Sales & Marketing news

• There’s a reason economic measures are no good at capturing the likely damage from Hurricane Harvey

  28-08-2017 22:59 via feedproxy.google.com
  There is always something callous about economic analysis of natural and humanitarian disasters, because the human and physical loss is so immediate that financial concerns appear superfluous.But there’s another key reason the already highly imprecise exercise of economic forecasting becomes especially useless with major disasters like the deadly Hurricane Harvey, which has already inundated Houston and is expected to cause untold damage.Measures of economic activity like gross domestic pr
  
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• A former manager at Target became a millionaire using one of Wall Street's favorite trades

  28-08-2017 22:26 via feedproxy.google.com
  You don't have to be a professional investor to make a killing in the volatility market.
  Just ask Seth M. Golden, who previously worked as a logistics manager at a Target store.
  The 40-year-old, who lives in a suburb of Ocala, Florida, says he's grown his net worth from $500,000 to $12 million in five years by shorting the CBOE Volatility Index — or VIX — according to a report from Dealbook's Landon Thomas Jr.
  It's a trade that's worked extremely well this year: The VIX has fallen 19
  
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• MORGAN STANLEY: Here are the insurers that stand to lose the most from Hurricane Harvey (ALL, TRV, HIG, PGR, BRKA)

  28-08-2017 21:54 via feedproxy.google.com
  When the waters recede, damages from Hurricane Harvey, which struck the Texas coast this weekend, will be extensive.
  They’ll also be extremely costly for insurers. Morgan Stanley is already beginning to think about total insurance claims.
  “Early estimates on wind losses from RMS are in the low single digit $billions. Flooding has been extensive and could cause more insured losses than wind,” the bank said in a note published Monday morning.
  Wind is typically covered under most
  
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• The US is raising warnings about Mexico's tourist hotspots, but some in Mexico see a NAFTA-related gambit

  28-08-2017 19:47 via feedproxy.google.com
  The US State Department updated its travel warnings for Mexico on August 22, cautioning US travelers about rising violence in two of the country's most popular tourist destinations.
  The notice cited homicide increases in the states of Quintana Roo, home to Cancun and Playa del Carmen, and Baja California Sur, site of the Los Cabos resort area.
  Homicides in Mexico declined between June and July, but the country remains on pace for its deadliest year in the last two decades, and the vast majority
  
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• Uber’s new CEO comes with a $180 million price tag (EXPE)

  28-08-2017 19:22 via feedproxy.google.com
  Uber’s new CEO, Dara Khosrowshahi, likely comes with a hefty price tag that could top $200 million thanks to unvested stock options from his previous gig.
  In order to fill the months-old leadership void at Uber after former CEO Travis Kalanick's resignation in June, the former Expedia CEO will forfeit his unvested stock, which was worth $184.4 million as of Friday’s close, according to Bloomberg.
  Companies traditionally give new executives cash to make up for lost stock in
  
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• Walmart founder Sam Walton's son sold $62 million of shares — and it's not even 1% of what he owns (WMT)

  28-08-2017 18:34 via feedproxy.google.com
  Rob Walton has sold shares from his family company.
  Walton, who is the son of founder Sam Walton and served as chairman of Walmart until 2015, has unloaded shares of the retailer totaling $62.3 million, according to SEC filings reviewed by CNBC.
  Walton sold a total of 775,958 shares in two separate transactions on August 23 and 24. He still owns 106.3 million shares worth more than $8.4 billion.
  Walton is also still a member of the Walmart board. Since he sold less than 1% of the Walma
  
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• 'I want tariffs': Trump is reportedly pushing hard for a policy that could start a trade war

  28-08-2017 18:04 via feedproxy.google.com
  President Donald Trump has a strong urge to put taxes on some imports into the US, a new report said.
  According to Axios' Jonathan Swan, Trump repeatedly asked new chief of staff John Kelly during a recent meeting for tariffs on goods coming into the US.
  Trump has signed a few declaratory orders on trade, including one to investigate Chinese theft of American intellectual property on August 14.
  But according to the report, Trump told Kelly and a meeting of other Cabinet members that he
  
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• MORGAN STANLEY: Amazon could ‘close the gap’ between Whole Foods and its competitors’ cheaper prices (AMZN)

  28-08-2017 17:47 via feedproxy.google.com
  Whole Foods Market, the natural grocer founded by John Mackey in Austin, Texas 37 years ago, officially became part of Amazon’s online retail empire Monday.
  Amazon began slashing prices almost immediately, lowering the cost of various items from salmon and ground beef to avocados and organic kale.
  Morgan Stanley analyst Brian Nowak sees lower prices as a way for Whole Foods to attract new customers, increase sales, and ultimately raise Amazon’s stock to even higher levels than the 26
  
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• Amazon-owned Whole Foods is starting to look a lot more like Walmart (AMZN, WMT)

  28-08-2017 17:43 via feedproxy.google.com
  Whole Foods is trying to win over budget shoppers following its acquisition by Amazon.
  Its new marketing is reminiscent of another retailer: Walmart.
  With low prices, budget-centric marketing, and new non-grocery items, Amazon seems to be taking some pages from Walmart's playbook as it plots Whole Foods' future.
  On Monday, Amazon's $13.7 billion acquisition of Whole Foods formally went through. And, the e-commerce giant didn't waste any time in making changes.
  Amazon immediately began working on
  
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• Everything you thought you knew about budget deficits is wrong

  28-08-2017 17:24 via feedproxy.google.com
  Politicians pay such frantic lip service to "America's debt" that it’s become common knowledge that rising budget deficits can put the economy at imminent risk.Except, in this case, the conventional wisdom is dead wrong, according to a new paper presented at the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City’s annual Jackson Hole symposium."Even in countries with high public debt, the penalty for activist discretionary fiscal policy appears to be small," wrote Alan J. Auerbach and Yuriy Go
  
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• 10 oil refineries in Texas have been shut down because of Hurricane Harvey

  28-08-2017 16:55 via feedproxy.google.com
  Several oil refineries in Texas have been shut down temporarily as Harvey continues to ravage the southeastern part of the state.
  Ten oil refinery plants around Houston and Corpus Christi are shutting down, according to a report by S&P Global Platts released Sunday.
  Together these plants have the capacity to refine about 2.2 million barrels a day. Among the companies cited in the report as shutting down refineries are Exxon Mobil, Valero, Citgo, Shell, and Phillips 66.
  Corpus Christi-area re
  
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• Gilead just handed a revolutionary kind of cancer treatment a $12 billion endorsement (GILD)

  28-08-2017 16:54 via feedproxy.google.com
  Gilead is spending $12 billion to buy Kite Pharma, a biotech that has no approved therapies yet. 
  The drugmaker's therapy that's a few months away from a possible approval is a highly personalized cancer treatments called CAR T-cell therapy. It's a form of cancer immunotherapy — or a therapy that harnesses the body's immune system to take on cancer cells.
  For Gilead, which is known for its HIV and hepatitis C medications, this is an entirely new area
  
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• 10 things in tech you need to know today

  28-08-2017 16:46 via feedproxy.google.com
  Good morning! It was a busy weekend for tech news — here's what you need to know.
  1. Uber has picked Expedia CEO Dara Khosrowshahi to be its new CEO. Khosrowshahi's involvement in the CEO search wasn't made known until Sunday, making him a dark horse in the race.
  2. Apple will reportedly announce the next iPhone on September 12. Official invites have not been sent out yet. 
  3. Fitbit just unveiled three new products — including its first-ever pair of wireless headphones. The new
  
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• How one challenger is trying to disrupt the ‘shady’ gambling industry

  28-08-2017 11:30
  Betting startup Smarkets is on a roll. Its annual report shows its profits were up 160% in 2016 to £13.7m while revenue increased 144% to £26.5m.
  Average active monthly users, meanwhile, were up 118% to almost 25,000 and it had close to 200,000 users. It made the top five in the Sunday Times Tech Track 100 and the Deloitte Fast 50 lists.
  Those numbers might seem small given the scale of the Paddy Powers and the Betfairs of this world, but Smarkets thinks it can take them all on throu
  
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• SE Asian consumers become health-conscious

  28-08-2017 01:02 via warc.com
  SINGAPORE: Consumers in Indonesia and Thailand are increasingly looking to lead healthy lifestyles and view protein consumption as a way of achieving that goal, according to a new study.Mintel, the market research firm, revealed that...
  
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• J&J's entertainment mandate

  28-08-2017 01:02 via warc.com
  CANNES: Brands should seek to find the right balance between relevance and entertainment to successfully connect with consumers, according to Alison Lewis, Global CMO at Johnson & Johnson.While speaking at the 2017 Cannes Lions International...
  
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• Half of digital time is spent in smartphone apps

  28-08-2017 01:02 via warc.com
  WASHINGTON DC: Smartphone apps account for half (50%) of the digital media time that US adults spend online, followed by desktop (34%), with tablet and mobile web rounding out the remaining 16%, a new study has found.But in a sign of just how much...
  
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• Consumers prefer brands with faces on labels

  28-08-2017 01:02 via warc.com
  GLOBAL: Consumers are more likely to support brands that use faces in their imagery because people have a fundamental need to form and sustain relationships, a recent academic study has found.The research project for
  
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• China's Gen Z relies on social media for shopping

  28-08-2017 01:02 via warc.com
  HONG KONG: Brands and retailers wishing to connect with China’s young consumers must recognise that they belong to a highly tech-savvy generation that, more than older age groups, use social media as a gateway for shopping.Up to 70% of...
  
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• Amazon shakes up retail sector with price cuts

  28-08-2017 01:02 via warc.com
  SEATTLE/AUSTIN: After receiving regulatory approval last week for its $13.7bn acquisition of Whole Foods Market, Amazon said it will immediately cut prices on a range of grocery products at the high-end supermarket chain.Starting Monday, when the...
  
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