A Japanese company has introduced a new role for SoftBank‘s humanoid robot “Pepper” — a Buddhist priest for hire at funerals. Chanting sutras in a computerized voice while tapping a drum, the robot was on display on Wednesday at a funeral industry fair — the Life Ending Industry Expo — in Tokyo. Nissei Eco, an […]
Read more
The retail stock carnage among Amazon’s victims is one of the biggest market stories during the past year. But the Wall Street firm that was early in calling out the risk for some retailers with its prescient “Death by Amazon” index in 2014 is now saying there are companies that can survive the e-commerce giant’s […]
Read moreCurrency, United States Finance
Germany’s central bank just shifted 50,000 gold bars held overseas due to Cold War fears
Germany’s central bank has successfully moved $27.9 billion worth of gold bars from New York and Paris to Frankfurt in a Hollywood-style transfer. The Bundesbank announced Wednesday that it had shipped the last of the gold it had been storing at France’s central bank, Banque de France, in Paris, completing the final stage of a […]
Read moreNew U.S. single-family home sales unexpectedly fell in July, dropping to their lowest level in seven months, which could raise concerns of a slowdown in the housing market recovery. The Commerce Department said on Wednesday new home sales tumbled 9.4 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 571,000 units last month, the lowest level […]
Read moreA study app used by half of high-school students in the U.S., Quizlet, is getting a back-to-school makeover. The changes represent a turning point for the eleven-year-old tech venture and its new CEO Matthew Glotzbach. A former vice president of product management with YouTube, Glotzbach wants to grow Quizlet from more than twenty million monthly […]
Read more
Technical analyst Todd Gordon is bearish on the market, but there’s one stock he can’t resist. Nvidia is up about 52 percent year to date, although it has had a recent setback. The TradingAnalysis.com founder says the charts are hinting at a possible breakout for semiconductors as a group, and the chipmaker is particularly well […]
Read moreIt looks to be the August of Apple. With a 7.4 percent rise month-to-date, Apple is the best performer in the Dow Jones industrial average, eclipsing the 4.5 percent bump enjoyed by second banana Visa. Tuesday was a particularly sweet session for the tech giant, as Apple shares rose 1.6 percent. Comparing 2017 year-to-date performances, […]
Read moreUlta Beauty shareholders should not lose hope despite a difficult year, according to one Wall Street firm. Jefferies reiterated its buy rating on the cosmetics retailer, saying the company’s business model is “defensible” against the rising threat of e-commerce. “Multi-brand online specialists like Amazon and direct-to-consumer businesses from brands are known threats to Ulta’s rate […]
Read moreGoogle may soon launch its own set of headphones to compete with Apple AirPods. References to the headphones were recently discovered by 9to5Google in code buried inside the Google application. The code specifically notes a product named “Bisto” and says: “Your headphones have the Google Assistant. Ask it questions. Tell it to do things. It’s […]
Read moreA firm named Latch announced a new product that will be sold to office and apartment buildings and will allow residents to unlock doors using their iPhones. The device is called the Latch C. It’s a bit like other products, such as the August Smart Lock, but it’s meant for commercial deployments rather than homes […]
Read more