DIRS.INFO The most relevant business & tech news

☆ David’s Bridal laying off over 9,000 workers
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-14 | by ( Parija Kavilanz | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +2 min

New York CNN —David’s Bridal, one of largest sellers of wedding gowns in the United States, is laying off thousands of workers nationwide, according to a notice filed to the Pennsylvania Department of Labor. “The scale of these layoffs suggest that David’s Bridal is in crisis mode,” said Neil Saunders, managing director at GlobalData Retail. David’s Bridal filed for bankruptcy in 2018 after being laden with growing debt and declining sales of wedding dresses. The following year, David’s Bridal, which operates more than 300 stores, said it had anticipated weddings to return with a vengeance because of pent-up demand. But the layoffs at David’s Bridal come amid ongoing job losses across retail, tech and other industries.

Bill Clark | CQ-Roll Call Group | Getty ImagesAn embarrassing leak of highly classified Pentagon documents has endangered intelligence methods, exposed American strategy and undermined trust among U.S. allies, former defense department officials and intelligence experts tell CNBC. America's control over its most valuable secrets has been thrust into question amid the fallout from the most damaging intelligence leak since Edward Snowden's breach more than a decade ago. 'Devastating' for American alliesThe major security breach also contained intelligence gathering on American allies, including South Korea and Israel. "Our allies can't trust us … That's why the Middle East, they're talking to the Chinese. one American defense industry executive told CNBC, speaking anonymously due to professional restrictions.

☆ Podcast: British doctors strike and the IMF's gloomy outlook
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-12 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: 1 min

Follow on Apple, Google or Spotify. We visit a picket line in Britain where doctors are staging a four-day walkout. Rising interest rates and persistent inflation are adding to the struggle of debt-laden countries. Plus, Elon Musk opens up about Twitter and how California is using water tests to help fight the drug war. Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Stocks with steady earnings growth are the play to manage an upcoming economic downturn, according to David Kostin, Goldman Sachs' chief U.S. equity strategist. Goldman Sachs projects that there is a 35% probability that the U.S. economy will enter a recession within the next 12 months. What's perhaps not priced in our view, would be the stable growth companies." The equity strategist named household products company Colgate-Palmolive and biotechnology name Amgen as examples of stocks with low variability of earnings growth in an environment that's laden with recession risk. The firm also picked pest-control company Rollins and consumer goods company Procter & Gamble in its basket of steady earnings growers.

☆ India's Reliance, Adani among 49 bidders for debt-ridden Future Retail
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-10 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

Reliance Retail, part of Ambani's Reliance Industries Ltd (RELI.NS) as well as April Moon Retail Pvt Ltd, a joint venture between Flemingo group and Gautam Adani-led Adani Airport Holdings, have submitted expressions of interest (EoIs), an exchange filing by Future Retail showed. Other entities that have submitted EOIs include London-based retailer WH Smith (SMWH.L), a consortium led by U.S.-based restructuring firm Gordon Brothers, J.C. Flowers Asset Reconstruction, India's Jindal Power, and individual investor Harsha Vardhan Reddy. Reliance Retail, Jindal Power, J.C. Flowers, WH Smith and Gordon Brothers did not immediately respond to emails seeking comment.

☆ Edtech giant leverages up in financial expertise
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-04 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

MUMBAI, April 4 (Reuters Breakingviews) - Indian education technology giant Byju’s has a new chief financial officer. Ajay Goel, who recently left a similar role at the Mumbai-listed natural resources firm Vedanta (VDAN.NS), will now steer the debt-laden company’s finances. Prosus-backed (PRX.AS) Byju’s, meanwhile, in December sought easier terms on a year-old $1.2 billion loan private placement. That provides some breathing room, but with the company’s top line shrinking and losses mounting, the battle-hardened Goel’s start date cannot come too soon. They do not reflect the views of Reuters News, which, under the Trust Principles, is committed to integrity, independence, and freedom from bias.

☆ Formula One under scrutiny over balance between safety and entertainment
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-03 | by ( Ian Ransom | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

Stewards had hoped racing would decide the winner but the carnage only served to trigger a third red flag and a processional win behind a safety car for Red Bull's Max Verstappen. DAMAGE BILLSStriking the right balance between safety and sport has long challenged Formula One, which moved to tighten its safety car rules after controversy hit the title-deciding 2021 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. Officials no longer have such discretion but the application of safety car rules continues to flummox drivers and team bosses alike. Mercedes boss Toto Wolff said he was not sure when to expect a standard safety car versus a virtual one or a red flag after incidents. "Standing starts are the most vulnerable part of any grand prix and we did three of them," said Red Bull boss Christian Horner.

☆ Chinese property developer Sunac posts $2 billion core loss in 2022
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-31 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

HONG KONG, March 31 (Reuters) - Major property developer Sunac China (1918.HK) on Friday logged a net narrowing core loss of 13.86 billion yuan ($2.02 billion) in 2022, as the debt-laden firm slowed its project construction and incurred higher interest expenses. Last year's core net loss, which excludes the revaluation of assets and financial instruments and foreign exchange loss, compares to a 25.30 billion yuan loss reported in 2021. Sunac also published its overdue 2022 interim results on Friday, posting a core loss of 11.06 billion yuan. Sunac is among the many Chinese developers that defaulted last year as the sector reeled under a debt crisis. "The Group will strive to complete the necessary legal procedures for the offshore debt restructuring within 2023," Hongbin said in a statement.

☆ Tesla's looks are getting stale, and Elon Musk can't ignore it forever
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-31 | by ( Nora Naughton | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Rumors have swirled about Model 3 and Model Y updates, but nothing official yet from Tesla. "When you move to higher-volume vehicles, you have to start keeping up with the Joneses," one analyst said. Rumors have swirled online about incoming refreshes of the Model 3 and Model Y vehicles, but Tesla has yet to set a release date for these updates. "When you move to higher-volume vehicles, you have to start keeping up with the Joneses," Fiorani said. This year, Musk has said Tesla aims to build 2 million vehicles, nearly doubling its 2022 production capacity.

In poorer areas, which are bleeding people and private business to urban centres, the task of providing jobs falls more squarely on local governments at a time they are struggling to raise revenue through income tax and state land sales. However, "budgetary and debt pressures are more acute for these provinces, so increasing expenditure comes with additional fiscal risks," Yuan noted. The local governments adding the most jobs in relative terms are also among the most indebted. The local governments of Gansu, Yunnan and Guangxi did not respond to a request for comment and Reuters could not establish exactly why the governments are ramping up hiring and how it will impact their finances. Moody's Yuan said local governments including Gansu have faced increased refinancing pressure to meet their debt obligations.

Ermotti may need to persuade Switzerland's authorities that UBS should keep "the piece de resistance," Credit Suisse's domestic bank, said Porta's Wittmann. During the financial crash of 2008 it was UBS, not Credit Suisse, that took the lion's share of support from the state. One of Ermotti's biggest challenges may be to prevent Credit Suisse's problems contaminating UBS, which will involve hacking back its investment bank and its unwieldy derivatives. Disentangling Credit Suisse's finances, however, is only a part of the problem. "There are clearly parts of Credit Suisse that have had a bad culture.

☆ Asian Americans are anxious about hate crimes. TikTok ban rhetoric isn’t helping
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-26 | by ( Brian Fung | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +15 min

And the Chinese government’s authoritarian approach to numerous other issues clashes with important American values, said many Asian Americans interviewed for this article. Concerns about China have gone mainstream as US national security officials and lawmakers have publicly grappled with state-backed ransomware attacks and other hacking attempts. People rallied during a "Stop Asian Hate" march to protest against anti-Asian hate crimes on Foley Square in New York, on April 4, 2021. But to Chu, the incident was an example of the way politics surrounding China, technology and national security have fueled anti-Asian sentiment. “Asian American issues are American issues, and all Americans deserve to be treated with respect.

☆ Miramax launched a film development team to resurrect its blockbuster-rich heyday. But a string of key departures has hobbled the vision and frustrated some Hollywood creatives.
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-24 | by ( Reed Alexander | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

Miramax built out a film development team early in the pandemic to bring in new projects and filmmakers. "He's the perfect leader to take the Miramax film team into this next chapter." Hammer's credits as a production executive include "Last Vegas" and "Inside Llewyn Davis." The first source said the film development team had worked to turn the company's reputation around by emphasizing relationships with respected filmmakers. But this person and an independent producer familiar with the Hollywood landscape, agreed that Miramax is no longer a top player in film development.

☆ TikTok’s Osama bin Laden Fiasco
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-23 | by ( The Editorial Board | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +1 min

Nearly half the U.S. population uses TikTok, and CEO Shou Zi Chew's testimony before Congress on Mar. Osama bin Laden . Users have been posting videos to the Chinese-owned app, urging their followers to read bin Laden’s 2002 “letter to America,” while suggesting he was on to something. “The number of videos on TikTok is small and reports of it trending on our platform are inaccurate,” the company said. The British newspaper the Guardian unpublished its copy of the bin Laden letter, posted in 2002, because it was being “widely shared on social media without the full context.”

Persons: Shou Zi, Mark Kelly TikTok’s, Osama bin Laden, “, TikTok Organizations: Mar, Chinese Communist Party, Getty, British, Guardian Locations: America

WASHINGTON, March 22 (Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday is set to hear a trademark clash between Jack Daniel's and a dog accessory company behind a parody chew toy resembling the distiller's widely recognized black-label whiskey bottle. The dispute pits the whiskey brand's trademark rights against legal protections for creative expression - in this case a send-up by Phoenix-based VIP Products LLC of Jack Daniel's Old No. A 2,300-strong group of authors took the opposite view, saying a win for Jack Daniel's could lead to a "catastrophic chilling effect" over worries that creative expression might spark litigation. The 9th Circuit said the Bad Spaniels toy was an "expressive work" and thus potentially shielded under the First Amendment from Jack Daniel's trademark infringement claim. President Joe Biden's administration supports Jack Daniel's appeal.

Jack Daniel's Properties Inc is owned by Louisville, Kentucky-based Brown-Forman Corp (BFb.N). "I'm concerned about the First Amendment implications of your position," conservative Justice Samuel Alito told an attorney for Jack Daniel's, referring to the constitutional provision enshrining free-speech protections. "Could any reasonable person think that Jack Daniel's had approved this use of the mark?" Jack Daniel's also contested a finding by the San Francisco-based 9th U.S. "This is a standard commercial product," Kagan told a lawyer for VIP Products, Bennett Cooper.

[1/7] Floodwaters from the Pajaro River are seen flowing under Highway 1, currently closed by officials, in Monterey County, California, U.S. March 14, 2023. read moreNine atmospheric rivers already lashed California in rapid succession from late December through mid-January, triggering widespread flooding, levee failures, mudslides and punishing surf. Massive flooding from failed levees on the Pajaro River in Monterey County this weekend prompted hundreds of evacuations and dozens of water rescues. Mandatory evacuation orders remained in effect for residents in 10 California counties on Tuesday, according to the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Reporting by Rich McKay in Atlanta and Nathan Frandino in Monterey County, California; Editing by Aurora EllisOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Trump looks to play catch-up to DeSantis on education in 2024 race
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-13 | by ( James Oliphant | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

The coronavirus pandemic gave rise to a host of hot-button issues surrounding education that have mobilized the Republican base in the years since Trump left the White House. DeSantis was in Iowa on Friday, speaking at a pair of political events that appear to be laying groundwork for a presidential bid. DeSantis has asked the Florida legislature to expand a ban on teaching gender-identity concepts to eighth grade from third grade currently. That could leave an opening for Trump, who made school choice a priority in his administration but lacks the track record on state-level education issues that DeSantis and other governors have. Terry Schilling, president of the American Principles Project, another conservative parents' rights group, said DeSantis getting out ahead of Trump on the issue should not hurt the former president.

☆ Italy blames surge in migration on Russia's Wagner group
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-13 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

ROME, March 13 (Reuters) - The Italian government on Monday said Russian mercenary group Wagner was behind a surge in migrant boats trying to cross the central Mediterranean as part of Moscow's strategy to retaliate against countries supporting Ukraine. He then used a series of obscenities to describe Crosetto and to urge him to pay attention to his own country. Wagner forces have been accused of operating in several African countries including Libya, Mali, and Central African Republic. Crosetto, a senior figure in Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni's right-wing Brothers of Italy party, called on the NATO allies to help Italy face the rise in migrant arrivals. Similar remarks also came from Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani, who during a visit to Israel told ANSA news agency that it was worrying many migrants came from areas "controlled by the Wagner group".

☆ DeSantis and other prominent Republicans blame 'woke' politics for Silicon Valley Bank's collapse instead of bankers miscalibrating risk
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-13 | by ( Brent D. Griffiths | Nicole Gaudiano | Juliana Kaplan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Some Republicans blamed "woke" investment strategies for Silicon Valley Bank's downfall. Economists and banking experts so far have chalked up Silicon Valley Bank's failure to much more apolitical circumstances. Silicon Valley Bank then had to sell its assets at a loss to fork over cash it didn't have, an increasingly untenable chain reaction that ended only when regulators shut the institution down. Regulators closed the Silicon Valley Bank on Friday, a stunning break to a period of relative banking stability in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis. "I don't know if making money's now woke," Baker said.

☆ From Apple to Boeing, India is being put to the test as China manufacturing alternative
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-12 | by ( Vikram Barhat | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +6 min

Bloomberg | Bloomberg | Getty ImagesThe ties between American companies and India as a manufacturing and supply chain partner are getting deeper. The Boeing deal is indicative of the wider trend among global manufacturers including Apple, Samsung and Nokia, to accelerate manufacturing in India. As far back as 2014 it launched the "Make in India" campaign to raise the profile of India as a global manufacturing hub and encourage multinational companies to produce in India. Boeing, Air India issues The partners have their internal issues to work through. That's on top of the hurdles foreign companies can expect to face in India's accleration as a manufacturing and supply chain partner.

Venture capital firms on both sides of the Atlantic have been urging their portfolio companies to move money out of embattled lender Silicon Valley Bank, deepening fears of a run on the tech-focused bank. Silicon Valley Bank shares plunged 60% Thursday after disclosing that it needed to shore up its capital with a $2.25 billion equity raise from investors including General Atlantic. Pear VC, an early-stage VC firm based in San Francisco, urged its portfolio network to withdraw funds from SVB on Thursday. The wind-down of crypto-centric Silvergate Bank and pressure on Silicon Valley Bank this week reminded some founders of the 2008 financial crisis, in which banks toppled during the mortgage bust. We are seeing other funds encouraging companies to withdraw their funds from SVB.

As debt obligations mount, some local governments are pushing banks to extend maturities and cut interest rates, sources said. Reuters Graphics"BLACK HOLES""The LGFVs have become the black hole of the Chinese financial system. Chinese banks and other financial institutions have been cautious on new lending to LGFVs over the past years. In recent months, some state-owned banks, asset managers, and insurers have been looking into their portfolios to screen LGFV borrowers with weaker creditworthiness and dispose them, separate financial sector sources told Reuters. Offshore branches of Chinese financial institutions have been major buyers of the bonds, industry sources said.

☆ Biden challenges Republicans with budget that raises taxes, sets up 2024 run
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-09 | by ( Andrea Shalal | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

Biden's proposal, which resurrects many items stripped from last year's budget plan, faces even stiffer opposition in Congress this year, after Republicans won control of the House of Representatives in November's midterm elections. A White House official, who was not authorized to speak publicly, contrasted Biden's vision with that of Republicans, saying the budget would reduce the U.S. deficit while lowering costs for families. It also proposes raising taxes on the wealthy and large corporations, the official said, and "tackles wasteful special interest giveaways." Biden's budget plan proposes funding higher outlays and closing the deficit by imposing a 25% minimum tax on billionaires and doubling the capital gains tax from 20%, the White House official said. Biden has also said the budget will propose quadrupling a 1% stock buyback tax, while going after corporations and rich individuals who skip paying taxes.

☆ Morning Bid: Job runes, China offer sliver of rate hope
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-09 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

That certainly ups the ante for Friday's monthly employment report and next week's consumer price index releases. But the rate at which people were leaving jobs voluntarily was falling and layoffs were up. Another pause for thought came from China's February inflation numbers that show annual consumer price rises slowed to just 1%, the lowest rate in a year. More broadly on Thursday, interest rates markets retained their dramatic re-pricing and relatively resilient stock markets tilted negative again. The implied end-2023 rate is now above 5.50% - more than a full percentage point above where it was assumed on February 1.

Search resuls for: "Laden"

25 mentions found