makes billions by selling ads to companies that want their products to show up when shoppers search on the site.

Those very profitable businesses have helped offset the high costs associated with running its online store. Amazon saw its quarterly profit soar past $2 billion for the first time earlier this year as the online shopping, cloud computing and advertising businesses all kept growing.

How Richard Liu built JD.com into a $45 billion tech giantby Sherisse Pham - CNN Money

How Richard Liu built JD.com into a $45 billion tech giantby Sherisse Pham   @Sherisse
September 4, 2018: 5:39 AM ET

Chinese tech CEO Richard Liu arrested, then released in US
Chinese e-commerce company JD.com is often overshadowed by its bigger rival Alibaba. But now it's in the global spotlight for all the wrong reasons.
Richard Liu, the billionaire founder and CEO of JD.com (JD), made headlines around the world this week after he was arrested in the United States on suspicion of sexual misconduct.

The company says Liu, who has since returned to China, was falsely accused. But the attention isn't going away.

His name remains a top trending topic on Weibo, China's Twitter-like social media platform, where users are sharing the police mug shot of Liu dressed in orange prison garb and discussing the future of his $45 billion company.

"Company founders in China definitely enjoy a kind of celebrity status," said Benjamin Cavender, a Beijing-based analyst with China Market Research Group. "Consumers are more likely to be aware of Richard Liu's problems than they would be in most other markets."

JD.com is China's second-largest online shopping site after Jack Ma's Alibaba (BABA). Getting in early on the rise of e-commerce in China has helped make Liu, 45, one of China's richest tech tycoons with an estimated net worth of more than $7 billion.

In an effort to distinguish himself from the competition, Liu has said he wanted his company to sell authentic goods and be in full control of delivering them.

JD has built a sprawling logistics network, tapping into hundreds of stores and warehouses around the country. Using everything from bicycles to drones, the company boasts that 90% of goods bought on JD.com are delivered the same day or the next.

01 Richard Liu FILE RESTRICTED
Richard Liu is one of China's richest men.

Selling BMWs and watches online
JD.com sells products ranging from high-end fashion to fresh groceries, targeting China's more affluent shoppers. Big name brands like Japanese retailer Muji, luxury watchmaker Chopard and car manufacturer BMW (BAMXF) have flagship stores on the site, which has more than 300 million active users.

The company's tag line — Authentic Products, Delivered Today — takes a dig at Alibaba and other rivals who have been plagued by complaints of not doing enough to pull fake goods from their platforms.

Like Alibaba, JD.com is trying to reach new customers overseas. The company has been spending heavily to expand operations to Southeast Asia and Europe.

JD's major investors include Chinese tech giant Tencent (TCEHY) and US retailer Walmart (WMT), whose Chinese business it bought in 2016. Google (GOOGL) invested $550 million in the company in June.

Liu owns about 16% of JD but controls 79.5% of its voting rights, meaning a scandal tied to him could have outsized repercussions for the company.


Dreaming of meat
The billionaire tycoon comes from humble beginnings.

He was born Liu Qiangdong in Suqian, a village around 250 miles northwest of Shanghai.

He grew up just as China was beginning a sweeping program of economic reforms. While the country would experience explosive growth in the coming decades, Liu's hometown and family remained poor for most of his younger years. During a speech at his childhood middle school last year, he told kids that he used to dream of eating meat, because he had pork just once or twice a year.

When he got into Renmin University, a top college in Beijing, Liu recalled his entire village pitching in to help send him off.

"They donated a total of 76 eggs and 500 yuan to send me off for the opportunity that changed my life," he said in a company blog post.

When he graduated from college, most of Liu's classmates wanted to go into government, or study abroad. Liu didn't want to be a bureaucrat and he couldn't afford to go overseas. He was also keenly aware of the fact that his family was too poor to afford medicine for his grandmother.

"I needed to make money to pay for her medical care," Liu said in January at the World Economic Forum in Davos.

So in 1998, he set up a business selling computer accessories in Zhongguancun, a tech hub in northwest Beijing.


SARS outbreak drove Liu online
By 2003, Liu's business had grown to a dozen brick-and-mortar stores.

But then the SARS outbreak hit China. Customers and workers were reluctant to be outdoors, where they might come in contact with the deadly respiratory virus. Liu closed his shops and told most of the employees to stay home while he huddled with managers to figure out how to move inventory.

"Then one day, one of our managers said: 'Why don't we sell our products from the internet?'" Liu said at a retail conference earlier this year. "So we needn't see our customers. [There] was no risk anymore, from both sides," he said.

Liu founded what would eventually become JD.com the following year at a time when e-commerce was just starting to take off in China as more and more people gained access to the internet.

-- Serenitie Wang and Jackie Wattles contributed to this report.

CNNMoney (Hong Kong)
First published September 4, 2018: 5:39 AM ET

Coca-Cola takes plunge into coffee with $5.1 billion Costa deal - Reuters

AUGUST 31, 2018
Coca-Cola takes plunge into coffee with $5.1 billion Costa deal
Kate Holton, Martinne Geller

LONDON (Reuters) - Coca-Cola Co (KO.N) has agreed to buy coffee chain Costa for $5.1 billion to extend its push into healthier drinks and take on the likes of Starbucks and Nestle in the booming global coffee market.

The purchase from Britain’s Whitbread (WTB.L) of Costa’s almost 4,000 outlets thrusts the world’s biggest soda company into one of the few bright spots in the sluggish packaged food and drinks sector.

Paying about 1 billion pounds ($1.3 billion) more than some analysts had expected, Coke will use its distribution network to supercharge Costa’s expansion as it chases coffee chain market leader Starbucks (SBUX.O) and its almost 29,000 stores across 77 markets.

Beyond coffee shops, Coca-Cola CEO James Quincey, a Briton familiar with the UK brand, said Costa would provide an important growth platform ranging from beans to bottled drinks in an attractive category, growing by around 6 percent a year.

Coke already sells some coffee, such as the Georgia brand in Japan, but lacks a global offering, Quincey said in a blog post here, highlighting Costa's retail footprint, roastery, supply chain and Costa Express vending system, which the company plans to expand.

SPONSORED


“Coffee is one of the strongest growing categories in the world, and Coca-Cola needs to expand into coffee and hot drinks,” he said.

Operating a retail chain marks a new challenge for 132-year-old Atlanta-based Coca-Cola, which mostly sells soft drink concentrates to a network of franchised bottlers.

It will face a fight, as rivals are also bulking up in a fragmented market, keen to attract young people prepared to pay out for barista-made drinks and developing tastes for ever more exotic coffees.

Nestle (NESN.S), the market leader in packaged coffee, for example, has sealed a $7 billion licensing deal for Starbucks’ retail business, while Europe’s billionaire Reimann clan has built the JAB empire spanning coffee brands such as Kenco, Douwe Egberts and soft-drink maker Dr Pepper Snapple.

Bringing Costa shops to the key U.S. market would affect Starbucks, McDonald’s - a major Coke customer - and JAB, which owns a string of chains including Peet’s and Caribou.

Meanwhile, if Coke were to roll out canned or bottled Costa coffee drinks through its U.S. bottling system, that could upset the dominance of a joint venture between Starbucks and PepsiCo (PEP.O), trade publication Beverage Digest said.


The purchase of the biggest coffee chain behind Starbucks adds to Coca-Cola’s drive to diversify away from fizzy drinks and expand its options for increasingly health-conscious consumers, after countries started introducing sugar taxes.

Coke shares were down 0.4 percent in morning trade in New York as investors weighed the benefits of diversification against concerns about profitability.

“We do think investors will have questions surrounding the retail component of the business and lower operating profit margin versus legacy Coca-Cola,” said JP Morgan analysts.

Coke did not change its outlook for 2018 or beyond. The deal is expected to close in the first half of 2019.

CAFFEINE HIGH
Whitbread shares closed 14.3 percent higher following news of the deal, which analysts said was priced at a punchy 16.4 times Costa’s latest annual earnings.

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“Coca-Cola are one of the few companies in the world that could justify the valuation,” said Nicholas Hyett, equity analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown.

“Its global reach should turbo-charge growth in the years to come, and hot drinks are one of the few areas of the wider beverages sector where the soft drinks giant doesn’t have a killer brand. Costa will get lots of care and attention.”

Whitbread had been in the process of demerging Costa from its hotel group Premier Inn, and the sale marks the latest transformation in a business that was established in 1742 as a brewer and which has also owned sports clubs and restaurants.

Whitbread bought Costa, founded in 1971 in London by Italian brothers Sergio and Bruno Costa, for 19 million pounds in 1995. It only had 39 shops then, but now its maroon shop front is one of the most ubiquitous sights on British high streets, with 2,422 outlets in the UK and a further 1,399 in international markets, operated as franchises, joint ventures and wholesale outlets.

Whitbread Chief Executive Alison Brittain said the price tag represented “a substantial premium” to what would have been created through a demerger.

“We were not interested in a sale other than to somebody who had a strategic rationale and therefore would be able to create significantly more value than Costa could create on its own.”

Coca-Cola Co
44.57
KO.NNEW YORK STOCK EXCHANGE
-0.38(-0.85%)
KO.N
KO.NWTB.LSBUX.ONESN.SPEP.O
Some of the proceeds will go toward reducing Whitbread’s pension deficit and financial debt to ease expansion of the Premier Inn hotel chain in the UK and Germany, but Brittain said a “significant majority” of the cash would go to shareholders.

Brittain also denied Whitbread had been pressured to accelerate the sale by activist investor Elliott and other hedge funds. “I would imagine they would be as delighted and surprised as anybody else this morning,” she told reporters.

Elliott congratulated the board on the deal and said it “looks forward to continuing to engage with them to maximize the value of the remaining businesses”.

CAFE CULTURE
The global market for packaged coffee and drinks was worth about $83 billion in 2017, a fraction of the $513 billion market for soft drinks, according to Euromonitor International, but it is growing faster. What is more, sales at coffee shops like Starbucks and Costa are growing even faster, as people increasingly indulge their habit on the go, rather than at home.

Costa recently expanded into China to try to offset an increasingly saturated market in Britain, where chains such as Starbucks and Caffe Nero vie with thousands of independents.

A burgeoning cafe culture in China provides an encouraging backdrop, but Costa faces intensifying competition there as well. Starbucks, which has 3,400 stores in China, plans to almost double that by 2022, while partnering with Chinese tech giant Alibaba (BABA.N) to start delivery services.

Local rival Luckin also plans to more than double its Chinese store count to 2,000 by the end of 2018.

Rothschild advised Coke on the deal while Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and Deutsche Bank advised Whitbread.

($1 = 0.7679 pounds)

Additional reporting by Sangameswaran S and Shashwat Awasthi in Bengaluru, Ben Martin in London and Miyoung Kim in Seoul; Editing Mark Potter and Adrian Croft

Ditch the Playbook, Just Follow Buffett and Trump: Taking Stock - Bloomberg

Ditch the Playbook, Just Follow Buffett and Trump: Taking Stock
By Brad Olesen
August 31, 2018, 9:32 PM GMT+10

Whatever your game plan was to close out what became one of the busiest Augusts in recent memory was likely rendered moot late Thursday on a Bloomberg report that Trump is seeking to move ahead on tariffs on $200 billion worth of Chinese imports, subject to a public comment period that concludes Sept. 6. What was already a middling day hovering around the unchanged mark became markedly worse for the S&P 500, as this round of tariffs would be the largest thus far in the trade saga. Materials and the trade-sensitive industrial names like Caterpillar and Kansas City Southern were among stocks hit on the news, as money shifted to more defensive sectors like utilities and staples, with tobacco and food retailer sub-sectors the best performers on the day.

Worldwide markets are in the red early Friday as commerce and trade fears reemerge (Trump also threatened to pull out of the WTO), despite China PMI figures that were better than expected. S&P futures appear to be holding up rather well, poised to open below its newfound “support” at 2,900. Equity indexes have been resilient in the face of Trump shocks before, and today looks no different (on pace to post a weekly gain).

But What Happened Before the Bombshell?
It’s tempting to allow the Oval Office news to wipe away all of yesterday’s action, which featured Warren Buffett again singing the praises of equity markets. His commentary spurred a round of buying, especially in Apple (which also announced its next presumed iPhone unveiling for Sept. 12) as he admitted to buying more shares. This was timely as by the end of the day, the top four names pushing against losses in the S&P were, you guessed it, FAANG names (AAPL, AMZN, FB, NFLX). Rounding out the top five was Micron, mentioned in this column Thursday (its suppliers LRCX and AMAT were also higher, as the S5SEEQ index was among the top performing subsectors in an otherwise down-ish day).

AMZN and FB are now marginally lower in the pre-market (GOOGL ever so slightly post-market) after Trump singled the three out as a possible “antitrust situation.” China Internet names too (HUYA, BABA, IQ), are also down pre-market, likely on renewed tensions. Other parts of the interview touched on Trump’s rejection of the EU tariff offer on autos, leading all members of the EURO STOXX Automobiles & Parts index into the red. Watch U.S. names GM, F, GT and CTB for volatility.

There was also a bit of merger mania Thursday ahead of the long weekend in the U.S. (CPB asset sale plans, REXX, REIS/MCO, PARR, KTWO/SYK), which continued into this morning with Coca-Cola’s expansion into the coffee market in a $5.1 billion deal to buy U.K. coffee shop Costa from Whitbread Plc (watch KDP, DNKN, QSR, KKD, SBUX).

M&A led most of the names in the green, while discounters and dollar stores suffered (mainly DLTR). Closeout retailer Big Lots hit the tape with their earnings and early indications are for shares to open down 11 percent given a weaker-than-expected forecast.

And Wasn’t Today Supposed to Be NAFTA Day?
Friday was supposed to be about welcoming a deal from U.S. and Canadian officials on NAFTA, validating strength in equity indices earlier in the week while assisting the “melt-up.”

We were also supposed to be wary of contagion from emerging markets. The Turkish lira had resumed its downward move after a brief respite, giving up 11 percent of its value over the past four days (keep the ETF TUR in mind), while Argentina’s peso lost a third of its value in the two days since the government requested the IMF speed disbursements from a credit line (ETF ARGT had its worst day on Thursday in three years, and counts cult-ish name MercadoLibre as a top holding at 31 percent). This appears to be spreading with weakness in the Indonesian rupiah (weakest in 20 years) and the Indian rupee early (touched record lows).

We also wanted to take solace in knowing athleisure is alive and well, with Lululemon stock up 11 percent pre-market market with results. The COO said the demand in recent quarters was not slowing down. In a similar apparel vein we were to be curious if Abercrombie could recover from its worst day in more than a year after sales missed expectations.

And surely, cannabis was to be a topic of conversation as the news bombs keep driving this segment. Trump met his match with Citron Research’s Andrew Left, who waded into Cronos (previously unscathed from Wednesday’s report that the Administration was waging a "secret war" on marijuana), by cautioning on its valuation and placing a price target 70 percent below where it had then traded. Cronos extended its losses in the post-market after closing down 28 percent. It remains up 58 percent on the month despite the move. Fellow cannabis names TLRY, CGC fell in sympathy. Citron’s prior cannabis target, CV Sciences, staged a 27 percent recovery Thursday after it attempted to refute short seller allegations (and Citron claimed to have covered its short a day earlier).

Cloud software developer and new IPO Zuora is also due for an interesting day. Its lockup expiry today coincides with its second earnings report, which disappointed investors post market (-12 percent), as 3Q loss views came in worse than expected. This follows its last earnings report where it spiked 19 percent. In other earnings, American Outdoor Brands (formerly Smith and Wesson) spiked 29 percent post-market after its better than expected results -- now poised to erase much of its underperforming year (down 24 percent YTD).

On Tap for Next Week
A re-categorization of investor favorites will unfold with the heralded (?) creation of the Communication Services sector, which will include FAANG components FB, GOOGL and NFLX that were lumped into the Info Tech segment previously. These mega caps will now be part of a larger space that is comprised of other telecoms and media names and amount to ~10 percent of the S&P 500, according to Goldman Sachs.

Conference season is upon us. B Riley FBR Healthcare conference kicks off Tuesday in this abreviated holiday week, and the energy sector will be focus as the Barclays Energy Power conference gets underway Wednesday with crude up 16% year to date. Barclays is also running a Consumer Staples conference where we can hear from CAG, TUP, among others. Buckingham has its banking, cards and payments conference (any crypto commentary?). Citi is featuring Biotechs and Technology in conferences this week (two of some of the best performing sectors on the year).

Earnings is light, with earnings from Broadcom, furniture retailer RH, Gamestop and some tech names WDAY, PANW, MRVL and the deal-exposed Dell Technologies. Economic data will feature some key catalysts including monthly auto sales on Tuesday, ADP Employment data on Thursday (a day later than normal due to the Holiday week), and the much awaited Nonfarm Payrolls data Friday.

Notes From the Sell Side

Electronic Arts is getting a slight defense from one its largest bulls. Wedbush (has EA on its Best Ideas list) saw the surprise decision to delay its Battlefield V release date as the right decision in efforts to add extra polish to the game. Analyst Michael Pachter lowers units ests. for FY19, but keeps FY20 estimates for revenue and PT at $158 (implies 36% upside after Thursday’s near 10% downdraft).

Nutanix is getting multiple defenses after shares fell 6% post market. RBC’s Matthew Hedberg is a buyer on the weakness as the results were "strong". He sees the push towards a software-only model as a key highlight with high FCF margins. Piper’s Andrew J. Nowinski reiterates his overweight rating. Nowinski sees the cloud platform and storage provider’s new term-based subscription offering as outweighing the higher operating expense guidance.