1 How China
spent $1bn in eight minutes (BBC) For
Westerners, the site is nowhere near as ubiquitous as Amazon or eBay but in China
Alibaba dwarves its American counterparts when it comes to one-day online
sales.
Singles Day, an annual online shopping
day in China similar to Cyber Monday in the US, has exploded in popularity
since 2009. Held on 11 November each year, it draws its name from the “bare
sticks” represented by the four number ones in the date. Last year shoppers spent $9.3bn in one day.
This year, Singles Day has eclipsed that amount by $5 bn.
In eight minutes the sales had
crossed $ 1 billion, and in 24 hours it topped $ 14.3 billion on Alibaba. In
the US, the biggest ever online sale in a day was $ 2.04 billion, achieved on
December 1, 2014, also known as Cyber Monday.
2 Profit warning hits Rolls-Royce
shares (Julia Kollewe in The Guardian) Rolls-Royce’s
share price plunged more than 20% after the British engine maker issued its
fourth profit warning in just over a year. The company pointed to a sharp drop
in the number of corporate jets powered by Rolls-Royce engines in the third quarter, while
demand for other corporate jet services also weakened.
The
company now expects profit “headwinds” of £650m next year, more than double the
£300m cut to profit identified in July. Rolls-Royce also announced on Thursday
a major restructuring programme for next year to reduce fixed costs, streamline
senior management and improve decision-making, all aimed at saving up to £200m
a year.
Chief executive Warren East, who took over from John
Rishton in July, said: “While 2015 remains broadly as expected, the outlook for
2016 is very challenging. The speed and magnitude of change in some of our
markets, which have historically performed well, has been significant and shows
how sensitive parts of our business are to market conditions in the
short-term.”
The engine maker’s fortunes turned after a decade of
rising sales, leading to a series of profit warnings from early last year.
Annual profits more than halved in July. The
Derby-based group has already announced it is cutting more than 3,000 jobs in its
aerospace and marine arms. This includes closing factories in Ansty in
Warwickshire, England, and East Kilbride in South Lanarkshire, Scotland.
3 Oil continues slide (Tarik Chebib in
Khaleej Times) Commodity prices have been falling
across the board; Gold, Silver and Oil are all down in November. Focusing on Crude
Oil, we can see that the decline has temporarily stopped at a key support level
at 42.60. This level is significant, as the commodity has bounced off it three
times this year already. First last March, a low of $42.64 printed before
prices climbed all the way up to $62 in the following 7 weeks.
The support level at $42.60 held successfully on October
27 again when prices subsequently recovered to $48. Last night, the price
again touched support at $42.60 after the price has dropped 11.9% in the last
seven trading days from a high of $48.36. However, the price quickly recovered
above $43.
The question traders have to answer now is whether we
will see a significant bounce and a recovery in Crude Oil prices just as the
previous two times or whether it will be different this time. Parts of the
world are not recovering as quickly as projected such as the UK and Europe. The
US is doing better but what is of real concern at the moment is China. GDP is
growing below 7% for the first time in more than a decade and exports are
declining. This leads to lesser demand, which ultimately weighs on the price of
oil.
The rig
count in the US has fallen an average of more than 10 per week in the last 2.5
months. Inventories
have been going up for six straight weeks. Additionally, OPEC is committed to
leaving its production levels unchanged. This has been putting great pressure
on the commodity. If data continues to support a bearish outlook for Crude Oil
and key support at $42.60 is significantly broken, we could be on the way to a
new yearly low.
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