That’s how Microsoft and Amazon will change the futuristic supermarket

Amazon became this Monday for the first time in history in the most valuable company on the planet after unseating Microsoft on the world throne. The company founded and headed by Jeff Bezos achieved a market capitalization of 797,780 million dollars -697,000 million euros- after advancing in the day yesterday more than 3%.

In this way, it surpassed Bill Gates' signature, which remains with a market value of about 784,000 million dollars -685,000 million euros-; and it is far from Apple, which if recently exceeded the level of one billion dollars, something that then Amazon would also do, today is worth 702,000 million - some 614,000 million -, 37% less.

In any case, Amazon also drops 20% from maximums. We may not hear your name too loud here, but Kroger is one of the largest supermarket chains in the United States. The company announced an alliance with Microsoft, in order to give life to "the store of the future".

Amazon has risen to first place thanks to its own and external factors. For its part, the one that emerged as an online bookstore in 1994 uses the pull of American consumption and the advancement of its business in the cloud ( cloud ), as well as the success of products such as the Alexa assistant or the entertainment platform Prime.

We see in the tweet, the supermarket chain dares to threaten Amazon (in a way), telling them to "take note" of what they are proposing. This "futuristic" proposal is now available in two stores of the chain, each one is close to the headquarters of each company: Monroe (Ohio) and Redmond.
In addition, the panels that include these smart shelves (EDGE Shelf) will be responsible for showing the publicity and thus use this space to generate money renting this space to brands. Kroger seeks to combine its experience in the world of physical stores with the knowledge that Microsoft has in artificial intelligence, the cloud and the Internet of things.

On the other hand, the commercial war and the global slowdown can weigh more heavily on its technological rivals, those with whom the most valuable signature site is disputed. In the case of Apple, the profit warning launched last week by lower income in China, which came to sink 10% in a single session, continues to alarm investors, who even see it as the sign that the global consumption is going down. The supermarket has an application in which we can create a shopping list. When we enter the store the app will guide us and the shelves will show an icon (chosen by the user) with which to find more easily the product we are looking for.

All in all, Bezos, 54, consolidates himself as the richest man in the world, with a fortune of 112,000 million dollars -98,000 million euros-, according to the real-time ranking of Forbes'. With the latest push on the stock market, the company has seen its fortune increase by 4,300 million dollars. we see Microsoft and Kroger seek to update the shopping experience in physical stores, showing personalized advertising and alerting the customer if an item on your list is no longer in stock.

The success or failure of the two stores that are already operational will be crucial to continue updating the stores in the near future.

Uber will gain 100,000 drivers in Chile by 2019

The Uber executive director, Dara Khosrowshahi, said during his visit to Chile that the number of drivers of the private transport firm will rise from 70,000 to 100,000 in 2019.

For this reason, the company will encourage both women and seniors to register for the platform.

The executive explained that he wanted to know Chile "because it is one of the 10 most important markets in the world for Uber." He also said that "I wanted to meet our driving partners, our users, and the local team, to know what we are doing well and how we can keep improving.”

On the other hand, Khosrowshahi announced that during this year the platform will expand throughout the national territory. In this sense, that implies that the firm will arrive in Ayes, the only region that had no coverage so far.

On the other hand, in statements to Radio ADN, the CEO criticized the attempts to establish a regulation in the sector. "We believe they are regulations that have been designed to bring the country 20 years ago in terms of controls. We believe that these are important for technology and also for mobility, but they should definitely be clear, fair and create environments for entrepreneurs to emerge and not be excluded, "he said.

Definitely, the considerable increase to 100,000 drivers within a year will become another conflictive point in the dispute that since the arrival of Uber has been generated between this model of transport and the traditional Chilean taxi drivers.

US chain Sears will close more stores

On the verge of bankruptcy, the US chain Sears will close another 80 stores

The establishments will be added to the 182 that are already programmed to stop operating. The company filed for bankruptcy in October and on Friday the deadline to receive offers to purchase its remaining businesses expired in order to avoid a total liquidation.

The iconic US store Sears will close 80 additional stores as it teeters on the brink of bankruptcy and expects a saving offer for the purchase of the remaining assets of the company.The retailer, once the largest department store chain in the United States, set Friday as the deadline to receive purchase offers from its remaining stores in order to avoid closing altogether.

The chain, which began as a sales catalog by mail in the 1880s, has been immersed in a slow downward spiral towards bankruptcy, affected by the Great Recession and later overwhelmed by its competitors, both physical and online.

The 80 stores will close in March, added to the 182 stores that are already scheduled for closure, including 142 by the end of 2018 and 40 more by February. The company filed for bankruptcy in October, signaling at that time that it would close more than 20% of its premises and only keep its 500 most profitable establishments active.

Sears Holdings Corp., which also manages Kmart, joins a list of retail brands absorbed by hedge funds that fell apart under the weight of the debts imposed on them. Sears has gained time by getting rid of some stores and selling iconic brands like Craftsman.

Lampert, the company's president, and main shareholder loaned out his own money and made agreements to keep the company afloat and deliver any profits he could get to the ESL risk fund. Lampert and ESL have been trying to buy the rest of Sears for up to 4,600 million dollars in cash and shares, which for many is the only chance to save the company.

Dow is going to recover after a loss

After the collapse on Wall Street because of renewed fears of the recession on Wednesday, investors on the European stock exchanges went to diving. By the afternoon, the Dax lost 0.7 percent to 11,255 points, the EuroStoxx50 also fell. By contrast, the car values ​​were slightly better.

After the statements of Trump contradict those of his own staff, the stockbrokers slowly realize that no one knows exactly what had been agreed between China and the US at the G20 summit in Buenos Aires, said market analyst Milan Cvetkovic of AxiTrader. "Even though the hope that the trade dispute will be off the table at least in the short term prevails, the topic is likely to leave the stock market busy for some time due to uncertainties."

After the meeting of German motorists with US President Donald Trump and other representatives of the government in Washington, some investors relied on a relaxation in the European-American trade conflict. The US stock exchanges remained closed because of a state action for ex-president George Bush, who died on the weekend. On Tuesday, the Dow Jones had lost a good three percent.

"Uncertainty is moving back into the focus of investors," said Expert Salah Bouhmidi of the analyst DailyFX. "Too many risk fronts intimidate market participants and leave only a few to dream of a year-end rally." Brexit, Crimea crisis and the dispute over the disarmament treaty between the US and Russia pushed the mood. Against this background, some investors in Frankfurt headed for the "safe haven" Bunds. Their purchases pushed the 10-year yield to a six-month low of 0.242 percent.

Investors were also concerned about the convergence of short and long-dated US bond yields. Stockbrokers speak of an "inverse yield curve" when short-dated bonds yield more returns than long-dated bonds. This usually announced a recession in the past.

Economic worries on Wall Street

With a worried expression, investors also looked to London. There, the British Prime Minister Theresa May conceded two slippers in the lower house. Among other things, MEPs secured a say in the next steps should the Brexit deal negotiated with the EU fail in the vote scheduled for 11 December. As the parliamentarians on this issue are hopelessly divided, the risk of a disorderly Brexit without a contract on the future relationship between the UK and the EU, warned Commerzbank analyst Thu Lan Nguyen. The pound sterling remained at $ 1.2770, in line with its monthly low of $ 1.2661.

The visit of the bosses of German carmakers with US involvement in Washington in the face of Trump's customs threats caused a lot of talks. Volkswagen, BMW, and Daimler announced after a peak meeting on Tuesday with government officials in greater commitment in the US. At the round, Trump also participated at times. The shares of the three major German carmakers, however, made up only a small part of their losses on Tuesday and rose by about half a percent each. The biggest winner in the Dax was Bayer with a plus of 1.3 percent. The pharmaceutical and agribusiness group should be more geared towards returns. Already last week, Bayer had announced plans to reduce its global workforce to around 12,000 by the end of 2021 to a total of 118,000 jobs.

DOW-FLASH: US leading index loses around 2 percent

In addition, Brexit also weighed on sentiment after British Prime Minister Theresa May suffered a major defeat at the start of deliberations in the British House of Commons. In any case, May will have little chance of reaching a majority for their agreement on Britain's exit from the EU in the planned vote on December 11 in parliament.

From an industry perspective, insurers' papers, in particular, were under pressure to sell. Traders cut back the losses, particularly on low-interest rates on longer-dated bonds in the US bond market. Allianz papers were at a discount of 2.3 percent at the Dax end. The prices of Munich Re (Munich Reinsurance Company) and Hannover Re each fell by around 1.8 percent.

It was even better for the shares of Bayer. They recovered in the course of their initial losses and noted as Dax leaders recently 1.2 percent firmer. CFO Wolfgang Nickl announced further dividend increases and possible share buybacks. In addition, following the acquisition of Monsanto, the pharmaceutical and agrochemical group wants to accelerate its revenue and earnings growth by 2022 and reduce its high debt levels.

In the bond market, the current yield fell from 0.15 percent the day before to 0.11 percent. The bond index Rex (REX Total Price Index) rose by 0.17 percent to 141.83 points. The Bund Future lost 0.14 percent to 162.03 points. The euro last traded at $ 1, 1357.

The bubble of Bitcoin explodes in a big way

The bitcoin, the first and main decentralized virtual currency, yesterday lost the level of $ 5,000, after collapsing 12% something that had not been seen since it began its takeoff in October 2017.

Bitcoin lost value because this morning sinks more than 4% and goes to $ 4,500, which signifies a bearish run of eight sessions in which collapsed 30%.The selling panic hits other cryptocurrencies, such as Ethereum, which sinks more than 15%, or Litecoin, which drops 12%.

It is difficult to determine the reason for this sudden fall but it has much to do with a bifurcation or separation ('hard fork' in the jargon) in bitcoin cash that took place last Thursday, and that faces, on the one hand, the Australian Craig Wright ( self-proclaimed as Satoshi Nakamoto, the creator of bitcoin) and on the other the giant Bitmain and investor Roger Ver (nicknamed 'Bitcoin Jesus' for his adherence to orthodox rules).

That is to say, in the end, there will be two bifurcations of bitcoin cash; on the one hand 'bitcoin cash ABC', supported by Ver, and 'bitcoin cash SV', promoted by Wright. It is more than anything a technical dispute between both factions, whose differences are insurmountable, a conflict that in turn will give rise to two different versions of bitcoin cash, weaker a priori than the original.

what some traders speculate is that many investors in bitcoin would be trying to accumulate funds in cash by selling the cryptocurrency, to buy in due time one of the two versions of bitcoin cash, in anticipation that they will appreciate in the future, which would explain the crash

Bitcoin, below $ 5,000 on a roller coaster that continues to plummet

That has returned to happen in recent days and especially in the last hours in which a bitcoin is worth less than $ 5,000. At the moment it is below $ 4,500, and the rest of cryptocurrencies also fall significantly. There are no clear reasons behind these new falls, and once again it is impossible to predict if the value will continue to fall or will go back at some point.

Bitcoin keeps hitting bottom again and again

Bitcoin was not seen in these values ​​since October 2017, but at that time the value did not stop rising and on these dates, the opposite happens. The falls affect the rest of the market, and at this time the vast majority of cryptocurrency fall between 15% and 20% compared to its value the previous day.

Coin Desk remind, perhaps to try to reassure those who invested in these virtual currencies, that these remarkable falls are not entirely strange in this segment: "in 2013 the price of BTC grew to a historical record of 1,163 dollars only to fall by under 160 dollars a year later, at that time litecoin (LTC), which today is the seventh most important cryptocurrency, fell from 50 dollars to something more than 1 dollar ".

Another reason that may explain the sinking has to do with the news that was released on Friday about the SEC, the regulator of the US markets, which has announced its first two fines against two cryptocurrency companies that did not register their initial quotation offers ( known as ICOs) as if they were offers of securities.

The companies in question are Airfox and Paragon Coin, who will have to pay a fine of $ 250,000. The speculation is that, once the ban is opened, the SEC could go against more of these companies, which would then be liquidating their holdings of cryptocurrency to change them in cash before the market regulator falls on them with more sanctions.

Was the December rally a manipulation?

As if that was not enough, today it was just known that the US Department of Justice would be investigating if the epic rally that took place at the end of last year could be partly due to a manipulation of the prices through a plot that would involve to the Bitfinex broker and to the popular but controversial cryptocurrency Tether.

Bitfinex has the same managers as Tether and what the prosecutors suspect is that these Tether cryptocurrencies could have been used to buy bitcoin just at times when the famous digital currency suffered more falls, reports Bloomberg. All these extremes have not been confirmed by the Department of Justice, so the agency clarifies that the investigation could be concluded without determining whether or not there was any illegal behavior.

The bitcoin is approaching the anniversary of its record sunk in new lows

The bitcoin's price had threatened with a stability that was far from the extreme volatility that has characterized its course in recent times. Since last June, its price has remained, with ups and downs, around $ 6,000. In the last week, a bearish trickle began that undermined the level of the 6,000 dollars, until the point of putting in danger, in the session of yesterday, the barrier of the 5,000 dollars.

Today's session not only extends bitcoin's falls. Sales accelerate and cause a collapse that reaches 15% at times.

Bitcoin loses 75% of its value in less than a year

A generalized decline that started last week very abruptly. After a period of stability of several months in which the value of bitcoin was around 6,500 dollars, in just one week the cryptocurrency has lost 2,000 dollars in its price. A strong loss that coincides with the bad day that the different stock exchanges around the world live on Tuesday.

Some analysts recently pointed to a decline in interest in this asset, whose trade volumes in October fell to their lowest level in a year according to the specialized magazine Diar. Compared to its value in mid-December, when it temporarily reached $ 19,500, the bitcoin has lost almost 75% of its value. The bitcoin was only worth a few cents when it was launched in February 2009 by one or several computer scientists who hide under the pseudonym of Satoshi Nakamoto. In 2017, it went from about $ 1,000 in January to almost 20,000 by the end of the year.

The latest developments highlighted in this section come from Switzerland. The country marks the passage to a global regulation with one of the most severe restrictions proposed up to the moment on cryptocurrencies.

Dia in Argentina having the stores bought from Walmart

After just over a month since it acquired a dozen stores located in Buenos Aires (Argentina) to the US multinational Walmart, the Spanish chain of supermarkets DIA has opened the first of these supermarkets, which will happen the rest of openings as throughout the month of October. 

The transaction, communicated at the end of August by Walmart, responds to DIA's objective of growing in the proximity business in the Patagonian country since the package of establishments acquired is part of this format.

Specifically, the chain was made with six stores of the 'Walmart Supermarket' line, with an average area of ​​650 m², and another six under the 'Changomás Express' logo, whose sales room is around 250 m² in average. As DIA has confirmed to Alimarket, the larger establishments will be converted to the 'Maxi Ahorro' banner, the Argentine equivalent of the Spanish 'Dia Maxi', while the other six will start to show the 'Dia Market' logo.

Close to a thousand stores

With this operation, whose amount has not been disclosed but the local media figures in the environment of 1 M $, DIA reaches 400 stores in the city of Buenos Aires and approaches one thousand establishments throughout the country. Specifically, it has 964 points of sale in the Argentine market, in which it plans to reach, according to its 2017 report, the 1,100 stores on the horizon of 2020. 

As of June 30, 2018, the company had 952 supermarkets in the country, distributed among 650 franchises and 302 of its own, which represents a total of 67 establishments more than in the same period of the previous year. This commercial fabric entailed, on the indicated date, a sales room of 251,300 m2, compared to the 238,700 m2 it managed in the previous period.

This expansion contrasts with the results of the chain in the country. As announced in the presentation of results of the first semester Ricardo Currás, CEO of DIA until last August, "Argentina has experienced a large depreciation of the currency in the second quarter of 2018. In this context, our business is strengthened every day, gaining market share and operating profit growth. 

"In this sense, gross sales in local currency grew by 22.9% in the first half of the year, with a growth of 23.5% in the second quarter of the exercise, driven, according to the company "by inflation in food during the second quarter, while the contribution derived from new space remains at intermediate rates of one digit ". In euros, net sales stood at 563.1 M € at the end of the first half, 19.7% below the 701.3 M obtained in the first six months of 2017. 

Changes in shareholders

In another vein, in recent days, various changes have been made to the shareholder of the listed group, as recorded in the records of the Securities Market Commission (CNMV). Thus, the Letter one Investment fund, in which the Russian billionaire Mikhail Fridman participates, has raised its stake to 29%, which places Fridman on the edge of the OPA, since, according to current market legislation, an OPA for 100% of the company when the shareholding is at 30%.

This possibility of OPA has triggered, in turn, new movements of the investment funds present in the capital of the listed company. On the one hand, the US investment bank Goldman Sachs has raised its stake to 15.79% of the capital.

This package is divided between 1.51% indirect participation (9.42 M shares) and 14.27% through financial instruments. In turn, the Norwegian Bank Norges Bank has increased its stake in the company from 4.92% to 5.28%. Likewise, it distributes its percentage between 2.73% directly (17 M shares) and 2.54% through financial instruments.