Tag: Consumer Products

Grime, dirt, stink and funk: Tween boys are skincare’s hottest market | CNN Business

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New York
CNN
—

Check the aisles at Walmart, Target or your neighborhood drug store and you’ll find them chock full of scented, lathering, moisturizing, bubbling – even glittering – face and body cleansers for kids and adults.

But, until recently, there’s been a glaring shortage of products targeting the skincare needs of one key demographic – tween boys.

“It’s a huge white space in the market,” said Carson Kitzmiller, senior beauty and personal care analyst with market research firm Mintel. It’s a missed opportunity, she said, because “we’re seeing teen boys becoming more interested in their own skincare needs than in the past and they’re really leaning into it,” she said.

A handful of boutique companies and entrepreneurs have spotted the gap and, in the absence of big brands, are trying to fill it. Some of them happen to be moms.

Dr. Sheilagh Maguiness said the lack of products for the evolving cleansing and hygiene needs of her two sons, ages nine and 11, inspired her to develop Stryke Club.

Maguiness, a board-certified pediatric dermatologist, and three other co-founders launched the boys skincare brand in 2020, at the height of the pandemic. The affordable line, which includes a face wash, body wash, moisturizer and topical acne treatment priced under $25, rolled into Target stores and online the following year.

“Walmart then came to us recognizing there was this gap in the market and picked us up,” she said. “Our sales have increased by 45% year-over-year since 2020, and our ballpark sales for 2023 are projected to be around $3 million.”

Still, Stryke Club, which Maguiness said uses gentle ingredients that won’t irritate young skin, remains one of the few brands for male consumers ages 7 to young adulthood, while store shelves continue to overflow with options for girls’ needs.

“Whether it’s young sensitive skin, or acne, eczema or their first shave, boys have specific skin needs,” said Maguiness. “We also have to help them overcome this stigma about being a boy and engaging in self care.”

The personal care products market overall in the US amounts to more than $25 billion annually (according to market research firm NPD), but very little of it caters to boys.

The void is there because body care brands largely prioritize female shoppers even as several indie or boutique brands championing adult male grooming – Harry’s, Dollar Shave Club, Bevel – have proven to be big successes.

According to Dr. Rhonda Klein, a board certified dermatologist, “Brands follow spending power, and until rather recently boys weren’t very interested in skincare,” said Klein. “It’s easier to invest in products and marketing toward an audience that is seeking it.”

But older boys are becoming more aware and invested in their personal care needs thanks in large part to social media influencers.

“Social media has its pitfalls [but] it has also brought skincare to the mainstream conversation across gender and age,” said Dr. Deanne Mraz Robinson, assistant clinical professor of dermatology at Yale New Haven Hospital.

“For better or worse it’s also brought our outward appearance to larger audiences than ever before, something that in my opinion has everyone, including teen and tween boys, becoming more aware and caring more how their skin looks,” she said.

Julie Bowen and Jill Biren were friends first before they became business partners through a shared quest to provide their sons with skin care products they would actually be excited to use.

In January, Bowen and Biren launched direct-to-consumer brand JB SKRUB, a collection of five products (priced at $16 to $20) – face wash, face lotion, body wash, body spray and oil-control face wipe pads – formulated and packaged for boys 10 to 16 years old.

“We met when our sons were in elementary school together. Jill and I were at a birthday party together and started talking about why there isn’t a body product for our boys that’s not overly scented,” said Bowen, a mom to three teenage sons. Jill said let’s do something.”

If Bowen’s name seems familiar, it’s because she is an actress, producer and director, perhaps most famous for starring as Claire Dunphy in the ABC sitcom “Modern Family.”

Biren, a mom to both a tween and teen son, is a former long-time Conde Nast executive, who led marketing campaigns for beauty and fashion companies.

Bowen and Biren said they wanted their products to help change the approach that tween and teen boys adopt when it comes to personal hygiene.

“Typically in most households, boys are either using whatever products their parents or sisters have bought,” said Bowen. “So either it smells like strawberries or is too babyish, or isn’t meeting them where they are in terms of how their skin and body are developing as puberty hits.”

“Our goal with JB SKRUB was to simplify. Simple and frank language, clean and sustainable ingredients and easy-to-use packaging,” she said.

The women bootstrapped the business and took three years to develop the products, working in consultation with skincare experts. The products are made with clean ingredients. The body wash, for example, contains prebiotic chia eed extract, which acts as an anti-inflammatory and anti-microbial ingredient, said Biren.

Bowen said the packaging was also developed with the end-user, and sustainability in mind. “We put the face lotion in a pump tube instead of a jar to make it easier for boys to use,” she said. The brand also expected to launch product refills later this year.

The women hope to eventually get JB SKRUB into retail stores.

“We have proof of concept and we know we are addressing a need in the market,” said Bowen, who projects sales to hit seven figures by the end of the first year.

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March 26, 2023
How Girl Scouts found itself in a cookie debacle | CNN Business

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New York
CNN
—

For decades, Girl Scouts has used cookie sales to raise funds and teach scouts about entrepreneurship. This year, thanks to the Raspberry Rally cookie, members got a painful lesson in what can happen when high demand meets limited supply.

The much-hyped Rally, a raspberry-flavored spin on the Thin Mint, was always supposed to be a limited-edition cookie. But interest in it seemed to have taken Girl Scouts leadership by surprise — perhaps because of a new online-only ordering system.

As demand surged, with some cookies even ending up on eBay, in some cases listed for about $40 per box, supply stayed the same because cookie makers couldn’t quickly pump out more Rallies. One of the Scouts’ manufacturers, ABC Bakers, said it needs lots of lead time to make limited-edition cookies. The other, Little Brownie Bakers, said bad weather caused power outages at a Kentucky plant, contributing to other inventory issues that lead to tight supply.

As a result, the Rallies sold out rapidly, leaving scouts and parents to explain the situation to annoyed shoppers even as they tried to make sense of it themselves.

For young scouts, having to tell customers there are no Rallies available “is a particularly frustrating transaction,” scout parent Betsy Everett told CNN. “When people ask for the new cookie, we tell them the situation and then they don’t want to buy anything. It’s disappointing for the girls.”

Some parents have been frustrated not only by the shortages, but by what they say is piecemeal communication from Girl Scouts USA. And after years of Covid-related disruptions, their own patience is wearing thin.

“Right now we are focused on ensuring all Girl Scouts have a successful Cookie Season,” Girl Scouts USA told CNN in a statement, adding that it is also focused on optimizing its operations “in real-time, and [capturing] learnings that will inform our strategy going into future seasons.”

But for the scouts, those learnings have been hard-won.

Predicting demand for the Rallies may have been especially difficult, because Girl Scouts introduced a whole new way to buy them, said Terry Esper, associate professor of logistics at the Fisher College of Business of the Ohio State University.

Unlike other cookies, the Raspberry Rally was offered exclusively online with shipments sent directly to customers. That meant shoppers could order it themselves, though Girl Scouts encouraged them to ask scouts to place the orders. Girl Scouts, which has been relatively slow to move sales online, said when it introduced Rallies that the sales channel would help scouts learn about e-commerce. The Rallies aren’t supposed to be sold at scouts’ cookie booths.

“Whenever you introduce a new way of buying a product, or a new channel to get access … that opens new [consumer] behavior,” Esper explained.

The ease of online ordering may have attracted more customers. Plus, Girl Scouts built a lot of hype with the limited-time offer, creating a sense of urgency, Esper noted.

Yet as customers clamored for the cookie, scouts and their parents learned there was no chance of increasing supply by the end of the cookie season in April.

ABC fulfilled the “seasonal plan that was communicated to councils in June 2022” in regard to the Rallies, says an FAQ dated February 16 on the Girl Scouts Iowa site. “We cannot produce more at this time, as we do not have unique materials and packaging. The lead times … are too long to produce in time for the remainder of this season,” according to the FAQ.

In March, Little Brownie Bakers informed local chapters about the multifaceted issues it was facing.

“We share the frustration that some Girl Scout troops feel this cookie season,” a Little Brownie Bakers spokesperson told CNN. “Global supply chain issues, compounded by local labor shortages and a weather-related power outage … continue to impact production.” LBB’s problems constrained supply for other cookies, as well.

Scout parents responsible for ordering the cookies have been left to deal with the fallout, on top of the usual job of helping scouts through the cookie-selling season, which runs roughly from January to April.

Everett, the scout parent, orders cookies for three troops in Southeastern Michigan. She ended up getting a few cases of Raspberry Rallies but other families in her troop could not.

“Out of our 30 scouts [across the troops], about three of them managed to order some cookies before they were gone,” she said.

This is just another disruption for Everett, who said part of her initial cookie order went unfilled last year, meaning that cookies were missing from early cookie booths and only showed up weeks later.

Chad Huset, whose two daughters are scouts in the Minneapolis area, watched his daughters field question after question about the unavailable Rallies at a recent cookie-selling event.

Earlier in the season, when his wife placed an order for Rallies, it was promptly canceled. A separate Raspberry Rally FAQ page, posted to a Wisconsin Girl Scouts page, explained “ABC’s selling platform did not immediately shut down access to customers ordering [Rallies]…Because of that time lapse, they were selling cookies that were not available.”

Huset’s wife received a similar explanation following the cancellation in a series of emails. ABC referred CNN’s request for comment for this story to Girl Scouts USA.

Huset thinks Girl Scouts should have been clearer about the situation earlier, to allow the troops time to pivot.

“It comes down to communicating what’s happening, not after the fact,” Huset said.

Some of the scout community is finding silver linings, however.

Deb Perry, a scout parent and co-leader of a Girl Scouts troop outside of Seattle, didn’t even bother to try ordering Raspberry Rallies. The selling season starts earlier in other parts of the country, and she heard the many reports of shortages elsewhere.

“We didn’t even push it, or encourage it with our troop,” she said. “We just encourage them to sell what we have on hand.”

Perry saw the situation as a chance to teach the scouts how to adapt and embrace the challenge. Scouts in her daughter’s troop have been encouraging shoppers who ask for the Rally to try the Adventureful, introduced last year, instead.

“When things don’t go as planned, or when people say no,” she said, “the girls learn from that.”

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March 25, 2023
Intel co-founder Gordon Moore, author of ‘Moore’s Law’ that helped drive computer revolution, dies at 94 | CNN Business

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Intel co-founder Gordon Moore, a pioneer in the semiconductor industry whose “Moore’s Law” predicted a steady rise in computing power for decades, died Friday at the age of 94, the company announced.

Intel

(INTC) and Moore’s family philanthropic foundation said he died surrounded by family at his home in Hawaii.

Co-launching Intel in 1968, Moore was the rolled-up-sleeves engineer within a triumvirate of technology luminaries that eventually put “Intel Inside” processors in more than 80% of the world’s personal computers.

In an article he wrote in 1965, Moore observed that, thanks to improvements in technology, the number of transistors on microchips had roughly doubled every year since integrated circuits were invented a few years before.

His prediction that the trend would continue became known as “Moore’s Law” and, later amended to every two years, it helped push Intel and rival chipmakers to aggressively target their research and development resources to make sure that rule of thumb came true.

“Integrated circuits will lead to such wonders as home computers – or at least terminals connected to a central computer – automatic controls for automobiles, and personal portable communications equipment,” Moore wrote in his paper, two decades before the PC revolution and more than 40 years before Apple launched the iPhone.

After Moore’s article, chips became more efficient and less expensive at an exponential rate, helping drive much of the world’s technological progress for half a century and allowing the advent of not just personal computers, but the internet and Silicon Valley giants like Apple

(AAPL), Facebook

(FB) and Google

(GOOG).

“It sure is nice to be at the right place at the right time,” Moore said in an interview around 2005. “I was very fortunate to get into the semiconductor industry in its infancy. And I had an opportunity to grow from the time where we couldn’t make a single silicon transistor to the time where we put 1.7 billion of them on one chip! It’s been a phenomenal ride.”

In recent years, Intel rivals such as Nvidia

(NVDA) have contended that Moore’s Law no longer holds as improvements in chip manufacturing have slowed down.

But despite manufacturing stumbles that have caused Intel to lose market share in recent years, current CEO Pat Gelsinger has said he believes Moore’s Law still holds as the company invests billions of dollars in a turnaround effort.

Even though he predicted the PC movement, Moore told Forbes magazine that he did not buy a home computer himself until the late 1980s.

A San Francisco native, Moore earned a Ph.D. in chemistry and physics in 1954 at the California Institute of Technology.

He went to work at the Shockley Semiconductor Laboratory where he met future Intel cofounder Robert Noyce. Part of the “traitorous eight,” they departed in 1957 to launch Fairchild Semiconductor. In 1968, Moore and Noyce left Fairchild to start the memory chip company soon to be named Intel, an abbreviation of Integrated Electronics.

Moore and Noyce’s first hire was another Fairchild colleague, Andy Grove, who would lead Intel through much of its explosive growth in the 1980s and 1990s.

Moore described himself to Fortune magazine as an “accidental entrepreneur” who had no burning urge to start a company – but he, Noyce and Grove formed a powerhouse partnership.

While Noyce had theories about how to solve chip engineering problems, Moore was the person who rolled up his sleeves and spent countless hours tweaking transistors and refining Noyce’s broad and sometimes ill-defined ideas, efforts that often paid off. Grove filled out the group as Intel’s operations and management expert.

Moore’s obvious talent also inspired other engineers working for him, and, under his and Noyce’s leadership, Intel invented the microprocessors that would open the way to the personal computer revolution.

He was executive president until 1975 although he and CEO Noyce considered themselves equals. From 1979 to 1987 Moore was chairman and CEO and he remained chairman until 1997.

In 2023 Forbes magazine estimated his net worth at $7.2 billion.

Moore was a longtime sport fisherman, pursuing his passion all over the world and in 2000 he and his wife, Betty, started a foundation that focused on environmental causes. The foundation, which took on projects such as protecting the Amazon River basin and salmon streams in the US, Canada and Russia, was funded by Moore’s donation of some $5 billion in Intel stock.

He also gave hundreds of millions to his alma mater, the California Institute of Technology, to keep it at the forefront of technology and science, and backed the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence project known as SETI.

Moore received a Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor, from President George W. Bush in 2002. He and his wife had two children.

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March 24, 2023
Biden kicks off ‘Invest in America’ tour next week | CNN Politics

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CNN
—

As he gears up for a likely reelection campaign, President Joe Biden on Tuesday will kick off a three-week tour to highlight the impact of his signature legislative accomplishments as the impacts of those laws begin to be felt around the country, according to a White House official.

The “Invest in America” tour will see Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, first lady Jill Biden and nearly a dozen Cabinet members hit more than 20 states – including key battleground states like Georgia, Nevada and Pennsylvania – over the next three weeks.

The tour is the White House’s most coordinated, concerted push to date to accomplish what White House officials see as their central task this year: implementing legislation and making sure Americans know what Biden has accomplished. Polling published last month indicated the White House has its work cut out: 62% of Americans said they believe Biden has accomplished “not very much” or “little or nothing,” according to a Washington Post/ABC News poll.

Biden will make his first of multiple stops on Tuesday with a visit to a semiconductor manufacturer in Durham, North Carolina, which has announced plans to build a $5 billion chips manufacturing facility that will create 1,800 new jobs, spurred on by passage of the CHIPS and Science Act, which incentivizes domestic semiconductor manufacturing.

Other Cabinet secretaries and top White House officials will highlight the effects of other pieces of legislation in the tour’s first week: Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg will highlight airport safety and infrastructure projects in Arkansas, Texas and Oklahoma; Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo will visit fiber optic cable manufacturers in North Carolina; and Biden’s infrastructure coordinator Mitch Landrieu will highlight electric vehicle manufacturing in Tennessee, among others.

Harris, who is traveling to Africa next week, will make stops when she returns to highlight the growth of domestic manufacturing, the official said. The first lady, a community college teacher, is expected to highlight workforce training programs.

“From shovels hitting the ground on new infrastructure projects made possible by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, to new electric vehicle manufacturing facilities as a result of the Inflation Reduction Act, to communities benefitting from high-speed internet because of the American Rescue Plan, to new semiconductor fabs thanks to the CHIPS and Science Act, the tour will highlight how the President’s Investing in America agenda is growing the economy from the middle-out and bottom-up, not top down,” the White House said in a statement.

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, Education Secretary Miguel Cardona, Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Michael Regan and Small Business Administration Administrator Isabel Guzman are expected to travel as part of the three-week tour.

The tour coincides with a two-week congressional recess in April and will also include stops with members of Congress.

Biden will head to North Carolina a day after convening a meeting of his “Invest in America” Cabinet, which is comprised of key Cabinet officials working to implement the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, the CHIPS and Science Act, the Inflation Reduction Act and the American Rescue Plan.

Biden and his Cabinet will highlight the direct and indirect impacts of those laws – including private sector investments spurred on by pieces of legislation – and the impact on state and local economies at each stop.

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March 24, 2023
Supreme Court humors itself as it considers whether Jack Daniel’s can stop a dog toy company from parodying its brand | CNN Politics

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Washington
CNN
—

The Supreme Court on Wednesday delved into the complexities of federal trademark law in a case concerning a poop-themed dog toy that resembles a Jack Daniel’s bottle, at times erupting into laughter as the justices explored how much protection should be given to parodists that rip off trademarks they don’t own.

At the center of the case is a “Bad Spaniels Silly Squeaker” toy created by VIP Products that is strikingly similar to Jack Daniel’s bottles. The distiller sued the company over the toy – which is replete with scatological humor – claiming it violated federal trademark law, which usually centers around how likely a consumer is to confuse an alleged infringement with something produced by the true owner of the mark.

But at oral arguments, at least one justice admitted she didn’t understand the joke being sold by VIP Products.

“What is there to it? What is the parody here?” Justice Elena Kagan asked an attorney for the toy company, leading the courtroom to burst into laughter. “Because maybe I just have no sense of humor. But what’s the parody?”

Kagan went on to list a number of different marks the company pokes fun at, drawing laughter from Justice Clarence Thomas: “Doggie Walker, Dos Perros, Smella Arpaw, Canine Cola, Mountain Drool. Are all of these companies taking themselves too seriously?”

And a misunderstanding by Lisa Blatt, an attorney representing Jack Daniel’s, over a hypothetical posed by Justice Samuel Alito led to another round of giggles.

Alito was trying to ask how likely it was that a reasonable person would believe Jack Daniel’s approved the toy at hand or a similar theoretical toy that joked it contained “dog urine.”

“So a reasonable person would not believe Jack Daniel’s had approved this?” he asked Blatt.

“I think if you’re selling urine you’re probably going to win on a motion to (dismiss), but you’re probably also violating some state law,” she replied.

“Oh no, you’re not selling urine. It’s exactly this toy, which purportedly contains some sort of dog excrement or urine,” Alito said, humoring the courtroom as he attempted to clarify his hypothetical.

“Well, just showing how confused I was suggests that I would be your perfect consumer,” Blatt said.

Jokes – intentional or not – aside, some of the justices were skeptical of the distillery, whose attorneys want the court to toss out a heightened standard of review an appeals court used when it ruled in favor of the toy maker.

“I have some hesitation doing away with the Rogers Test,” Justice Sonia Sotomayor said in part, referring to a court-created test used to determine whether a potential trademark infringement in non-commercial instances enjoys constitutional protection.

Alito seemed to agree.

“Well, I’m concerned about the First Amendment implications of your position and you began by saying, by stressing that Rogers is atextual, it was made up.”

“You know, there is a text that says that Congress shall make no law infringing the freedom of speech. That’s a text that takes precedence over the Lanham Act and you said there are no constitutional issues,” he added, referring to the trademark law at the center of the dispute.

Joining the dog pile, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson said she was “concerned about impairing artists” if the court sided with Jack Daniel’s and issued a decision that effectively prevents the unauthorized use of marks in artistic works.

The case pits the rights of a famous trademark holder against the First Amendment rights of a company that wants to use those marks to sell a humorous product.

VIP’s “Bad Spaniels Silly Squeaker” toy has the same general shape of a Jack Daniel’s bottle. The plastic bottle, like its glass counterpart, has a similar font style and uses a black label.

VIP borrows Jack Daniel’s “Old No. 7 Brand Tennessee Sour Mash Whiskey” to sell “The Old No. 2 On Your Tennessee Carpet,” a reference to dog excrement. And it changes the liquor bottle’s “40% ALC. BY VOL. (80 PROOF)” with “43% POO BY VOL.” and “100% SMELLY.”

A tag affixed to the toy notes that it’s “not affiliated with Jack Daniel Distillery.”

That, however, was not enough to keep Jack Daniel’s from suing the company to take the toy off the market. The distiller argues VIP violates federal trademark law and that the toy, especially the references to dog excrement, damage its reputation because it could confuse consumers into thinking the product belongs to the “oldest registered distillery in the United States.”

“To be sure, everyone likes a good joke,” lawyers for Jack Daniel’s wrote in court papers. “But VIP’s profit-motivated ‘joke’ confuses consumers by taking advantage of Jack Daniel’s hard-earned goodwill.”

Depending on how they rule, the justices could strip away some trademark protections by giving entities cover to legally use registered marks not belonging to them so long as they do so in a way that expresses humor.

A district court ruled in favor of Jack Daniel’s, finding that the toy infringed on the distiller’s trademark. But an appeals court later sided with VIP Products, invoking the so-called Rogers Test.

The court said VIP’s use of Jack Daniel’s trademark was non-commercial and that because it was done humorously for an “expressive work,” it’s protected by the First Amendment.

The case “deals with a very common thing of pitting somebody who has trademark rights … against another who is saying, ‘I’m entitled to (use those marks) under the First Amendment because it is parody. And I need to take enough of the mark in order to make it funny. People have to get the joke,’” said Mark Sommers, a trademark attorney based in Washington, DC.

Sommers added that the justices’ decision in the matter has the potential to be a landmark ruling if they “help define that line that exists between the First Amendment right of expression – be that parody, be that art, whatever you want to express – versus the important trademark issues that are here where brand owners who have invested a tremendous amount of goodwill don’t want their trademarks used in a manner which could result in potential confusion among the consuming public.”

Attorneys for Jack Daniel’s told the justices in court papers that the appeals court ruling “gives copycats free license to prey on unsuspecting consumers and mark holders,” and warned that if it wasn’t reversed, companies could use trademarks they don’t own to flood the markets with allegedly unserious products.

Santa Claus, the KKK, and other bizarre hypotheticals raised by Supreme Court in LGBTQ rights case

“No one disputes that VIP is trying to be funny. But alcohol and toys don’t mix well, and the same is true for beverages and excrement,” they wrote. “The next case could involve more troubling combinations – food and poison, cartoon characters and pornography, children’s toys and illegal drugs, and so on.”

VIP argues consumers can easily distinguish between the two products, with lawyers for the Arizona-based company writing in court papers that it “has never sold whiskey or other comestibles, nor has it used ‘Jack Daniel’s’ in any way (humorously or not). It merely mimicked enough of the iconic bottle that people would get the joke.”

“This is a case about speech, and a popular brand’s attempts to control that speech by weaponizing the Lanham Act,” they wrote, referring to the federal trademark law at the center of the dispute.

“It is ironic that America’s leading distiller of whiskey both lacks a sense of humor and does not recognize when it – and everyone else – has had enough,” the toy company told the court.

The Biden administration had urged the justices to take the case, with the Justice Department siding with Jack Daniel’s in the dispute.

“The First Amendment does not confer any right to use another person’s trademark, or a confusingly similar mark, as a source identifier for goods sold in commerce,” the department wrote in court papers. “Indeed, the absence of any such right is a basic animating premise of trademark-infringement law. If such a right existed, states and the federal government might lack authority to prohibit trademark infringement.”

Several major companies also filed briefs to the court in support of Jack Daniel’s, including Nike and Levi Strauss & Co.

“Though defendants will often have an incentive to label it as such, not every humorous use of another’s trademark is a parody,” Nike wrote in its brief. “Courts therefore should take a disciplined approach to this important classification in cases where ‘parody’ is claimed.”

The Supreme Court is expected to rule later this term in another high-profile intellectual property law case, with the justices having heard arguments last year in a copyright infringement case concerning the late Andy Warhol and the late musician Prince. During those arguments, the justices attempted to determine when a new work based on a prior piece is substantially transformative, and when it simply amounts to a copycat version of an existing work subject to copyright rules.

This story has been updated with additional developments.

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March 23, 2023
S&P 500 pushes above 4,010 level, stocks turn higher after Fed raises rates by 25 basis points

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U.S. stocks turned higher, shaking off earlier weakness, after the Federal Reserve on Wednesday raised its policy rate as expected by 25 basis points to help fight inflation. The increase in interest rates comes despite recent weakness in the banking system after the collapse earlier in March of Silicon Valley Bank. The S&P 500 index
SPX,
-0.55%
was up 14 points, or 0.4%, to about 4,016, at last check, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average
DJIA,
-0.68%
was up 0.2% near 32,609 and the Nasdaq Composite Index was 0.7% higher. The Fed also said the U.S. banking system remains resilient, in its policy statement. The 10-year Treasury rate
TMUBMUSD10Y,
3.507%
was lower at 3.52%.

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March 22, 2023
U.K. Feb. CPI climbs a higher-than-expected 10.4% from 10.1%, pound jumps

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U.K. consumer prices jumped 10.4% in February, from a 10.1% rise in January, the National Statistics Office reported Wednesday. The increase was higher than the 9.8% expected by a consensus of economists polled by FactSet Research. The Consumer Price Index including owner occupiers’ housing costs (CPIH) rose by 9.2% in the 12 months to Feb 2023, up from 8.8% in Jan 2022. The fresh jump in prices comes a day ahead of a decision by the Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee. The British pound
GBPUSD,
+0.59%
jumped on the data, last up 0.4% to $1.2261.

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March 21, 2023
Google suspends Chinese shopping app Pinduoduo over malware | CNN Business

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Hong Kong
CNN
—

Google has suspended Pinduoduo, a popular Chinese budget shopping app, from its Play Store after finding malware in versions of the app.

In a Tuesday statement, Google said versions of the app that are not in the Play Store have been found to contain malware.

“We have suspended the Play version of the app for security concerns while we continue our investigation,” a Google spokesperson said.

It has also enforced Google Play Protect, which scans apps installed on Android phones for harmful behavior, on the allegedly malicious apps, according to the statement.

“Google Play Protect enforcement has been set to block installation attempts of these identified malicious apps. Users that have malicious versions of the app downloaded to their devices are warned and prompted to uninstall the app,” the spokesperson said.

In a statement to CNN, Pinduoduo said it was informed by Google Play on Tuesday morning that its app had been “temporarily suspended” because the current version is “not compliant with Google’s Policy.” It said Google Play did not share more details.

“We are communicating with Google for more information. We have been told that there are several other apps that have been suspended as well,” a Pinduoduo spokesperson said.

In a later statement Pinduoduo said it strongly rejects “the speculation and accusation that Pinduoduo app is malicious just from a generic and non-conclusive response from Google.”

It reiterated that “there are several apps that have been suspended from Google Play at the same time.”

CNN has asked Google for information on whether other apps have also been suspended.

Malware, short for malicious software, refers to any software developed to steal data or damage computer systems and mobile devices. When hidden in apps, it can be used to gain unauthorized access to information on a user’s phone.

Pinduoduo is one of China’s most popular e-commerce platforms, with approximately 900 million users. It made its name with a group buying business model, allowing people to save money by enlisting friends to buy the same item in bulk.

Riding on the domestic success of Pinduoduo, its US-listed parent company PDD last year launched Temu, an online shopping platform in the United States.

Temu, which runs an online superstore for virtually everything — from home goods to apparel to electronics — has quickly become the most downloaded app in the US for both iOS and Android.

Since its rollout in September, the app had been downloaded 24 million times as of last month, racking up more than 11 million monthly active users, according to Sensor Tower.

Google did not mention Temu in its statement. The app is still available to download on the Play Store.

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March 21, 2023
Price hikes are double whammy for pet owners who are crushed by inflation | CNN Business
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Minneapolis
CNN
—

As head of PAWS Atlanta, Joe Labriola can get a good sense of the region’s economic well-being from the day-to-day activity of the city’s oldest no-kill animal shelter.

Through the course of the past year, it’s become increasingly clear to him that people in the area are struggling under the weight of inflation and economic uncertainty.

Practically the entirety of the daily call volume consists of requests to rehome pets. The shelter’s “surrender queue” is full, awaiting adoptions to free up space in the main shelter. And the shelves at PAWS Atlanta’s Pet Food Pantry quickly go bare.

But perhaps the most heartbreaking indicator is something this particular shelter never had to track before 2022. Last year, 166 pets were found abandoned at the shelter’s front gate.

“A number of animals are being abandoned that have serious medical issues,” Labriola told CNN. “The only thing we can guess is that people just can’t afford those expenses, and they’re hoping by dropping off [their pets] at our facility that we’re going to be able to pick up the slack. And we do as best we can, but it’s really putting a strain on our resources.”

Overall inflation remains high across the United States, but has slowly and methodically stepped down since setting a fresh 40-year record of 9.1% in June 2022, as measured by the Consumer Price Index. However, during the past eight months, inflation in pet-related products and services has only worsened, rising in some cases to record-setting levels.

In February, when annual CPI declined to 6%, the catch-all “pets, pet products and services” index rose to 10.9%, veterinary services jumped nearly 2 percentage points to 10.3% and pet food increased to 15.2%, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics data.

Those price increases are a double whammy for pet owners whose household finances have been weakened by persistently high inflation and for those who fear for rising instances of “economic euthanasia,” when animals are humanely put to death for financial reasons.

The recent pet-specific price spikes also are compounding pressures facing organizations tasked with providing a safety net for animals in need.

Nationwide, shelters are not seeing increases in pets being surrendered, said Kitty Block, chief executive officer and president of the Humane Society of the United States. However, when there are certain communities seeing spikes in abandoned or surrendered pets, that’s a sign of broader societal hardship, she said.

“When people are having to surrender their animals for economic reasons or because they’re in the middle of a horrible disaster or war zone area, that’s a people problem; this is not some issue that is not relevant to people,” Block said. “This is bigger than dogs or cats in shelters. It’s about the people who love them.”

At the store level, many pet products saw double-digit average unit price increases during the past year, with several items — including pet food, non-clumping cat litter and bird grooming items — seeing year-over-year price hikes north of 20%, according to Nielsen IQ data for the 52-week period ended January 28, 2023.

“Throughout 2022, price increases were pretty extensive — all the way up to 20% and almost 30% price hikes versus the year prior — across the pet department,” said Andrea Binder, vice president of NielsenIQ North America. “In early 2023, we have started to see those start to taper off a little bit. Prices are still increasing but at a lower rate than they were in 2022.”

The price hikes have been attributed to rising input and ingredient costs, she added.

“The cost of chicken, the cost of beef, the cost of aluminum to make a wet cat food can … a lot of those commodity prices have been rising pretty dramatically throughout 2021 and 2022, which has caused manufacturers to increase their costs, and then therefore a lot of retailers follow suit,” she said.

Pet products, services and food have become “exponentially” more expensive, said Linda Harding, who lives in San Diego with two dogs. She said her pet food costs for Lola, her Australian Shepherd mix, and for Phoebe, her Golden Retriever, have doubled to $250 per month.

Harding has cut back on her own expenses. She hasn’t turned on the heat much all winter, she’s limited electricity use and she has stopped buying items like clothes and eggs.

“When you take on a pet, you take on a big responsibility,” she said. “It’s almost like when you buy a car, you’re going to have a lot of responsibility with that car. That car is going to break down, that car’s going to need repairs. It’s an investment.”

She added: “And they’re our furbabies. We love them to pieces. So it’s not really even a question. I need to find the money to keep them as healthy as possible so we can love them as long as possible.”

Mary Avila, a disabled veteran who lives on a fixed income, keeps things simple.

She doesn’t go clothes shopping anymore, she buys cheaper cuts of meat, and she does try to sock away money in case her pets need a small medical procedure.

“They always give,” said Avila, who lives in Bakersfield, California, with her cat, Jack, and two dogs, Domino and Squirt. “The cat doesn’t give as much, because cats. But the dogs, they always give, they’re always happy, they always want you around. They always are there for you.”

Patricia Kelvin of Poland, Ohio, said her Social Security benefits and pension can only go so far, so when the cost of utilities, food or trash collection go up, she has to cut back.

But not for her cat, Jesse.

“If he had some major medical concern, there are a lot of things I would give up so he would get care,” she said. “There’s just no question in my mind. If my diet was going to be more beans than something else, I wouldn’t hesitate. If I had to sell my sterling silver, which I’ve had for 60 years, that would go before my little ‘Whiskers’ would be deprived.”

The Animal Rescue League of Iowa is the largest nonprofit rescue organization in the Hawkeye State and adopted out 8,400 dogs, cats and small farm animals throughout last year.

As pet support services manager, Josh Fiala’s role at ARL is to help keep animals out of the shelter by offering programs — such as a pet food pantry, vaccine clinics, veterinary assistance and crisis care — to help keep pets with their people.

“We definitely, without question, have seen a dramatic increase in pretty much every one of those services,” he said, noting that the pet food pantry in particular has seen spikes in demand.

ARL gave out about 40,000 pounds of pet food in both 2020 and 2021. Last year, it distributed 146,000 pounds of food.

Waggle, a pet-dedicated crowdfunding platform for medical expenses and emergencies, has seen recent spikes in the volume of postings on its website — with some of the biggest increases coming from pet owners in rural communities and areas with high costs of living, said Steven Mornelli, chief executive officer and founder. Additionally, Waggle has also seen a 30% increase in posting for help with medical bills $250 and under, he told CNN.

“We have taken that as a correlation with the stresses of inflation,” he said.

In 2022, 4% more animals entered shelters than left, according to Shelter Animals Count, a national database of animal shelter statistics launched by some of the largest animal welfare organizations in the United States.

That’s the largest gap seen in the past four years and is the result of fewer pets leaving shelters, not increases in surrenders, said Christa Chadwick, vice president of shelter services at the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.

Adoption levels have remained essentially flat, but there has been a large decline in animals being transferred to other shelters because of staffing and driver shortages, she added.

But she also highlighted the economic pressures affecting current and prospective pet owners.

“It’s heartbreaking to know that there are situations where pet owners are being put in a position where they are making a decision about their pet, whether it’s to surrender that pet to an animal shelter or they have to make a decision about euthanasia because they can’t afford care, she said.

“People tend to get angry at the pet owner when they [abandon or surrender their pet] but our experience has shown that when pet owners get to that point, it’s the only option they see available to them,” Chadwick. “And that’s real, and that’s hard for everybody involved, and that’s really hard for the animal who’s at the center of that.”

Chadwick sees a role for shelters and other organizations to provide a safe and welcoming place for owners who may feel like they have no other option.

Despite the broader economic challenges occurring within the US, PAWS Atlanta’s Labriola has had its share of feel-good success stories this year.

Donations have remained strong as has the volunteer program, he said. The low-cost public vaccination and spay and neuter clinics are sold out, indicating that people are taking advantage of inexpensive ways to care for their pets, he added.

And just recently, the shelter’s focus of working with dogs who have been there for more than a year, or “long-term guests,” is starting to pay off, he said.

“We’ve been able to place three long-termers into forever homes recently, freeing up space to rescue more homeless dogs,” he said.
Shelters, veterinarians and local rescue groups can serve as first points of contact.

The Humane Society of the United States’ website has a variety of resources for people facing financial challenges and need vet care, food, boarding, supplies and information to help keep pets with their families. The website has a list of national, state and local organizations.

Inquire if veterinarians accept Care Credit, ScratchPay or a similar service but be sure to carefully review the terms of repayment and how interest rates would be applied.

Ask if your veterinarian has a client-driven donation fund to help other clients in need; consider fundraising platforms such as Waggle and GoFundMe

Consider purchasing pet health insurance.
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March 19, 2023
Consumer sentiment falls for first time in four months — and that was before Americans knew about SVB

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The numbers: A survey of consumer sentiment slid to 63.4 in March and fell for the first time in four months, reflecting angst among Americans about high inflation and the health of the economy.

The preliminary reading in March was down from 67 in February, the University of Michigan said. Most of the survey was completed before the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank.

Consumer sentiment helps gauge how Americans feel about their own finances as well as the broader economy.

The index had fallen to a record low of 50 last summer before partly rebounding. Sentiment is still well below a recent peak of 88.3 in 2021, however, and a pre-pandemic high of 101.

Inflation expectations tapered off a bit but remained fairly high. Consumers expect prices to increase 3.8% in the next year, down from 4.1% in the prior month. That’s the lowest reading since April 2021.

Key details: A gauge that measures what consumers think about the current state of the economy dropped to 66.4 in March from 70.7in the prior month.

Sentiment fell the most among lower-income and younger Americans who tend to suffer disproportionately from high inflation. Some wealthier people with large stock holdings were also less confident in light of a recent decline in equities.

Another measure that asked about expectations for the next six months declined to 61.5 from a prior 64.7.

Americans think inflation will persist for some time. In the longer run, consumers believe inflation will increase about 2.8% a year, down slightly from 2.9% in the prior month.

That’s still well above the Federal Reserve’s 2% target, however.

Fed officials pay close attention to inflation expectations because they could be a harbinger of future price trends.

The rate of inflation over the past 12 months is 6%, based on the consumer-price index. It’s fallen from a 40-year peak of 9.1% last summer.

Big picture: Consumer sentiment is still far below levels associated with a healthy economy and it’s hard to see a big improvement anytime soon.

The Fed is raising interest rates to tame high inflation, a strategy that typically slows the economy.

Higher rates have also destabilized parts of the U.S. financial system as witnessed by the sudden collapse of Silicon Valley Bank. That’s adding new stress on the economy.

Market reaction: The Dow Jones Industrial Average
DJIA,
-1.19%
and S&P 500
SPX,
-1.10%
fell in Friday trades amid nagging worries about the U.S. financial system after the SVB failure

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March 17, 2023
Inspired by a trip to Indonesia, Snoop Dogg launches new coffee line | CNN Business

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Hong Kong
CNN
—

Rapper and entrepreneur Snoop Dogg is expanding his business empire yet again, this time branching out into a line of premium coffee products with beans sourced locally from Indonesia.

He has partnered with Indonesian coffee entrepreneur Michael Riady to launch INDOxyz: “a premium lifestyle coffee brand created for and inspired by the next generation of entrepreneurs and innovators,” according to a press release sent to CNN.

“My relationship with coffee goes way back,” Snoop Dogg, whose real name is Calvin Broadus, said in the statement. “The many long nights in the studio making hit after hit, coffee provided the fuel which kept us going. Today marks the launch of a new company I created along with my partner Michael, who introduced me to the best tasting Indonesian coffee,” he said. “All it took was one sip and Snoop was hooked.”

Snoop added: “Indo is going to change the industry, I can promise you that,” referring to his coffee brand, which is also a common abbreviation for Indonesia. The country is a top global producer of coffee.

Coffee cultivation began in the late 1600s during the Dutch colonial period. Indonesia produces both Arabica and Robusta beans as well as Kopi Luwak, or civet coffee, a historic yet controversial brew which consists of partially digested coffee berries from civet cats.

Snoop’s coffee beans will be sourced from Gayo, a region in Aceh on the island of Sumatra.

“The Gayo region is renown for producing a high quality Arabica, grown in the lovely mountain basin surrounding Lake Tawar and the town of Takengon,” the statement said.

In addition to releasing more than a dozen studio albums and receiving multiple Grammy nominations as a rapper, Snoop Dogg has been expanding his business empire. The rapper has expanded into pet accessories and a gluten-free cereal called Snoop Loopz.

In 2020, he launched his own wine label. As a vocal cannabis advocate, he has his own line of cannabis products.

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March 16, 2023
Google Glass is being discontinued, again | CNN Business

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New York
CNN
—

Google will no longer sell the latest Enterprise Edition of Google Glass, the company announced this week, effectively killing off an innovative but failed wearable product line from another era that many consumers may have assumed was long gone.

First unveiled in 2013, Google Glass was initially marketed for a general audience, with the promise of giving people access to a computer on their face rather than having to pull out a phone. But the smartglasses were discontinued in 2015 after beta versions failed to gain traction due to its high price tag, clunky design and concerns about privacy.

Google then shifted the focus from consumers to enterprise. The first Enterprise edition of Glass, announced in 2017, was pushed for use in industries such as manufacturing and logistics. The Enterprise Edition 2, released in 2019, was Google’s last attempt at saving the Glass product. But the $999 product failed to catch on.

“Thank you for over a decade of innovation and partnership,” Google wrote on its FAQ page announcing the decision. The company will continue to support the phased out Enterprise Edition until September.

Google did not respond to CNN’s request for comment.

Google’s decision to discontinue the product comes amid cost cuts across the company. Like many of its peers, Google has recently announced plans to lay off thousands in response to recession fears and shifting pandemic demand for digital products.

Still, the dream of Google Glass lives on. Snapchat’s parent company sells Spectacles, another set of smartglasses that has struggled over the years to gain traction. Apple is reportedly working on augmented reality glasses. And even after the setback of Glass, Google said last year it was continuing to test other AR glasses.

“Augmented reality (AR) is opening up new ways to interact with the world around us,” the company said in a blog post last summer. “It can help us quickly and easily access the information we need — like understanding another language or knowing how best to get from point A to point B.”

A decade after Google launched Glass with a similarly ambitious objective, the future is still coming into focus.

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March 16, 2023
Mortgage rates fall in latest week. Freddie Mac cites worries over bank closures, and turmoil in financial markets

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The numbers: Mortgage rates are down for the first time in six weeks, as the U.S. economy deals with bank collapses and an uncertain road ahead.

The 30-year fixed-rate mortgage averaged 6.60% as of March 16, according to data released by Freddie Mac FMCC on Thursday.

That’s down 13 basis points from the previous week — one basis point is…

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March 16, 2023
Dutch to restrict semiconductor tech exports to China, joining US effort | CNN Business

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Amsterdam/Washington
Reuters
—

The Netherlands’ government on Wednesday said it plans new restrictions on exports of semiconductor technology to protect national security, joining the US effort to curb chip exports to China.

The announcement marked the first concrete move by the Dutch, who oversee essential chipmaking technology, toward adopting rules urged by Washington to hobble China’s chipmaking industry and slow its military advances.

The US in October imposed sweeping export restrictions on shipments of American chipmaking tools to China, but for the restrictions to be effective it needs other key suppliers in the Netherlands and Japan, who produce key chipmaking technology, to agree. The allied countries have been in talks on the matter for months.

Dutch Trade Minister Liesje Schreinemacher announced the decision in a letter to parliament, saying the restrictions will be introduced before the summer.

Her letter did not name China, a key Dutch trading partner, nor did it name ASML Holding

(ASML), Europe’s largest tech firm and a major supplier to semiconductor manufacturers, but both will be affected. It specified one technology that will be impacted is “DUV” lithography systems, the second-most advanced machines that ASML sells to computer chip manufacturers.

“Because the Netherlands considers it necessary on national security grounds to get this technology into oversight with the greatest of speed, the Cabinet will introduce a national control list,” the letter said.

A White House representative did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

ASML said in a response it expects to have to apply for licenses to export the most advanced segment among its DUV machines, but that would not impact its 2023 financial guidance.

ASML dominates the market for lithography systems, multimillion dollar machines that use powerful lasers to create the minute circuitry of computer chips.

The company expects sales in China to remain about flat at 2.2 billion euros in 2023, implying relative shrinkage as the company expects overall sales to grow by 25%. Major ASML customers such as TSMC and Intel

(INTC) are engaged in capacity expansions.

ASML has never sold its most advanced “EUV” machines to customers in China, and the bulk of its “DUV” sales in China go to relatively less advanced chipmakers. Its biggest South Korean customers, Samsung

(SSNLF) and SK Hynix both have significant manufacturing capacity in China.

The Dutch announcement leaves major questions unanswered, including whether ASML will be able to service the more than 8 billion euros worth of DUV machines it has sold to customers in China since 2014.

Schreinemacher said the Dutch government had decided on measures “as carefully and precisely as possible … to avoid unnecessary disruption of value chains.”

“It is for companies of importance to know what they are facing and to have time to adjust to new rules,” she wrote.

Japan is expected to issue an update on its chip equipment export policies as soon as this week.

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March 15, 2023
South Korea to build ‘world’s largest’ chip center in greater Seoul with $230 billion investment | CNN Business

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Hong Kong/Seoul
CNN
—

South Korea says it will build an enormous facility to make computer chips in greater Seoul, with about $230 billion in investment from private companies.

“We will build the world’s largest new ‘high-tech system semiconductor cluster’ in the Seoul Metropolitan area based on large-scale private investment of almost 300 trillion Korean won,” President Yoon Suk Yeol said on Wednesday. “In addition, we will grow the ‘semiconductor mega cluster’ to the world’s largest in connection with the existing memory semiconductor manufacturing complexes.”

The Seoul Metropolitan area includes the capital Seoul, neighboring city of Incheon and surrounding Gyeonggi province.

This is a developing story. More to come.

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March 15, 2023
Tyson is laying off nearly 1,700 poultry plant workers | CNN Business

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New York
CNN
—

Tyson is laying off nearly 1,700 workers as it closes two poultry plants in an effort to boost profits.

The company will shutter a chicken processing plant in Glen Allen, Virginia that employs 692 people, as well as one in Van Buren, Arkansas, with 969 employees, on May 12.

The closure decision “[reflects] our broader strategy to strengthen our poultry business by optimizing operations and utilizing the full available capacity at each plant,” a Tyson Foods

(TSN) spokesperson told CNN in an emailTuesday. The scale of the facilities as well as an “inability to economically improve operations has led to the difficult decision to close the facilities,” according to the spokesperson.

Tyson had about 124,000 US employees as of October.

Several companies have been laying off workers amid still-high inflation and fears of a recession, many of those workers in the tech sector. In this case, Tyson is pointing to weakness in its poultry operations.

Tyson, a major meat and poultry processor, mentioned problems in its chicken business during a February analyst call discussing the company’s most recent quarterly results.

In the three months ending on December 31, “demand didn’t appear in the parts of the market where we had expected,” Tyson CEO Donnie King said on the call. “As a result, we had to move things around.” That led to higher costs and lower prices, he added.

“As we think about moving forward, efficiency in our operations in our company will be the focal point for us,” he said.

The company has been shaking up that part of the business amid broader turnover.

Tyson announced Wes Morris as the new head of its poultry business in January. Morris, a long-time employee of the company, left Tyson in 2017 and had since consulted for its poultry business. He replaced David Bray, the previous poultry president, who had just stepped into that role in 2021 -— the same year that Tyson reported its chicken volumes were low because of breeding issues.

Also in 2021, King became CEO, replacing the previous chief executive Dean Banks, who had been at the helm for under a year. Tyson also tapped a new head of its fresh meats division in December.

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March 14, 2023
China censors women modeling lingerie on livestream shopping — so men are doing it | CNN Business

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Hong Kong
CNN
—

Donning a sassy piece of silk lingerie, a male model grooves to the beat and forms a heart shape with his fingers during a livestreaming session on Douyin, one of China’s most popular video-sharing platforms.

His modeling performance is the latest illustration of the kind of entrepreneurial innovation sometimes needed to bypass China’s rigorous internet censorship, a dragnet that can ensnare seemingly innocuous activities – in this case retailers selling women’s underwear online.

China deploys one of the world’s most stringent censorship regimes, with a track record of blocking out not just politically sensitive information but images of women’s bodies deemed marginally racy.

Several businesses specializing in selling lingerie through livestreaming have had their sessions cut short after they featured a female model and their brush with internet censorship came to light in January.

Hence the use of men instead.

On one of the sales channels, a man is seen dressed in black lingerie, standing next to a mannequin showing a similar outfit, in what appears to be a screenshot of a livestream broadcast on Alibaba

(BABA)’s Taobao Live, a streaming platform for the e-commerce giant.

In another image, a different male model put on a pink slip dress and silky shawl, accessorized with cat ear headbands.

In one livestream clip, carried by multiple state media outlets, an owner of an online venture said he was simply trying to play it safe.

“This is not an attempt at sarcasm. Everyone is being very serious about complying with the rules,” the man, who identified himself as Mr Xu, said.

The emergence of male lingerie models has caused mixed views online in China, from merriment and annoyance to reluctant acceptance.

“So what should I do if I want to promote and showcase lingerie in the live broadcast session? It’s very simple, find a man to wear it,” read one comment on China’s microblogging site Weibo.

Livestreaming sales of products is a multibillion-dollar industry in mainland China, and was given a major boost during the three years of the country’s strict Covid lockdowns that battered many bricks and mortar businesses.

As of June last year, the number of livestreaming e-commerce users in mainland China is over 460 million, according to the Academy of China Council for the Promotion of International Trade, a body affiliated with Beijing’s commerce ministry.

A 2021 report by iResearch, a Beijing-based firm specializing in measuring audience growth online, predicted the livestream sector would be worth as much as $720 billion this year.

Male models are not the only workaround.

On Douyin, the Chinese domestic version of TikTok, other female models have circumvented the censorship by showcasing the latest style of lingerie on themselves on top of a t-shirt they are already wearing.

Others displayed the items on mannequins.

In 2015, China led a crackdown on television shows exposing actresses’ cleavage, forcing some of the most popular costume dramas to zoom in on their faces to avoid getting into trouble with the broadcast authorities.

Having male influencers promoting female-oriented products is not new in China, either.

One of the industry’s most successful livestream shopping influencers is Austin Li Jiaqi, who made his name as the “Lipstick King” after selling 15,000 lipsticks in just five minutes in 2018.

As one of China’s biggest internet celebrities, Li also peddles cosmetics, skincare products and fashion apparel, often applying products he’s selling to his own face.

Even outside of China, platforms such as Facebook and Instagram have faced criticism for restricting the sharing of images involving partial nudity, especially of women.

Facebook and Instagram’s parent company, Meta, restricts the sharing of breasts, although it says it intends “to allow images that are shared for medical or health purposes.” But even Meta’s own Oversight Board has called on the company to make its policy less confusing and more gender inclusive.

YouTube says it prohibits “the depiction of clothed or unclothed genitals, breasts, or buttocks that are meant for sexual gratification,” but it may age-restrict other images or videos involving nudity.

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March 13, 2023
Camp toy store pleads for help after Silicon Valley Bank collapse | CNN Business

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New York
CNN
—

A toy company based in New York has gotten caught up in the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank and is pleading with customers for help keeping it afloat.

Camp, a venture-backed retailer, sent an email to customers Friday announcing it was slashing prices and would use sales to help fund its continued operations after much of its money was tied up in the bank failure.

“Unfortunately, we had most of our company’s cash assets at a bank which just collapsed. I’m sure you’ve heard the news,” co-founder Ben Kaufman said in an email to customers.

He urged customers to use the code “BANKRUN” to save 40% off all merchandise, in an apparent nod to the run on the bank that may have helped bring down the Silicon Valley lender. Camp also said customers could pay full price, which it said would be appreciated.

Kaufman said the company was “hopeful that this will be resolved soon.”

CNN has not confirmed if Camp had funds with Silicon Valley Bank when the bank collapsed.

Silicon Valley Bank was put under control of the US Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation on Friday, capping off a stunning 48 hour period during which fears of a liquidity crisis at the firm prompted some startups to weigh withdrawing funds.

The sudden collapse of the Silicon Valley lender has pushed tech investors and startups to scramble to figure out their financial exposure to the bank, with founders worrying about getting their money out, making payroll and covering operating expenses.

The rapidly unfolding fallout at Silicon Valley Bank comes at a challenging moment for startup and tech industries. Rising interest rates have eroded the easy access to capital that helped fuel soaring startup valuations and funded ambitious, money-losing projects.

Kaufman, a former BuzzFeed executive, founded Camp in 2018. It has nine stores in California, Connecticut, Massachusetts, New York, New Jersey and Texas.

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March 11, 2023
SVB Financial bonds sink to 31 cents on the dollar after failure of Silicon Valley Bank

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Heavy trading in SVB Financial Group’s
SIVB,

debt pulled its BBB-rated 10-year bonds as low as 31 cents on the dollar on Friday after subsidiary Silicon Valley Bank was closed by regulators, marking the biggest bank failure since the financial crisis.

The Santa Clara, Calif.–based financial-services company has been reeling in recent days, with both its stock and bond prices hit hard, after it on Thursday disclosed a $1.8 billion loss from a sale of about $21 billion in securities.

Its bond prices lost further ground Friday after the California Department of Financial Protection and Innovation closed Silicon Valley Bank, placing the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. in control of its assets.

Silicon Valley Bank had an estimated $209 billion in total assets and about $175.4 billion in deposits as of Dec. 31, according to the FDIC.

SVB Financial’s 4.57% bonds due April 2023 traded as low as 31 cents on the dollar on Friday in heavy trading, according to BondCliq. Since the low, the debt traded up to 38.50 cents. A week ago it was fetching 90 cents. Prices on U.S. corporate bonds below 70 cents on the dollar are broadly considered distressed.

Worries about distress at Silicon Valley Bank, and potential risks in the broader distress in the banking system, have weighed on shares and the debt of financial companies.

Bonds in the financial sector were broadly under pressure Friday, including debt issued by Bank of America Corp.
BAC,
-0.97%,
JPMorgan Chase and Co.
JPM,
+2.70%,
Goldman Sachs Group Inc.
GS,
-3.69%,
Morgan Stanley
MS,
-1.56%
and other major banks, according to BondCliq.

Shares of the Invesco KBW Bank ETF
KBWB,
-3.26%
were down 16% on the week through midday Friday, with some investors expressing concern about potential cracks in the financial system following a year of aggressive interest-rate hikes by the Federal Reserve.

Barclays analysts said Friday that they viewed the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank as an “isolated event, but that it still “raises risks of broader distress within the banking system” that could throw cold water on talk of a Fed interest-rate hike in March of 50 basis points vs. 25 basis points.

“Indeed, the possibility of capital losses at other institutions cannot be completely dismissed, with rising policy rates raising banks’ funding costs, more elevated longer-term rates exerting pressure on asset valuations, and potential loan losses related to idiosyncratic credit exposures.”

Shares of SBV Financial were halted Friday, but they are down about 54% on the year, according to FactSet. The S&P 500 index
SPX,
-1.11%
was down about 1.2% Friday afternoon, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average
DJIA,
-0.82%
fell 0.8% and the Nasdaq Composite
COMP,
-1.47%
was 1.7% lower.

Deep Dive: 10 banks that may face trouble in the wake of the SVB Financial Group debacle

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March 10, 2023
SunnyD Vodka Seltzer will officially be sold in stores | CNN Business

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New York
CNN
—

SunnyD, the flavorful orange drink chugged from childhood by millennials, is embracing one of its more collegial cocktail combinations.

There’s now a vodka seltzer version of the drink that was created because of “popular demand,” the brand said. SunnyD Vodka Seltzer becomes the latest entrant into the canned cocktail craze that has customers thirsting for flavor-packed adult beverages over their malt-based seltzer siblings.

The vodka seltzer is 4.5 percent alcohol by volume, has 0 grams of sugar and only 95 calories. But there’s not actual SunnyD in the drink, rather the company said it has the “same great orange taste” as SunnyD that uses “real fruit juice and natural ingredients.”

SunnyD was first developed in 1963, but later boomed in popularity in the 1990s garnering it a loyal fan base because of its tangy orange flavor that is likened to a much sweeter tasting (and sugar packed) version of regular orange juice. SunnyD was sold to Harvest Hill Beverage Company in 2017, the privately owned manufacturer of Juicy Juice, with sales of the orange drink growing more than 30% since 2019.

“Consumers are passionate about this iconic brand, rooted in nostalgia but with a taste that resonates today,” said Ilene Bergenfeld, chief marketing officer of Harvest Hill, in a release. “Many have told us that they enjoy SunnyD as a mixer and asked for this product. So, we looked at the hard seltzer category, and thought, good, but we can do better.”

SunnyD Vodka Seltzer is sold in single cans for $1.99 and in a 4-pack of 12-ounce slim cans for $9.99. It hit shelves beginning Saturday at some Walmart stores.

Fruit juice-based drinks are growing in popularity in the alcohol industry. Simply Spiked recently expanded its lineup beyond lemonade to add a peach flavor, Bud Light Seltzer is using fruit juice for the first time in its new flavors and NÜTRL, a Anheuser-Busch brand, has seen sales of its vodka seltzer drink mixed with fruit juice, explode over the past year.

In total, sales of premixed cocktails grew 42% last year to $1.6 billion, according to Distilled Spirits Council of the US because drinkers are loving the new flavors and convenience they offer.

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March 10, 2023