Clothing sales increased 1.1% over the 13 weeks to 31 December while food sales increased 4.5%. Homeware sales fell 13.3% during the period, but M&S attributes this to exiting the technology market earlier in the year and expects the roll out of its expanded home range to boost performance.
The retailer’s moderate rise in sales was boosted by food sales as customers prepared for Christmas celebrations, but M&S is preparing to cut costs in the first half of the year to offset the effect of promotional activity on margins.
Debenhams, meanwhile, reported a 6.5% like-for-like sales increase in December as heavy promotional activity attracted customers. In the 18 weeks to 7 January Debenhams reported a 1.5% increase in like-for-like sales and a 0.5% rise in total sales. Online sales were 34.8% up for the period.
At the same time, the British Retail Consortium (BRC) has reported that like-for-like sales values across the sector were 2.2% higher in December than in 2010, when sales were heavily impacted by snow. Total sales in the month were up 4.1% against a 1.5% increase in the previous year, the best performance since January 2011.
Non-food non-store sales, which include online, phone and catalogue sales were up 18.5% on the pervious year.
Stephen Robertson, director general of the BRC says Christmas trading was “better than hoped for” but doesn’t signal an ongoing uptick.
He adds: “A solid December result hasn’t rescued a pretty miserable year. Whole-year figures show minimal growth in 2011. For many customers, economic reality has bitten again since the New Year and, with consumer confidence returning to levels last seen during the recession, 2012 is expected to be an equally challenging year.”
Netflix faces a multitude of challenges for its UK debut including lack of premium content rights, according to experts. Read the full story here.
A Marketplace staffer / Target "guest" received this email from the beleagured chain this morning. They're offering victims a year of credit monitoring, deep regrets, and some (all-too-useful?) advice:
As you may have heard or read, Target learned in mid-December that criminals forced their way into our systems and took guest information, including debit and credit card data. Late last week, as part of our ongoing investigation, we learned that additional information, including name, mailing address, phone number or email address, was also taken.I am writing to make you aware that your name, mailing address, phone number or email address may have been taken during the intrusion.
I am truly sorry this incident occurred and sincerely regret any inconvenience it may cause you. Because we value you as a guest and your trust is important to us, Target is offering one year of free credit monitoring to all Target guests who shopped in U.S. stores, through Experian's® ProtectMyID® product which includes identity theft insurance where available. To receive your unique activation code for this service, please go to creditmonitoring.target.com and register before April 23, 2014. Activation codes must be redeemed by April 30, 2014.
• Never share information with anyone over the phone, email or text, even if they claim to be someone you know or do business with. Instead, ask for a call-back number.
• Be wary of emails that ask for money or send you to suspicious websites. Don't click links within emails you don't recognize.
Target's email communication regarding this incident will never ask you to provide personal or sensitive information.
In what follows, I summarize the economic potential for the world's major cities for "prepared mustard" for the year 2016. The goal of this report is to report my findings on the real economic potential, or what an economist calls the latent demand, represented by a city when defined as an area of dominant influence. The reader needs to realize that latent demand may or may not represent real sales. For many items, latent demand is clearly observable in sales, as in the case for food or housing items. Consider, however, the category "satellite launch vehicles". Clearly, there are no launch pads in most cities of the world. However, the core benefit of the vehicles (e.g. telecommunications, etc.) is "consumed" by residents or industries within the world's cities. Without certain cities, in other words, the market for satellite launch vehicles would be lower for the world in general. One needs to allocate, therefore, a portion of the worldwide economic demand for launch vehicles to both regions and cities. This report takes the broader definition and considers, therefore, a city as a part of the global market.
The 2017 Global Grad Show Exhibition Opens in Dubai with 200 Innovative Prototypes from 43 Countries - MarketWatch
Held under the patronage of Her Highness Sheikha Latifa bint Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-Chairman of the Dubai Culture & Arts Authority, and in partnership with Dubai Design District (d3) and supported by Dubai Culture & Arts Authority, the third edition of the acclaimed annual exhibition of life-changing inventions from graduates of the world's leading design and technology universities opens today in Dubai. Curated by renowned author and designer, Brendan McGetrick, the Global Grad Show presents 200 innovative projects selected from over 470 global entries. The selections will be presented at the Global Grad Show until 18 November, 2017 during Dubai Design Week.
Mohammad Saeed Al Shehhi, CEO of Dubai Design District commented: "d3 welcomes the Global Grad Show back for another year as a part of Dubai Design Week. This event brings focus to the next generation of designers that will shape the future through design, science, and innovation and will be an exciting show for visitors to explore. We are committed to supporting talent in education and our design community provides a unique platform where young designers can unite, co-create".
All PET Shoe - a football boot made entirely of recycled plastic bottles, designed at ECAL/ University of Art and Design, Lausanne, Switzerland
The Loss of Words - an online platform that preserves the endangered languages, by documenting the languages Culture, Art and Literature, designed at The German University, New Cairo
Trabecular Tectonics - a lightweight architecture inspired by the structure of bones, designed at the Politecnico, Milan
Folks Kitchenware For The Blind - a system of kitchen utensils designed to aid the blind, designed at National University of Singapore, Singapore
Out of sight drawer - a drawer that hides dangerous tools from dementia patients under a tray, which creates a false bottom to the drawer, designed at Pratt Institute, New York.
Bee2Bee - a mobile, lightweight and quick to assemble culture system for bees, designed at Offenbach University of Art & Design, Germany
Guma - a multipurpose rubber like substance made from waste objects and tyres for use in shows, stools, etc., designed at Centro University, Mexico City
Scroll - a ring to control an everyday Augmented Reality, designed at the Royal College of Arts, London
Brendan McGetrick is an independent writer, editor, and designer. His work has appeared in publications in over thirty countries, including The New York Times, Wired, The Financial Times, Art Review, Der Spiegel, Domus, and Vogue Nippon.
His projects include the books MAD Dinner (Actar), Urban China: Work In Progress (Timezone 8), and Who is Architecture? (Domus/Timezone 8). From 2002-2006, he was head writer at Rem Koolhaas's research studio AMO as well as Koolhaas's personal editor.
McGetrick is the editor and author of six books, including Content (Taschen, 2004), MAD Dinner (Actar, 2010), and Urban China: Work In Progress (Timezone 8, 2011). In 2011, he curated Unnamed Design, a component of the 2011 Gwangju Design Biennale, in collaboration with Ai Weiwei. The exhibition received over 200,000 visitors and was named the year's best contemporary design exhibition by the New York Times.
In 2014, he co-curated Fair Enough in the Russian pavilion at the Venice Architecture Biennale, for which he received a jury prize. In 2017, together with Justin McGuirk, he curated California: Designing Freedom at the Design Museum in London. Since 2015, he has served as director and curator of Global Grad Show.
Dubai Design District, better known as d3, is a home for the region's growing community of creative thinkers. It plays a key element in Dubai's vision to transform into an innovation-led economy, and it aims to engage, inspire and enable emerging talent, as well as providing a platform to showcase Arab creativity to a larger, global audience.
As a dedicated creative destination, d3 answers a growing need for the regional design industry, ensuring that this important sector is able to develop and thrive. It provides businesses, entrepreneurs and creatives from across the design value chain with an ideally located, purpose-built and sustainable ecosystem, which leverages technology to integrate 'smart' solutions throughout the development.
d3 is the newest of TECOM Group's vibrant creative communities, with 11 buildings making up the core of the site already delivered and being handed over to tenants. To support its many creative partners, d3 offers individuals and businesses the choice of operating either as a free-zone entity or as an on-shore business, each with its own merits.
By 2018, d3 will feature a one million square foot Creative Community, which will act as the site's cultural epicentre, inspiring emerging designers and artists, and attracting tourists to the area. By 2019, d3 will also boast a bustling, 1.8km esplanade running alongside Dubai Creek where international and design led hotels, a pop-up shop area, and an amphitheatre will all be located.
CenturyLink Inc. CTL, -1.46% shares dropped more than 7% in after-hours trading following an earnings report that showed sales and profit declining faster than expected. The telecommunications firm reported third-quarter profit of $272 million, or 25 cents a share, on sales of $5.82 billion, down from $6 billion a year ago. After adjustments for the recent Level 3 acquisition and other effects, the company reported earnings of 30 cents a share, down from 42 cents a share a year ago. Analysts on average expected adjusted earnings of 30 cents a share on sales of $5.88 billion. The stock closed with a 1.8% decline at $21.08 before dropping about 7.5% in after-hours trading. Shares were up 26.4% so far this year, as the S&P 500 index SPX, +0.38% has gained 5.3%.
Spokesman says Russian president has participated in the Orthodox religious ritual for ‘several years,’ but doing so publicly — at the outset of an election year — was apparently a first
Russian President Vladimir Putin immerses himself in the water of Lake Seliger during an Orthodox Epiphany celebration in the Tver region of Russia.
So, Russian President Vladimir Putin, how does it feel to plunge shirtless into an iced-over lake in northwestern Russia on a 20-degree Fahrenheit day in January? As brutal as it sounds?
Putin, 65, was marking the Orthodox Epiphany late Thursday with the icy, ritual dip, as he’s done less publicly on a number of occasions, as his spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, reportedly told the Guardian.
This time around, Putin, who’s standing for re-election in March, welcomed Russian TV coverage of the event, in which, according to the Guardian, up to 2 million adherents of the country’s traditional religious denomination participate annually at sites all around the country as well as in neighboring Ukraine and other countries — to wit:
A goose attacks an Orthodox believer as he leaves the icy waters of a pond during the celebration of the Orthodox Epiphany holiday in Kiev pic.twitter.com/7ILCVzDMyO
From the MarketWatch archives: In 2016 year-end news conference, Putin boasted that Russians alone had predicted Donald Trump’s victory in November
A measure of Wall Street volatility on Friday rose sharply, hitting its highest level in more than a year as equity benchmarks tumbled and as the 10-year Treasury notes extended its 5-day climb above 2.8%--its highest level in more than four years. The CBOE Volatility Index VIX, -2.30% was up at 17.60, up more than 30%, a level that puts the volatility gauge at its loftiest level since Nov. 4, 2016, according to FactSet data. For the week, the so-called fear index was on track for a weekly rise of about 59%, which would represent its sharpest climb since Dec. 11, 2015. The VIX uses bullish and bearish option bets on the S&P 500 index to reflect expected volatility over the coming 30 days, and it typically rises as stocks fall. However, the gauge, sometimes referred to as the fear index, has been abnormally low, trading below its historical average at around 20. A weeklong rise in 10-year Treasury note yield TMUBMUSD10Y, -1.13% above 2.84% on Friday after an upbeat jobs report stoked fears of rate hikes and rising inflation, helped propel yields higher. Rising rates can undercut appetite for stocks if government paper offer richer yields than risk assets like stocks. The Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA, -0.45% was down 550 points, or 2.1%, eyeing its worst weekly decline in two years, the S&P 500 index SPX, -0.11% slumped 1.8% at 2,772, while the Nasdaq Composite Index COMP, +0.14% are off 1.5% at 7,274. The rise in the VIX implies that volatility in otherwise subdued markets is beginning to make a comeback.
Jacket by Ellesse Soft-touch padded fabricHood with throat latchZip placketSide zip pockets Ribbed cuffsStretch waistband Regular fit - true to size Machine wash 100% Nylon Our model wears a size Medium and is 185.5cm/6'1" tall ABOUT ELLESSEWhen Leonardo Servadio couldn't find what he wanted to wear on the slopes, he made it. Channelling his charismatic personality and tailoring skills into his first streetwear collection, the Italian label Ellesse - named after his initials L&S, obviously - was born in 1959. Now, sweatpants, track jackets and T-shirts are all stamped with the iconic Ellesse logo. ABOUT MEFilling: 100% Polyester, Lining: 100% Polyester, Main: 100% Nylon.SIZE & FITModel's height: 6'1”/185.5 cmModel is wearing: Size Medium LOOK AFTER MEMachine Wash According To Instructions On Care Label
Our cosy long sleeve children’s sleep suit is perfect for little ones with special needs, featuring a soft, pure cotton construction and popper fastenings to keep nappies covered and safe from curious hands. A ribbed trim gives a snug fit around ankles and wrists, and being a one piece sleep suit, there are no hems to get tangled in.