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☆ Retailers’ Holiday Discounts Are Steeper This Year, CFOs Say
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-23 | by ( Kristin Broughton | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +5 min

Some chief financial officers in the retail sector say markdowns are necessary to start the new year without the drag of excess stock on their shelves. Other CFOs say their companies view the promotional environment as an opportunity to attract more customers. Below is a roundup of retail CFOs’ remarks on this topic during recent earnings calls. All the surveys that we’ve seen would indicate that the value is going to be an important driver for the customer. Historically, we’ve managed a collection of four basic inventory levers: cancellations, [return-to-vendors], push outs and vendor allowances, or VAs.

Meanwhile, the downturn in euro zone business activity eased slightly in November, offering a glimmer of hope the expected recession there may be shallower than feared, but consumers still cut spending amid a cost of living crisis. However, November is the fifth month the index has been below the 50 mark separating growth from contraction. But in France activity contracted for the first time since February 2021 as lower new orders weighed on the euro zone's second-biggest economy. Activity in the bloc's dominant services industry declined again, with the headline index matching October's 20-month low of 48.6. Manufacturing activity, particularly hard hit by soaring energy prices and disrupted supply chains, also declined but at a slower pace.

☆ Euro zone downturn eased in Nov but demand still falling - PMI
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-23 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

Nov 23 (Reuters) - The downturn in euro zone business activity eased slightly in November but overall demand continued to decline as consumers cut spending amid a cost of living crisis, a survey showed on Wednesday. However, November is the fifth month the index has been below the 50 mark separating growth from contraction. "A further fall in business activity in November adds to the chances of the euro zone economy slipping into recession," said Chris Williamson, chief business economist at S&P Global Market Intelligence. The services employment index fell to 51.7 from 52.5. The output prices index fell to 63.7 from 66.1, its lowest reading since March 2021.

☆ ECB set to raise deposit rate 50 bps as euro zone enters recession -economists
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-22 | by ( Jonathan Cable | Leigh Thomas | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

It will lift its deposit rate by another 50 bps on Dec. 15, taking it to 2.00%, and do the same to the refinancing rate, putting it at 2.50%, according to the median forecasts in the Nov. 15-21 Reuters poll. That deposit rate view was held by a majority of 45 of 62 respondents, while 14 said it would add another 75 bps as it has done at its previous two meetings. When asked about the risks to their deposit rate forecasts, 18 of 22 economists said it would end higher, either earlier of later than they expect. However, collectively economists gave a 70% probability their deposit rate peak forecasts were accurate. GDP was predicted to fall 0.4% this quarter and in the first quarter of next year, meeting the technical definition of recession.

☆ The softening of real estate prices in the hottest pandemic markets only confirms that the surge in remote work created the illusion of a housing shortage
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-22 | by ( Alcynna Lloyd | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Their presence led to a run-up in housing costs and real estate investor activity. But elevated home prices are "being misinterpreted as a shortage" says Erin Sykes, economist for Nest Seekers. "I'm not convinced there is a housing shortage, more so a mismatch of housing types and locations," she told Insider. According to an October housing report from ATTOM, institutional investors nationwide accounted for only 6.7% of housing inventory in the third-quarter of 2022 — down from the 8.4% seen in Q3 of 2021. As homebuyer and investor activity fades, and more employers call workers back into the office, Sykes says the so-called housing shortage could be on its last leg.

☆ World Cup advertisers are operating in a minefield
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-22 | by ( Julia Horowitz | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

London CNN Business —Billions of people watch FIFA’s World Cup every four years, a tantalizing opportunity for advertisers who want to capitalize on the feel-good fervor of the world’s biggest sporting event. In 2018, the World Cup drew in a record 3.6 billion viewers. Given such high levels of engagement, companies are eager to capitalize on the hype and spirit of camaraderie attached to the World Cup. “A Euros or a World Cup for four weeks in the middle of the summer — it’s literally like an island in the middle of the ocean,” ITV sales director Mark Trindler said on an industry podcast this past spring. It had already beaten revenue records for the tournament, and succeeded in bringing more than 20 new advertisers on board.

☆ The ad industry is prepping for a make-or-break holiday shopping season, with some advertisers pulling spend up to 25% even before Black Friday
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-22 | by ( Lara O'Reilly | Ryan Joe | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales figures will determine whether ad spend budgets decline. Some advertisers are already pulling back spend up to 25%Last year, advertisers marched into the holiday shopping season with confidence. For retailers who are making the bulk of their money during that time, ad spend correlates to sales, Lardner said. Marketers feel less pressure to spend their fourth quarter ad budgets this yearSome advertisers are pulling back even before the holiday shopping season kicks off. Traditionally, marketers deploy most of their ad dollars during the fourth quarter — and not just because it's the holiday gifting season.

☆ How Elon Musk’s Twitter Faces Mountain of Debt, Falling Revenue and Surging Costs
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-21 | by ( Mark Maurer | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +10 min

Elon Musk says his $44 billion Twitter takeover might result in a bankruptcy filing. To make the deal work, Mr. Musk has been trying to add subscription revenue and reassure advertisers about the platform’s future. What’s more, the company’s debt stack now includes floating-rate debt, meaning that interest costs are set to rise as the Federal Reserve continues to increase interest rates. Twitter’s credit ratings, which were below investment grade before the transaction with Mr. Musk, have deteriorated further. For that, Mr. Musk would need to persuade potential investors that he has a viable long-term business plan, he said.

☆ Rise in Indian corporate lending signals new investment cycle
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-21 | by ( Ira Dugal | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

Private investment in India was constrained for years by heavy indebtedness of companies and banks and by weak demand. SBI expects its stock of corporate loans to rise by between 14% and 15% this year and by 12% a year on average in 2023 and 2024. read moreAcross India's banking sector, lending has been rising steadily. Muralikrishna, chief general manager for large corporate lending at Bank of Baroda (BOB.NS), India's second-largest state-owned lender. Dixon Technologies (DIXO.NS), an electronics manufacturer with annual revenue of about 150 billion rupees ($1.85 billion), will receive incentives under the scheme for setting up facilities in five sectors, including electronics. Already, October exports were lower than a year earlier, and Nomura economists cautioned in a note this week that India's investment cycles were closely linked to its export cycles.

☆ Analysis: India power binges on coal, outpaces Asia
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-18 | by ( Sudarshan Varadhan | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

But the increase in India's coal-fired power output has outstripped its regional peers, data from the government and analysts showed. India's power ministry did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment. Reuters GraphicsCLEAN ENERGY EFFORTSState-run Coal India, the country’s dominant coal miner, ramped up production to meet the utility demand. It reported a 13.5% year-on-year increase in its coal output in March-October to a record high of 432 million tonnes. Consultancy Wood Mackenzie expects India's coal-fired power output to grow 10% in 2022 compared to the previous year.

☆ Grindr Plans to Focus on Monetization, Subscription Prices After Going Public
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-17 | by ( Jennifer Williams-Alvarez | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +6 min

The company will list on the New York Stock Exchange under a new name, Grindr Inc.Vanna Krantz, Grindr CFO. Ms. Krantz said she plans to review subscription prices, which currently start at $19.99 a month for paid accounts. Once the company is public, Ms. Krantz will be responsible for further building out Grindr’s finance function. Ms. Krantz said she would focus on further improvement when it comes to forecasting. The year-over-year loss was largely driven by one-time costs associated with going public, such as legal, consulting and audit fees, Ms. Krantz said.

☆ Alibaba Conjures Up Cost Savings
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-17 | by ( Jacky Wong | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Losses in many of Alibaba’s profitable segments have narrowed, including its cloud, food delivery and digital media businesses. China’s e-commerce giant Alibaba is going through a lean time. Alibaba Group Holding reported Thursday a 3% year-over-year increase in revenue for the quarter ended September, slightly lower than analysts’ expectations, according to S&P Global Market Intelligence. Sales at its core customer management business—including its Taobao and Tmall platforms—fell 7% from a year earlier. China’s economic slowdown and pandemic restrictions have hit consumers the hardest.

☆ Coinbase plunges as FTX chaos spreads further into the crypto market
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-17 | by ( Phil Rosen | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

About a year ago, Coinbase had a valuation of $85 billion, but shares of the crypto firm have crashed more than 80% this year. FTX's collapse has shaken confidence in the crypto sector that was already in the thick of a deep bear market. On Friday, Goldman Sachs said Coinbase was sufficiently insulated from the FTX crash and had a highly liquid balance sheet. And S&P Global Market Intelligence has estimated that Coinbase burned through $278 million in cash last quarter, despite saving $391 million in cash outlays by paying employees with stock. And Genesis Global Capital, the crypto-lending arm of Genesis Global Trading, cited "the extreme market dislocation and loss of industry confidence caused by the FTX implosion," CoinDesk reported.

☆ Google’s Heads Need to Make It Count
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-16 | by ( Dan Gallagher | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Even today, Google has no problem making plenty of money. But the fact that it is getting a little harder is still painful. The internet giant’s parent company, Alphabet Inc., generated operating income of $78.6 billion for the trailing 12-month period ended September—the third-highest among S&P 500 companies over that span, according to S&P Global Market Intelligence. But margins have taken a hit as a big jump in costs has run headlong into a broad-based slowdown in online advertising. The operating margin for the third quarter came in at 24.8%—a drop of nearly 8 percentage points from a year earlier, as the company added 12,765 workers to its rolls in the most recent period.

☆ Some CFOs Are Boosting Their Credit Lines as Insurance Against Recession
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-16 | by ( Kristin Broughton | Nina Trentmann | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +7 min

In addition to recession-planning, some companies are expanding their credit lines in response to higher input and inventory costs, corporate bankers said. Term loans are also funded at the outset, unlike credit lines. Photo: Xcel EnergyThe company increased its revolving credit lines primarily because it is expanding and also confronting higher commodity costs, Mr. Johnson said. Xcel doesn’t typically allow its commercial-paper balances to exceed 40% of its total borrowing capacity under its revolving credit lines, Mr. Johnson said. Bombardier in the third quarter closed on a new $300 million, five-year revolving credit facility.

☆ Check out the pitch document martech startup Primer used to raise $12 million from Elon Musk's top advisor, Salesforce Ventures, and others
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-16 | by ( Elizabeth Pham Janowski | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Marketing tech startup Primer wants to help business-to-business marketers make sense of fragmented data sources. The company just raised a $12 million Series A round, led by Craft Ventures. Primer's tools allow marketers to apply filters across all these datasets to search for more targeted audiences. With Primer's tools, companies are able to hone in on hyper-specific audiences — like women founders with stores on Shopify, or brand managers who work in the media industry. Scroll down for key slides from the Notion document that Primer used to raise its funds.

☆ EXCLUSIVE Carlyle seeks to line up bid for urgent care provider Heritage -sources
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-15 | by ( David Carnevali | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

Carlyle, a Washington, D.C.-based buyout firm, has been in discussions with other private equity firms about assembling a consortium that would make an offer to acquire HPN, the sources said. HPN generates annual cash flow of around $600 million, according to the sources. Merkin grew the Los Angeles-based company into a managed care powerhouse in the Californian market, where it serves nearly 700,000 individuals. Earlier this month, primary care provider VillageMD, which is backed by Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc (WBA.O), said it would acquire private equity-owned urgent care provider Summit Health in a deal valued at $9 billion. Amazon agreed in July to buy primary care provider One Medical for $3.49 billion, while CVS inked a deal in September to acquire Signify Health for $8 billion.

☆ FTX is just the tip of the iceberg. Meet 16 lawyers whose bankruptcy battles, from Revlon to JCPenney, are setting them up for a boom in business
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-14 | by ( Sindhu Sundar | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Despite the economic downturn, just 312 corporations filed for bankruptcy this year as of October. Here are 16 lawyers who may benefit as more companies negotiate with lenders and restructure their debt. FTX filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on Friday after questions were raised about its capital, leading customers to flee the exchange. Despite the high-profile nature of FTX's bankruptcy, such filings actually fell to a new low in 2022. As of end of October, there were just 312 corporate bankruptcy filings, down from 410 filings in 2021, and 640 in 2020, according to an S&P Global Market Intelligence report.

☆ Voters Approve Tens of Billions of Dollars in Muni Projects
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-13 | by ( Heather Gillers | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

U.S. voters said yes to tens of billions of dollars for road-paving, school-building and other local projects last Tuesday, promising a new wave of bonds for eager investors. The voters approved $57 billion out of the $63 billion in ballot measures for which results are available, according to data from S&P Global Market Intelligence. If that 90% approval rate holds steady, the total amount of new municipal debt authorized Tuesday will come to about $90 billion, the most from any election day in the data, which goes back to 2012.

☆ Businesses Rush to Sidestep Rate Shock by Paying Down Debt
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-09 | by ( Kristin Broughton | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +7 min

Executives are aggressively paying down debt as higher interest rates increase the cost associated with having debt and businesses face the prospect of a recession. As a result, some are taking steps to rein in expenses and cut interest costs, while others are looking to put cash reserves to work as their bank deposits continue to generate minimal yields. Beauty paid an annual interest rate of 4.9% on the loan, according to Mandy Fields, the company’s chief financial officer. About two-thirds of the loan carried a 5% interest rate that was fixed through a swap, which was set to expire in 2025. The two transactions reduced KAR’s annual interest costs by $70 million, to an estimated $15 million a year, Mr. Loughmiller said.

☆ Explainer: Crypto industry spends millions on U.S. midterm elections
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-08 | by ( Hannah Lang | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

Crypto companies are eager to back industry-friendly political candidates. The election comes at a time of turmoil for the crypto industry. FTX's CEO Sam Bankman-Fried has far outspent all others in the crypto industry. WHAT IS THE CRYPTO INDUSTRY LOOKING TO GET IN RETURN? Crypto companies such as Circle want lawmakers to create a framework for stablecoins to help mature the industry and codify consumer protections.

☆ Growth in Japan's September household spending was expected, says economist
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-08 | by ( ) www.cnbc.com time to read: 1 min

Share Share Article via Facebook Share Article via Twitter Share Article via LinkedIn Share Article via EmailGrowth in Japan's September household spending was expected, says economistHarumi Taguchi of S&P Global Market Intelligence says that's partly the result of the decline in Covid cases.

☆ Airbnb Details Road Map to Lower Cloud Costs
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-07 | by ( Belle Lin | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +4 min

PREVIEWMany companies that have shifted their enterprise-technology tools to the cloud in recent years are similarly seeking to reduce their cloud costs, especially in the market downturn. Corporate cloud spending will moderate from recent highs, analysts say, as companies seek more discipline in that spending. “That reduced a significant amount of our storage costs right off the bat,” Mr. Nagle said. Airbnb, one of Amazon’s largest cloud customers according to Amazon, also worked with the cloud provider to figure out what it was overpaying for. By putting its spending toward lower-cost cloud services it uses more often, Airbnb is allocating its cloud budget “in a smarter way,” Mr. Bala said.

☆ Sterling rises but gloomy economic outlook remains in focus
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-07 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

At 1000 GMT, the pound was up 0.61% against the dollar at $1.14405, and 0.35% higher versus the euro at 87.260 pence per euro. But analysts remain gloomy about the prospects for the currency given the economic outlook. "The combination of a highly concerning economic outlook and a forced dovish repricing in rate expectations look set to keep the pound rather unattractive," ING analysts wrote in a note. Quarterly GDP growth figures on Friday will also provide an important signal for the state of the UK economy. Reporting by Lucy Raitano; Editing by Andrew HeavensOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Japan's service-sector activity growth hits 4-month high -PMI
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-04 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

TOKYO, Nov 4 (Reuters) - Japan's services sector activity grew at the fastest clip in four months in October, a private survey showed on Friday, as the easing of restrictions on foreign tourism and an improvement in domestic travel boosted sentiment. Despite the pickup in activity, however, high import costs heaped pressure on the sector as prices of fuel, energy and raw materials increased. "However, inflationary pressures currently being faced by Japan's service providers continued to present downside risks to the sectors potential growth." October's final reading was slightly better than a 53.0 flash figure released last month, the survey showed. The composite PMI, which is calculated by combining the manufacturing and services readings, stood at 51.8 in October, up from the previous month's 51.0 final.

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