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The Commerzbank Chief said it was also a change of narrative compared with the messaging in February

Commerzbank CBK 2.15%increase; green up pointing triangle Chief Executive Bettina Orlopp said she was surprised by UniCredit’s UCG 1.94%increase; green up pointing triangle decision to launch a bid for the German bank, partly because of what she called the low price of the offer.

Orlopp’s comments came a day after UniCredit—Commerzbank’s largest shareholder with a roughly 30% stake—said it would offer to buy all the shares in the German bank it doesn’t already own, but that its move aimed to increase its holding above 30% with no expectation to result in majority control. UniCredit said it expected the exchange ratio of its offer to value Commerzbank at 30.8 euros a share, or 34.7 billion euros ($39.93 billion).

“It was a surprise because it was, again, a change of narrative when you compare it to the February messaging,” Orlopp said Tuesday at a Morgan Stanley conference in London. “The other surprising thing in relation to it is the offer itself, because it is at a very low price if you compare it to our target prices.”

Commerzbank shares were up 1.4% at 32.60 euros in European afternoon trading Tuesday, having closed 8.6% higher on Monday.

Orlopp said Commerzbank would discuss a proposal with UniCredit if it got one and would recommend it if the proposal made sense, but that the bank was focused on its standalone strategy in absence of that proposal.

“We need something in our hands. One would expect that someone who has moved now so far has something in the drawer which they can share with us,” she said. “That is the ask which we have.”

UniCredit didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

Chanel, Dior, Prada, Gucci, Bottega Veneta and Fendi were among the fashion brands showing the hottest fall 2026 shoes, bags and accessories, according to buyers.

PARIS — It appears to be Matthieu Blazy’s world at the moment.

It looks like the Chanel mania sparked earlier this month when Blazy’s debut collection for the brand hit stores is nowhere near slowing down. Just when many customers and industry insiders queued outside the Chanel store in Paris — and subsequently its outposts in London and New York — to try to get their hands on pieces of the spring 2026 line, Blazy paraded a sophomore ready-to-wear collection for fall that could build on the frenzy.

Buyers were quick to list the brand’s fall 2026 show as among the highlights of the season, confirming Blazy’s talent in bringing a sense of desirability back in a tired fashion landscape. The designer’s way of leveraging the house’s prowess in craftsmanship by infusing it with refreshing levity and joy is mirroring and fueling a shift in consumer behavior. Consumers seem inclined to leave the quiet luxury days behind, especially when it comes to accessories, which have always been the entry to luxury brands.

A bolder attitude and wish to express a sense of individuality is gaining heat, as also signaled by the likes of Dior, Prada, Bottega Veneta and Fendi, to cite a few. Cue the overall textural richness, exotic skins, animal prints and pops of color that infiltrated the accessories arena during the fashion marathon, adding to the more familiar soft suedes and leather silhouettes that form the pillars of everyday looks.

“Customers are increasingly drawn to accessories that feel new, distinctive and conversation-starting,” said Tiffany Hsu, chief buying and group fashion venture officer at Mytheresa. “There is a clear appetite for pieces that add personality to an outfit, whether through texture, proportion or unexpected design details. Compared to last season, the demand for individuality and standout items has become even more pronounced.”

“Customers are starting to feel that a new trend is coming: less minimal and less sporty,” echoed Maud Pupato, buying director for luxury womenswear, accessories and footwear at Printemps. “We feel the request for embossed croco, gold details, smaller shapes. Accessories are the right pieces to differentiate, which is a major behavior trend in the future. Safety is no longer to buy the same must-have items. Now the point is to invest in singularity and uniqueness.”

Victoria Dartigues, buying director for women’s ready-to-wear and accessories at Galeries Lafayette, confirmed there’s “a clear shift toward more expressive styling and statement accessories, rather than purely minimal or quiet luxury pieces” compared to last season.

“Customers are increasingly looking for impactful accessories that can transform a simple outfit. Rather than investing in full runway looks, many prefer to play with accessories to recreate the spirit of a collection,” she said. “These details give styling tips to women who may not invest in a full branded look but enjoy experimenting with their reflection in the mirror. Accessories therefore become the entry point to the brand universe.”

Accessories also helped fuel the conversation around what it means to be sexy in 2026. From killer stilettos and pointy slingbacks to knee-high boots and loafers, there were many takes on the theme, suggesting the interpretation of sensuality now lies in the hands — and feet — of women, rather than the diktats of designers.

“We’re excited to see feminine, dressed‑up accessories resonate with our customer,” said Linda Cui Zhang, accessories fashion director at Nordstrom. “From higher heels to polished loafers and flats, the trend in footwear steps up to the occasion. Bag designs for the modern woman, like clutches and shoulder bags, add organization to the work tote and transition for going out. Belts accent the waist and feminine silhouette — we’re energized by the new animations in this category and look forward to sharing with our customer.”

For Bloomingdale’s fashion director Marissa Galante Frank, “novelty details are driving across all accessories,” as she cited customers embracing newness also in “oversize aviator sunglasses, silk scarves and elevated beaded jewelry — all pieces that help express personal style.”

Nvidia’s version of OpenClaw could solve its biggest problem: security

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang thinks every company should have an OpenClaw strategy. And Nvidia is here to provide it.

Nvidia has developed NemoClaw, an enterprise-grade AI agent platform, Huang announced during his GTC keynote on Monday. The platform is built on top of OpenClaw, the popular open-source framework for building and running AI agents locally on a company’s own hardware.

The new open source platform is essentially OpenClaw with enterprise-grade security and privacy features baked in. The idea is to turn OpenClaw into a secure platform that enterprises can tap into with one command, giving them control over how agents behave and handle data, according to Nvidia.

“For the CEOs, the question is, what’s your OpenClaw strategy?” Huang said onstage. “We need it. We all have a Linux strategy. We all needed to have an HTTP HTML strategy, which started the internet. We all needed to have a Kubernetes strategy, which made it possible for mobile cloud to happen. Every company in the world today needs to have an OpenClaw strategy, an agentic systems strategy.”

Nvidia worked with OpenClaw’s creator Peter Steinberger to develop NemoClaw, Huang said.

Once released, NemoClaw users will be able to tap any coding agent or open-source AI model, including Nvidia’s NemoTron open models to build and deploy AI agents. The platform allows users to access cloud-based models on their local devices. The platform is hardware agnostic — it doesn’t need to run on Nvidia’s own GPUs — and integrates with NeMo, Nvidia’s AI agent software suite.

For now, Nvidia is describing NemoClaw as an early-stage alpha release. “Expect rough edges. We are building toward production-ready sandbox orchestration, but the starting point is getting your own environment up and running,” the company stated on its website in a note directed toward developers.

Building enterprise AI agent platforms has become the du jour obsession of the AI space in recent months.

OpenAI launched Frontier, its open platform for enterprises to build and manage AI agents, in February. In December, global research firm Gartner released a report about how governance platforms for AI agents would be the crucial infrastructure needed for enterprises to adopt the AI tech. Nvidia clearly got the message.

“OpenClaw gave us, gave the industry exactly what it needed at exactly the time,” Huang said. “Just as Linux gave the industry exactly what it needed at exactly the time, just as Kubernetes showed up at exactly the right time, just as HTML showed up. It made it possible for the entire industry to grab on to this open source stack and go do something with it.”

Markets left with ‘few places to hide’ from disruption caused by conflict

Investors have piled into cash at the fastest rate since the Covid pandemic, as the war in Iran and worries over private credit puncture a previously bullish mood in markets.

Average cash holdings in portfolios rose to 4.3 per cent of assets under management in March, up from 3.4 per cent in February and the biggest monthly jump since March 2020, according to a closely watched survey of fund managers by Bank of America.

The figures mark a sharp reversal since January, when cash levels were at a record low of 3.2 per cent, signalling investors’ positive outlook for stocks, boosted by hopes of economic growth.

But stocks and government bonds have tumbled since the US-Israeli bombardment of Iran began on February 28, amid fears that disruption to oil supplies and rising energy prices could dent global growth and cause an inflation shock that deters central banks from cutting interest rates.

“There are few places to hide from this near-term supply shock,” wrote BlackRock analysts on Tuesday.

Michiel Plakman, head of global equity at asset manager Robeco, said investors were “coming to grips” with the prospect of a prolonged war that would “put a dent in markets”.

The Stoxx Europe 600 index has dropped more than 5 per cent since the start of the conflict, reversing most of its gains so far this year as Brent crude rose above $100 a barrel. The blue-chip S&P 500 index — which had been underperforming indices outside the US before the war began — is down 2.6 per cent over the same period.

Concerns about weaknesses in private credit, exacerbated by last month’s software sell-off, have added to investors’ bearishness.

Seema Shah, chief global strategist at Principal Asset Management, said that a slowdown in economic growth risked eroding “some of the reassurances that have been propping up the market and stopping investors and investor sentiment getting very negative”.

“I know everyone’s treating this geopolitical conflict quite separate from the other themes that were under way,” such as private credit concerns and AI jitters, she added. “But actually it could end up being quite tied in, if you do get a change to that macro backdrop.”

Long-only funds’ equity exposure is at its lowest level for more than a year, according to Barclays research this week, with funds instead “opting to keep more in cash”.

Government bonds — which investors would typically turn to in a risk-off environment — have also plunged, amid fears that central banks could raise interest rates. Gilts have led the declines, with 10-year yields, which rise as prices fall, rising 0.5 percentage points since the end of February.

The proportion of fund managers expecting the global economy to strengthen over the coming 12 months dropped from almost two-fifths in February to 7 per cent this month, according to the Bank of America survey, while those forecasting higher global inflation in the next year rose from a net 9 per cent to a net 45 per cent.

Investor sentiment — a metric combining cash levels, growth bets and allocations to stocks — fell to a six-month low.

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