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☆ AI lending firm Upstart jumps as $2 bln funding squeezes bears
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-10 | by ( Medha Singh | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

May 10 (Reuters) - Shares of highly shorted Upstart Holdings (UPST.O) jumped 32% in early trading on Wednesday, squeezing out bearish investors, after the artificial intelligence-driven lending marketplace secured an additional $2 billion in funding. "(The) committed funding agreements are a concrete step towards stabilizing Upstart's business," said James Faucette, analyst at Morgan Stanley, raising its price target on the stock to $13 from $10. At current levels, short sellers stand to lose about $122 million, according to analytics firm Ortex. "With the price in Upstart jumping up over 30%, some short sellers will try to close their positions... adding additional buy pressure on the stock," said Peter Hillerberg, co-founder of Ortex. The company's net loss per share, excluding items, was 47 cents, beating analysts' estimates of 81 cents loss per share, according to Refinitiv.

☆ Housing slowdown becoming challenge for home improvement stocks, says Evercore ISI's Greg Melich
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-10 | by ( ) www.cnbc.com time to read: 1 min

In this videoShare Share Article via Facebook Share Article via Twitter Share Article via LinkedIn Share Article via EmailHousing slowdown becoming challenge for home improvement stocks, says Evercore ISI's Greg MelichGreg Melich, equity analyst for retailing and hardline at Evercore ISI, joins 'The Exchange' to discuss Walmart and Lowe's, a slowdown in existing home sales impacting home improvement stocks, Walmart's positive traffic trends, and retail earnings expectations.

☆ Walmart's top ad sales exec tells Insider his plan to grab TV and social media budgets
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-10 | by ( Lauren Johnson | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Walmart has big ambitions to grow its digital ad sales while still focusing on its huge in-store reach. Walmart is hoping to use its footprint of 4,700 physical stores to give it a leg up in retail media. Last year, Walmart brought on the seasoned retail media exec Ryan Mayward to steer ad sales to give its advertising arm Walmart Connect a big boost. Mayward previously led ad sales for Instacart and he helped Amazon grow its relationships with ad agencies. Similar to other marketplaces like Amazon and Instacart, search advertising on Walmart.com is a basic part of every brand's advertising plan, he said.

☆ Walmart keeps grocery prices steady amid inflation, antitrust claims
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-05 | by ( Siddharth Cavale | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +6 min

During the period, while U.S. inflation averaged 7.5% Walmart kept prices steady, the Dataweave analysis shows. Reuters Graphics Reuters GraphicsThis was during a time when world food prices hit record highs and U.S. food-at-home prices rose in the double digits. Food-at-home prices, or prices of food bought at grocery stores and supermarkets, are expected to rise a further 6.6% this year, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The data set, which included batteries in the basket of goods, showed that Walmart sold Energizer batteries at a significant discount to rivals. Similarly, at least two different types of Energizer coin batteries sold at Walmart were found to be between 30% and 35% cheaper than the next lowest priced rival.

☆ Consumers are finally pushing back against 'greedflation' and rejecting pricey charcoal
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-05 | by ( Alex Bitter | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Clorox's Kingsford raised prices on charcoal early this year as it prepared for grilling season. Most consumers are wary of "greedflation," or when companies raise prices to pad their profit. That included price hikes on Kingsford, Clorox's charcoal brand, CFO Kevin Jacobsen told Reuters. According to Reuters, eight pounds of Kingsford Original Charcoal briquettes, for instance, cost $7.92 on Walmart's website this week. As a result, Kingsford lost market share to competitors, Jacobsen told Reuters.

☆ Walmart names insider Latriece Watkins as US merchandising chief
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-05 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

May 5 (Reuters) - Walmart Inc (WMT.N) appointed Latriece Watkins as its U.S. chief merchandising officer, according to a memo seen by Reuters on Friday, days after Charles Redfield stepped down from the role. Watkins, who joined the company 24 years ago, has served in several roles across Walmart U.S. and Sam's Club. Last month, Walmart U.S. CEO John Furner wrote to associates that Redfield would step down and assume an advisory role supporting the U.S. business effective May 1. Watkins' appointment takes place at a time when consumer spending power has been reduced by high inflation, hurting Walmart's business and leading the company to adopt a cautious stance on 2023. "We have a rich history of strong leaders who embrace this constant change, set bold visions for our teams and best represent the humanity that is Walmart," Furner wrote in the memo.

☆ Australian Rules-Tasmania savours victory in 'hard fight' to secure AFL team
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-03 | by ( Ian Ransom | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

The state government signed off on commitments to secure the AFL's 19th team license and has targeted the 2028 season to launch in the Australian Rules top flight. "This has been a hard fight ... by many, many Tasmanians over a number of generations," state Premier Jeremy Rockliff said in the state capital Hobart. The AFL targeted richer eastern states and continues to spend a fortune propping up expansion teams in territory long owned by rugby league. AFL clubs relying on league distributions balked at the prospect of another drain on the league's coffers. ($1 = 1.5006 Australian dollars)Reporting by Ian Ransom in Melbourne; Editing by Peter RutherfordOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Meet 12 Walmart execs steering its $2.7 billion ad business as it races to catch up to Amazon
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-03 | by ( Lauren Johnson | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +1 min

Walmart is the second-largest retail advertising player, behind Amazon. The retailer is investing in talent, tech, and partnerships to grow its $2.7 billion ad business. Insider identified 12 execs in charge of growing Walmart's ad business. In 2022, Walmart's ad business, Walmart Connect, was $2.7 billion — up 30% year-over-year — making it the second-biggest e-commerce ad seller. Most of that market is currently owned by Amazon's $37.7 billion ad business.

REUTERS/Andrew KellyNEW YORK, May 1 (Reuters) - American basketball star Brittney Griner stepped onto the red carpet at the star-studded Met Gala on Monday, embracing a larger spotlight months after returning home from detention in a Russian penal colony. The twice Olympic champion has pledged to advocate for the release of other Americans detained abroad after she was freed from Russia in a high-profile prisoner exchange after nearly 10 months of detention. "I was able to come home," Griner told Vogue at the gala. "It is everything, to be here with my wife able to be here it means so much," Griner said. Twenty-times Grand Slam winner Roger Federer served as a co-chair of the event while China's twice Olympic champion freestyle skier Eileen Gu was also in attendance.

☆ Jared Leto wears giant 'Choupette' costume to Met Gala
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-02 | by ( Ben Kellerman | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

[1/4] Jared Leto, dressed as Karl Lagerfeld's cat Choupette, poses at the Met Gala, an annual fundraising gala held for the benefit of the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Costume Institute with this year's theme "Karl Lagerfeld: A Line of Beauty", in New York City, New York, U.S., May 1, 2023. The invitation-only Met Gala, famed for its A-list celebrities and extravagant outfits, is a benefit for New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art and marks the opening of the Costume Institute’s annual fashion exhibit. “Karl loved romantic but he also loved something a little edgy and nasty,” said American fashion designer Michael Kors. Meta Gala co-chair Dua Lipa wore a vintage 1992 Chanel Haute Couture Fall cream tweed gown and paired it with a never before seen 100 karat Tiffany diamond necklace. Reporting by Ben Kellerman in New York; Writing by Doyinsola Oladipo in New York; Editing by Michael PerryOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Serena Williams announces pregnancy on Met Gala red carpet
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-02 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

NEW YORK, May 1 (Reuters) - Serena Williams confirmed she is expecting baby number two on Monday, telling reporters at the star-studded Met Gala in New York that there were "three of us" on the red carpet, where she arrived with husband Alexis Ohanian. Williams, a long-time friend of Anna Wintour, the Vogue editor-in-chief and Met Gala co-chair, is a frequent attendee of the annual event to benefit the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Costume Institute and on Monday donned a form-fitting black gown with a white skirt. The theme of this year's gala was "Karl Lagerfeld: A Line of Beauty," in honor of the late Chanel designer. Footage from the red carpet showed Ohanian, an entrepreneur and the co-founder of Reddit, gently resting his hand on the midsection of the 41-year-old Williams. Reporting by Ben Kellerman, Amy Tennery and Doyinsola Oladipo in New York; Editing by Leslie AdlerOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Fashion of the 2023 Met Gala
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-01 | by ( Jillian Kumagai | ) www.reuters.com time to read: 1 min

Anna Wintour and Bill Nighy arrive at the Met Gala, an annual fundraising gala held for the benefit of the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Costume Institute with this year's theme "Karl Lagerfeld: A Line of Beauty," in New York City, New York, May 1,...more

Designs by Karl Lagerfeld are displayed at the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Costume Institute exhibition, "Karl Lagerfeld: A Line of Beauty," in New York on April 29, 2023. (Charles Sykes/Invision/AP)Celebrated tonight at the Met Gala will be the opening of the Costume Institute's exhibition "Karl Lagerfeld: A Line of Beauty," curated by the Institute's Andrew Bolton. Looks designed by Karl Lagerfeld on display during the press preview of the Costume Institute's exhibition, "Karl Lagerfeld: A Line of Beauty," on May 1, 2023. "The serpentine line signifies Lagerfeld's historicist, romantic, and decorative impulses, while the straight line indicates his modernist, classicist, and minimalist tendencies." The exhibition will be open for public viewing May 5 through July 16, 2023.

☆ Walmart dictates battery prices at competing retailers by pressuring Energizer, a trio of new lawsuits allege
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-01 | by ( Ben Tobin | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Energizer was "under pressure from Walmart" to ensure that nobody sold batteries for a lower price, three lawsuits say. The lawsuits allege that Energizer inflated wholesale battery prices for Walmart competitors. The lawsuits allege that in exchange for Walmart giving Energizer "preferential treatment" at its stores, Energizer agreed to a scheme to "artificially inflate the wholesale prices it charged to Walmart's competitors for Energizer Battery Products to prevent them from undercutting Walmart's retail prices." They further allege that, as a result, prices for batteries from Energizer's chief rival, Duracell, also were artificially inflated. The group "policed Energizer's customers' retail prices and raised wholesale prices as necessary to force Energizer's customers to maintain retail prices that did not undercut Walmart's," per the lawsuits.

According to complaints filed on Friday, Energizer agreed "under pressure from Walmart" to inflate wholesale battery prices for other retailers starting around January 2018, and require those retailers not to undercut Walmart on price. Walmart rivals allegedly risked higher wholesale prices or being cut off by Energizer, the largest U.S. disposable battery maker, if they charged less at checkout than Walmart, the world's largest retailer. According to the plaintiffs, Energizer's share of the U.S. disposable battery market has risen to more than 50% from 40% in 2018. The cases in the U.S. District Court, Northern District of California, are: Copeland et al v Energizer Holdings Inc et al, No. 23-02091, and Schuman et al v Energizer Holdings Inc et al, No.

☆ Where Walmart's jilted exes are now: what happened to the e-commerce brands it gobbled up and spit out like Bonobos and Moosejaw
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-28 | by ( Ben Tobin | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Walmart has sold three digital companies — Moosejaw, Bonobos, and Eloquii — this year. In the past couple of months, Walmart announced it was selling outdoor recreation apparel and gear company Moosejaw, upscale e-commerce apparel company Bonobos, and plus-size clothing company Eloquii. Under Lore, despite big revenue growth, the Walmart e-commerce division incurred major losses, sometimes annually upwards of $1 billion. Recently, Walmart's e-commerce goals have shifted. Here's a look at each of the companies Walmart has offloaded this year.

☆ Walmart is using AI to negotiate prices with suppliers, report says — and the suppliers are loving it
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-27 | by ( Ben Tobin | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Walmart is using technology from Pactum AI to negotiate with suppliers, per a Bloomberg report. The retailer tells the AI chatbot its budget, and the chatbot communicates with a human vendor. The Bentonville, Arkansas-based retail giant has embraced artificial intelligence a lot recently. Walmart is using a chatbot to conduct negotiations with equipment vendors, according to a recent report from Bloomberg. Walmart's shopping app also uses AI technologyThis is not the first time Walmart has embraced artificial intelligence.

☆ Instacart, Walmart, and others are rushing to power streaming TV ads to capture a $5.6 billion opportunity for retail media
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-27 | by ( Lauren Johnson | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

They hope to use shopper data to prove that streaming ads are more effective than linear TV ads. Instacart, Walmart, Kroger, and Best Buy are racking up partnerships with streaming TV companies like Roku and Disney. By partnering with retailers, streaming TV ad sellers can gun for the big budgets that CPG brands spend on linear TV, she said. Streaming ads are often pitched as being more targetable and measurable than linear ads. Both Walmart and Albertsons works with the Trade Desk to target streaming ads.

☆ Walmart in Mexico sees net profit rise in first quarter, yet trails competitors
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-26 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

April 26 (Reuters) - Walmart's Mexico unit (WALMEX.MX) on Wednesday posted a 3.7% rise in first quarter net profit as same-store sales rose in all markets, but it flagged inflation concerns after falling behind competitors in Mexico. Walmart de Mexico, known as Walmex, recorded 11.5 billion pesos ($639 million) in net profit for the first three months of the year, missing a Refinitiv estimate of 12.3 billion pesos. The company said changes in how taxes were calculated in a Central American country hit net profit, which otherwise would have grown 15.6%. Both Mexico and Central America posted same-store sales growth, with revenue up 9.7% from a year earlier to land at 206 billion pesos. Walmex's earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) grew 7.7% to 22.31 billion pesos.

☆ Walmart Mexico's profit edges up as it adds new stores
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-26 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: 1 min

April 26 (Reuters) - Walmart's Mexico unit (WALMEX.MX) on Wednesday posted a 3.7% rise in its net profit for the first three months of 2023, rising to 11.5 billion pesos ($639 million), as it expanded its footprint with 12 new stores over the quarter. The company, known as Walmex, posted a first quarter revenue up 9.7% from a year earlier, landing at 206.07 billion pesos. Walmex's earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) meanwhile grew 7.7% to 22.31 billion pesos, with same-store sales up 12.4% in Central America and 8.7% in Mexico. "New stores contributed 1.4% to total sales growth," Walmex said in a statement. ($1 = 18.0201 pesos at end-March)Reporting by Carolina Pulice; Editing by Brendan O'BoyleOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

HONG KONG, April 26 (Reuters) - Standard Chartered PLC (StanChart) (STAN.L) on Wednesday said first-quarter profit jumped 21%, beating expectations, as rising interest rates buoyed income from its cash management and retail banking businesses. The earnings update showed how rising central bank rates have boosted revenue, as StanChart charged borrowers more interest while not passing all of the increase to depositors. StanChart, which earns most of its revenue in Asia, said January-March statutory pretax profit reached $1.81 billion. That compared with $1.49 billion a year earlier and the $1.43 billion average of 14 analyst estimates compiled by the bank. The bank said it saw signs of stabilisation in China's troubled commercial real estate market, with no increase in credit impairment from the previous quarter.

☆ Before Fox News, Tucker Carlson worked at CNN. The show he co-hosted was canceled after a tense on-air exchange where Jon Stewart called him a 'dick.'
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-26 | by ( Natalie Musumeci | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Tucker Carlson worked at CNN before he helmed the top-rated show at Fox News. Jon Stewart once called Carlson a "dick" on the show Carlson hosted on CNN, "Crossfire." The political debate-styled program was canceled in 2004 after a tense on-air exchange where comedian Jon Stewart called Carlson a "dick." Carlson later told Stewart, "I thought you were going to be funny. After CNN, Carlson worked at PBS and MSNBC.

☆ StanChart profit swells on soaring global interest rates
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-26 | by ( ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

Standard Chartered PLC (StanChart) on Wednesday said first-quarter pretax profit jumped 21%, beating expectations, as rising interest rates buoyed cash management income and retail product sales for the emerging markets-focused lender. The earnings update showed how rising central bank rates have boosted revenue, as StanChart charged borrowers more interest while not passing all of the increase to depositors. StanChart, which earns most of its revenue in Asia, said January-March statutory pretax profit reached $1.81 billion. The bank said income in its corporate cash management business tripled due to "strong pricing discipline and passthrough rate management". Retail banking income rose 53%, propelled by deposit income which also tripled to $771 million.

☆ Tucker Carlson has now parted ways with 3 major cable news networks
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-25 | by ( Chris Kaye | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Tucker Carlson has parted ways with Fox News, the media network announced Monday. Tucker Carlson is out at Fox News and no definitive reason has been given by him or his former employer. "FOX News Media and Tucker Carlson have agreed to part ways," the network said in a Monday statement. The New York Times reported on Monday that Grossberg's legal team would depose Carlson "in the very near term." "I'm not defending it as the smartest choice, but I think it's the most interesting," Carlson told the Washington Post at the time.

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