FT : The MoonSwatch craze is an Omega ad campaign

The MoonSwatch craze is an Omega ad campaign
The luxury Swiss watch brand needs to borrow a leaf from the book of its old rival Rolex

It was just like old times last weekend, when thousands of people lined up around the world to buy a MoonSwatch. Not since the 1980s and 1990s has the launch of a new Swatch watch created such buzz.

The £207 timepiece they all wanted was Swatch’s tribute to the Omega Speedmaster Moonwatch Professional, as worn by American astronauts including Buzz Aldrin when he walked on the moon in 1969. The MoonSwatch, which comes in 11 colours, is a playful pastiche of a clockwork icon that retails for £4,200 or more.

You need luck to secure a MoonSwatch. The Swatch Group, which owns Swatch and Omega, wants to sell as many as possible and has not made it a limited edition. But it managed the first drops at 110 Swatch stores so tightly that it caused a sensation in London and New York, while police were called to control the crowd in Melbourne.

One-off collaborations between luxury and mass brands are two a penny. Since Isaac Mizrahi’s fashion collection for Target in 2003 and Karl Lagerfeld’s for Hennes & Mauritz in 2004, the playbook has become familiar. This year’s crop includes Yeezy Gap engineered by Balenciaga, Adidas x Prada Re-Nylon and Supreme x Burberry: brands now look lonely by themselves.

The obvious way to view the MoonSwatch, and one that Omega has gently encouraged, is that it has done Swatch a favour by co-operating with the stunt. Luxury watchmakers are better known for trying to eliminate knock-offs than for encouraging imitations, but Swatch could do with a new friend.

“Sad to say, Swatch is an ageing brand that has lost traction among young people,” says Oliver Müller, founder of the Swiss advisory firm LuxeConsult. Swatch used to have a magical ability to conjure attraction to its limited edition plastic watches. The first Swatches were released in Zurich in 1983 and queues outside boutiques were soon common.

Swatches were affordable enough to collect and to match various designs with different outfits. Its collaborations with artists such as Keith Haring and Alfred Hofkunst turned into collectibles: one of a limited edition of 121 Kiki Picasso Swatches sold for $28,000 at Christie’s in 1992.

Swatch also had a deeper purpose. Nicholas Hayek, Swatch’s co-founder, rescued the Swiss industry from the “quartz crisis” of the 1970s, when Japanese quartz watches overtook cheap mechanical devices. The Swatch Group not only turned Swatch into its fashion alternative, but consolidated manufacturing of smaller brands that were facing extinction.

Fashion and technologies change, and today’s threat to Swiss watches that sell for $500 or less is the smartwatch, particularly Apple Watch. If you can change the face of an Apple Watch by swiping, swap the wristband to a different colour and track any exercise digitally, who needs quartz?

Swatch still sells about 3mn watches a year, but they are so cheap that the brand means less to the Swiss company that bears its name. Swatch contributed only 3.5 per cent of Swatch Group’s revenues last year, according to Morgan Stanley, with most coming from its Omega, Longines and Tissot brands. It really ought to be called the Omega Group.

This is the story of Swiss watches since the quartz crisis. Swatch did its job so well that it financed the industry’s move to making luxury mechanical watches: Omega sold an estimated 570,000 watches last year, but its turnover was more than 10 times that of the Swatch brand. The Swiss export half the number of watches they did two decades ago, while earning more.

But Omega has its own problem, which is where the MoonSwatch comes in. The ultimate status symbol for a modern luxury brand is being unobtainable because there are not enough to meet demand. The most salient recent development in Swiss watches is the Rolex shortage: the fact that it has become extremely hard to walk into a Rolex shop and buy one.

Omega and Rolex are old rivals with historic portfolios, from Omega’s Speedmaster and Seamaster to Rolex’s Oyster Perpetuals and Submariners. The awkward fact is that Omegas are now much easier to obtain than Rolexes, although Rolex sells an estimated 1m watches a year, at an average retail price of about $12,500. The MoonSwatch may be sold out but the Moonwatch is not.

Rolex insists that it has not tried to engineer scarcity: it is working as hard as it can to hand make more. But there is nothing like an edition that really is limited to whet the appetite. Omega could achieve the same by reducing production, but what it really needs is to attract a new generation of luxury consumers to its boomer heritage.

What could be better than thousands of people who might aspire to Rolex instead walking around with colourful imitations of Moonwatches on their wrists? Swatch Group is more heavily invested in increasing demand for Omegas than for Swatches and this guerrilla marketing campaign pays for itself.

So, the MoonSwatch has something for everyone. Swatch relives its playful and collectible past; Omega gains a line around the block.

Nature : Diabetes risk rises after COVID, massive study finds

Diabetes risk rises after COVID, massive study finds
Even mild SARS-CoV-2 infections can amplify a person’s chance of developing diabetes, especially for those already susceptible to the disease.

People who get COVID-19 have a greater risk of developing diabetes up to a year later, even after a mild SARS-CoV-2 infection, compared with those who never had the disease, a massive study1 of almost 200,000 people shows.

The research, published in The Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology earlier this month, is one of a growing number of studies2 showing that COVID-19 can increase a person’s risk of diabetes, months after infection.

“When this whole pandemic recedes, we’re going to be left with the legacy of this pandemic — a legacy of chronic disease” for which health-care systems are unprepared, says study co-author Ziyad Al-Aly, chief researcher for the Veterans Affairs (VA) St Louis Healthcare System in Missouri.

Risks amplified
Al-Aly and Yan Xie, an epidemiologist also at the VA St Louis Healthcare System, looked at the medical records of more than 180,000 people who had survived for longer than a month after catching COVID-19. They compared these with records from two groups, each of which comprised around four million people without SARS-CoV-2 infection who had used the VA health-care system, either before or during the pandemic. The pair previously used a similar method to show that COVID-19 increases the risk of kidney disease3, heart failure and stroke4.

The latest analysis found that people who had had COVID-19 were about 40% more likely to develop diabetes up to a year later than were veterans in the control groups. That meant that for every 1,000 people studied in each group, roughly 13 more individuals in the COVID-19 group were diagnosed with diabetes. Almost all cases detected were type 2 diabetes, in which the body becomes resistant to or doesn’t produce enough insulin.

The chance of developing diabetes rose with increasing severity of COVID-19. People who were hospitalized or admitted to intensive care had roughly triple the risk compared with control individuals who did not have COVID-19.

Even people who had mild infections and no previous risk factors for diabetes had increased odds of developing the chronic condition, says Al-Aly. Of the people with COVID-19 who avoided hospitalization, an extra 8 people out of every 1,000 studied had developed diabetes a year later compared with people who were not infected. People with a high body-mass index, a measure of obesity — and a considerable risk factor for type 2 diabetes — had more than double the risk of developing diabetes after a SARS-CoV-2 infection.

Global burden
Given the extraordinary number of COVID-19 cases globally — 480 million confirmed cases and counting — the modest increase in diabetes risk could correspond to a drastic rise in the number of people diagnosed with the disease worldwide, if the observed trends hold true, says Jonathan Shaw, an epidemiologist at the Baker Heart and Diabetes Institute in Melbourne, Australia.

But the findings might not translate to other groups of people. The US veterans in the study were mostly older, white men, many of whom had elevated blood pressure and were overweight, putting them at high risk of developing diabetes, says Gideon Meyerowitz-Katz, an epidemiologist studying diabetes at the University of Wollongong in Australia. But that risk is much lower in younger people, he says, and higher in some other ethnic groups.

And it’s possible that some people in the control group had undetected mild or asymptomatic COVID-19 but were never tested, potentially skewing the data, Al-Aly adds.

Other factors might also be contributing to the apparent rise in diabetes among people who recovered from COVID-19, says Shaw. Existing cases of diabetes might have gone undetected until people sought medical care for COVID-19.

Elusive causes
Early in the pandemic, researchers raised concerns based on anecdotal reports in young people and children that SARS-CoV-2, like other viruses, might damage cells in the pancreas that produce insulin, triggering type 1 diabetes.

But data on a link between SARS-CoV-2 infection and newly diagnosed cases of type 1 diabetes remain mixed. Several studies5–7 have found no evidence that the disease is causing the uptick in cases of type 1 diabetes in younger adults or children. And a laboratory study published in February also challenged the idea that SARS-COV-2 destroys insulin-producing pancreatic cells8.

A lingering question is whether the metabolic changes observed in people who had COVID-19 persist after one year. More research is needed to clarify long-term trends in new-onset diabetes at a population level and to tease apart what might be causing them, says Shaw.

FT : Shanghai extends Covid lockdown

Shanghai extends Covid lockdown

Shanghai will extend strict lockdown measures in many parts of the city that were expected to resume normal life today, as the Chinese financial centre ramps up efforts to contain an outbreak of largely asymptomatic cases of Covid-19.

Under measures announced by city officials yesterday for the eastern Pudong area, which includes Shanghai’s financial district, all residents living in compounds where positive cases have been found will be confined to their homes for an additional 14 days.

The measures will effectively extend for many residents a broad four-day lockdown of Pudong that began on March 28. Shanghai’s western Puxi area, which includes the historic centre and famous Bund waterfront, will also start its own four-day lockdown today.

In Hong Kong, a top official signalled renewed dedication to mainland China’s tough zero-Covid policy, despite recently easing some restrictions.

WWD : Matteo Marzotto Invests in Minerva Hub

Matteo Marzotto Invests in Minerva Hub
The new holding is meant to protect a number of Italian manufacturers in the supply chain that help create garments and accessories by leading global luxury brands.

MILAN — Matteo Marzotto believes “beauty will save the world.”

In his efforts to protect a number of Italian manufacturers that help create apparel and accessories for leading global luxury brands, the entrepreneur is investing in a new project, a holding company called Minerva Hub.

The group was presented on Thursday by Marzotto and his partners — Franco Prestigiacomo, chief executive officer and founding partner of Xenon Private Equity, and Gianfranco Piras, president of XPP Seven.

Minerva Hub stems from the fusion of XPP Seven and Ambria Holding, which Marzotto formed last year, as reported, taking majority stakes in Italian companies Zeta Catene and Galvanica Formelli, both located in the Arezzo, Tuscany area. Zeta Catene produces more than 2,000 types of chains of different shapes, sizes and materials, such as brass and silver, as accessories for bags and shoes. Galvanica Formelli offers metal details, components and galvanic treatments for fashion accessories.

XPP Seven was founded in 2019, and grew to comprise Koverlux (based outside Bergamo); Quake (near Vicenza); Sp Plast Creating (Fermo), and Zuma Pelli Pregiate (Pisa). Koverlux is a leader in surface finishing for the fashion and accessories business, touted by Marzotto as the only company able to apply multiple finishes, from lacquering to flocking or engraving, to a single object. Quake is a specialist in automatic embroideries; SP Plast deals with the transformation of plastic materials, mold design and construction and product engineering, and Zuma is a tannery specialized in precious hides.

Xenon, which Marzotto praised for having an industrial vision, was the “catalyst,” he said, and will have a majority stake in the holding, headquartered in Milan.

“This is the first time a brand is set up to offer its service to the best Italian know how and creativity, in an effort to avoid the dispersion of the skills built over generations that, on the contrary, we want to enhance and consolidate for the future,” contended Marzotto proudly.

Aggregating the activities of the above mentioned six companies, Minerva Hub has sales of more than 101 million euros, a portfolio of around 1,000 clients and 434 direct employees.

The first goal is to coordinate, integrate and strengthen the activities of these companies to supply top quality products and excellent service, explained Marzotto.

“This is a clear industrial project, to offer a platform that delivers strong artisanal and technological skills integrated with more efficient and flexible production processes, becoming an acceleration of an expansive and modern network of integrated companies.”

The companies under the Minerva Hub umbrella mainly work with the fashion and luxury industries, but also with the design, sportswear, cosmetics, jewelry and automotive sectors.

Prestigiacomo said three potential additional acquisitions are in the pipeline to be completed by the end of the year. While he declined to provide a figure for the initial investment in forming Minerva Hub, he said it was “almost equivalent to the holding’s sales.” He also underscored that Xenon, conversely to most private equity funds, operates within “an extremely long time frame” and exit strategy. “We will continue to invest until we can grow the industrial project.”

“Italy has missed the opportunity to consolidate the luxury brands in fashion poles, but its know how has remained unparalleled and Italian artisans and manufacturers find the best solutions to the creative ideas of the brands’ designers. We are here to support the artisans with a more solid, structured and sophisticated organization,” continued Prestigiacomo. He noted that the founders of the companies aggregated under the Minerva Hub umbrella all reinvested in the holding, becoming partners. “They realized we could offer more prospects, more focus and more managerial skills.”

Marzotto said investments will be made to support the artisans in ESG projects to become more sustainable, to trademark new products and to buy new machines, “concretely responding” to the current challenges in terms of innovation, production efficiency and competitiveness. Minerva Hub has also initiated a training project, he revealed. “We are investing in the protection of the skills that need to be passed on to the new generations. We have started an academy within three of the six companies and we will extend the project to all of them. We need to give continuity and this will be done through the help of the artisans with the most experience and outside consultants.”

Piras said a first meeting with Marzotto to propose a deal was held at the Hotel Minerva in Arezzo, hence the name of the holding, but also because Minerva was the goddess of handicrafts, the professions and the arts in ancient Rome. “We reached out to see if there was an interest in joining forces to become problem solvers for the brands,” he said. He touted the uniqueness of the holding, as he contended that other groups that have been formed to support the Italian pipeline did so by “vertically integrating,” while Minerva Hub cross-pollinates across the board, “responding to requests from different sectors.”

He said Minerva Hub will leverage the expertise of Marzotto, named president, as well as that of Marco Casone, who is taking on the role of chief executive officer. Marzotto and Casoni, a former Dondup and Marni executive, have worked together for years, first at Valentino and then at Vionnet. Marzotto is a former investor in Vionnet and Dondup and, before that, he was chairman of Valentino.

There has been brisk M&A activity in Italy’s supply chain, further triggered by the impact of COVID-19, and much of it meant to support the know-how and craftsmanship of the country’s fashion pipeline.

Earlier this month Brunello Cucinelli bought a 43 percent stake of Cariaggi Lanificio SpA, its longtime cashmere supplier.

Last year, the Prada and Ermenegildo Zegna groups joined forces to acquire a majority stake in Filati Biagioli Modesto SpA, which specializes in the production of cashmere and other precious yarns, sharing the goal to ensure continuity of the excellence of the company and to develop their own Made in Italy production chain.

It is similar to the rationale behind Gruppo Florence, the luxury production pole established in 2020 by industry veteran Francesco Trapani through private equity fund VAM Investments together with Fondo Italiano d’Investimento and Italmobiliare. The goal is to supply high-quality Made in Italy products to major luxury fashion brands by acquiring family-owned Italian SMEs.

>>> US After Hours Summary: GME +15.8% jumps on plans for stock split; BLND -15.

After Hours Summary: GME +15.8% jumps on plans for stock split; BLND -15.6%, DCT -11.3%, BB -4.6% fall on earnings; SPRO -25.3% falls on FDA news

After Hours Gainers:

Companies trading higher in after hours in reaction to earnings/guidance: HYMC +5.2%, PL +4.5%, NCNO +2.7% (also WFC will expand use of nCino Bank OS to accelerate its digital transformation), ASTS +2.2%, INDI +2%

Companies trading higher in after hours in reaction to news: GME +15.8% (to seek approval for 3.33-for-1 stock split), LEV +5.6% (receives purchase order for 30 school buses), GTHX +2% (reports results of real world study of trilaciclib), XSPA +1.8% (stock offering), HLX +1.7% (enters into new contract with Shell Offshore to provide well intervention services), RETA +1.7% (completes rolling submission of NDA for omaveloxolone for Friedreich's ataxia), FSR +1.4% (passes 40,000 initial reservations for Fisker Ocean SUV), PPGH +1.1% (receives shareholder approval for combination with Gogoro), MEC +0.9% (CEO to retire), HOOD +0.6% (nearing launch of retirement account support on its platform, according to Bloomberg), AMZN +0.5% (union vote fails in Alabama, according to CNBC), RTX +0.4% (awarded $650 mln Navy contract), RNGR +0.3% (stock offering)

After Hours Losers:

Companies trading lower in after hours in reaction to earnings/guidance: RDW -26.9%, BLND -15.6%, DCT -11.3%, BB -4.6%, WEJO -2.7%

Companies trading lower in after hours in reaction to news: SPRO -25.3% (FDA identifies deficiencies in Spero's NDA for tebipenem), SLS -23.7% (signs license agreement with GenFleet Therapeutics for GFH009; also stock offering), IIPR -5.6% (commences public offering of 1 mln shares), ALE -5.2% (commences public offering of 2.95 mln shares), OLN -3.4% (forms blue water joint venture with Mitsui), GRIN -1.1% (CEO to retire), REV -0.5% (files for $75 mln mixed securities shelf offering), LMT -0.1% (awarded $3.2 bln Army contract and $1.3 bln Missile Defense Agency contract modification)

WSJ : Chabad’s Ukraine Mission

Chabad’s Ukraine Mission
The story of the Jews plays an outsize role in the country’s history and present.

History has been a battleground between Russia and Ukraine for years, and the story of the Jews has been part of that fight. This can be heard today in Vladimir Putin’s rhetoric about “de-Nazification” or Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s exhortations, amid Russian bombing, to remember Babyn Yar’s murdered Jews. But the past is more than a backdrop for geopolitical maneuvering.

The founding of the Hasidic movement by Rabbi Israel Baal Shem Tov (1698-1760) in what is today western Ukraine revolutionized Jewish life. And Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson—the Rebbe, or the seventh leader of the Chabad-Lubavitch movement—was born in Ukraine 120 years ago and later helped spark Judaism’s post-Holocaust religious revival.

The Rebbe was born in Mykolaiv on April 18, 1902, to Rabbi Levi Yitzchak and Chana Schneerson. His maternal forefathers had been the city’s chief rabbis since 1854. During a 1905 pogrom, his mother hid in a cellar with other women, whose children’s terrified screams risked attracting the anti-Semitic marauders outside. Years later, she would recall her 3-year-old son soothing the other children.

In 1908 Levi Yitzchak Schneerson was elected chief rabbi of what is now Dnipro. There the future Rebbe celebrated his bar mitzvah while helping his parents care for Jewish World War I refugees forcibly expelled from the Russian Empire’s western provinces. But Czarist persecution paled in comparison with the destruction of Jewish religious and communal life under communism.

The Soviets closed synagogues and yeshivas, forcing rabbis out of their positions. The Chabad-Lubavitch Hasidim paid a heavy price to resist this oppression—with many sent to the gulags or executed. The Rebbe’s father played a key role in the resistance, openly urging Jews to remain steadfast in their faith. He was arrested by the secret police in 1939, tortured and exiled to Kazakhstan.

The Rebbe later wrote that “those who withstood and survived the horrific torrent of intimidation” had something in common: “They had internalized Hasidic teachings, and the enthusiasm and self-sacrifice that they evoke, through proper education.” For decades the Rebbe’s work to strengthen Jewish life and learning behind the Iron Curtain was clandestine, and he maintained an underground educational and aid network stretching throughout the Soviet Union.

A new era began as the Soviet Union was falling apart. In 1990 the Rebbe began sending permanent emissary couples to resuscitate Jewish life in Ukraine. A year later, Ukraine’s KGB issued a public admission that it had framed and tortured the Rebbe’s father, causing his death in 1944.

Even with the Soviets gone, it wasn’t easy to be a proud and visible Jew in Ukraine. But this changed over the ensuing decades: 192 Chabad husband-and-wife teams put down roots in 32 cities throughout the country, building synagogues, schools and social-service centers. Giant Hanukkah menorahs illuminating public squares signaled that the days of hiding one’s Jewishness were over. While the Schneerson name had been reviled, the new Ukraine embraced it. In 2016, Mykolaiv and Dnipro renamed streets for the Rebbe.

Since the Russian invasion, this flourishing Jewish community has been upended, but it hasn’t disappeared. The communal structure built to nurture Jewish life in Ukraine pivoted into an effort to save its Jews, together with other innocent civilians, from the destruction wreaked by the war.

Across the country Chabad has been distributing food and medications and turning synagogue basements into bomb shelters. Dnipro’s 20-story Chabad center has become a frenetic base of humanitarian aid for refugees, both Jewish and not, as they are helped out of the country. Chabads of battle-scarred places like Mariupol and Sumy continue to evacuate people to safety. The organization has helped more than 35,000 people escape and will continue doing so as long as there are people in need.

On March 2 Avraham Wolff, Odessa’s chief rabbi and Chabad representative, sent some 120 children and staff from his community’s children’s home to Berlin. Once they arrived, Rabbi Wolff and his wife followed with another 140 women and children. After settling them in, the rabbi drove back to Odessa alone. At the Palanca border crossing, he was the only one heading into Ukraine.

“Everything I absorbed from the Rebbe’s Torah teachings and example during my 52 years—how nothing is more important or dear to God than helping someone materially or spiritually—was for these last weeks,” Rabbi Wolff told me recently.

The Rebbe taught that true education should charge us with a sense of responsibility to our fellow man and to God. It is no accident that today these values are being put into action by the Jewish communities he revived and inspired. Nor that this great modern Jewish sage was born 120 years ago in Ukraine—a country that, in working to overcome its past, has emerged as an example of moral courage and fortitude for the world.

WSJ : Top Banking Regulator Calls for Caution as Risk Landscape Worsens

Top Banking Regulator Calls for Caution as Risk Landscape Worsens
The chance of tail risks—unlikely but highly impactful risk events—has increased with the war in Ukraine, said Acting U.S. Comptroller of the Currency Michael Hsu

Banks face a more uncertain environment amid the war in Ukraine and need to shore up their risk management programs to gird against multiple negative scenarios unfolding at once, a top U.S. banking regulator said.

So-called tail risks—unlikely but highly impactful risk events—are a growing potential issue that financial institutions’ risk departments need to grapple with, Michael Hsu, acting comptroller of the currency, said Thursday at a conference hosted by the American Bankers Association.

“Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has affected tail risk as well as geopolitics,” Mr. Hsu said. “Greater caution and risk management vigilance is warranted today, perhaps more than any time in recent memory.”

The recent invasion has increased the risk of a broader conflict emerging, but it also has direct impacts on cyber and inflation risks, Mr. Hsu said.

Banks’ risk managers should update their scenario planning to consider the possibility of multiple tail risks emerging simultaneously and should ensure their stress-testing remains up-to-date, Mr. Hsu said.

He encouraged financial institutions to empower their risk managers to use their judgment, and advised boards and executives to pay attention to those managers’ assessments.

“Strong, independent risk management can help the banking system successfully navigate these risks and avoid surprises,” Mr. Hsu said.

The stress-testing required by the Dodd-Frank Act means large banks should be able to weather many shocks, but they should be wary of complacency and overconfidence, he said.

Apart from the war in Ukraine, growing cryptocurrency trading also poses serious risks, particularly in how institutions account for their crypto holdings, Mr. Hsu said. Supposedly hedged positions have a long history of “blowing up,” he said.

Mr. Hsu said he had engaged in collaboration with U.S. federal authorities and with their U.K. counterparts to maintain a “consistent, careful and cautious” approach to bank involvement in crypto.

>>> US Close Dow -1,56% S&P -1,57% Nasdaq -1,54% Russell -1% VIX 20,56 +6,36%

Closing Stock Market Summary

The S&P 500 fell 1.6% on Thursday, slumping into the close on no specific news catalyst. The Nasdaq Composite (-1.5%) and Dow Jones Industrial Average (-1.6%) fell comparably while the Russell 2000 fell 1.0%. 

The weak finish pushed all 11 S&P 500 sectors into the red on a closing basis, with the financials (-2.3%) and communication services (-2.0%) sectors losing at least 2.0%. The utilities (-0.2%) and consumer staples (-0.4%) sectors outperformed on a relative basis with modest declines.

The session was influenced by profit-taking activity after a strong second half of March, quarter-end machinations, and a 7% drop in oil prices ($100.43, -7.24, -6.7%) after the White House laid out plans to release one million barrels of oil per day for the next six months to help alleviate gas prices.

On a related note, OPEC+ agreed to increase its output targets by 432,000 barrels per day in May, according to CNBC. That's slightly more than the 400,000-bpd schedule for April. 

Inflation remained on the market's mind after PCE data for February rose in-line with expectations, further crimping real personal disposable income, which decreased 0.2% in February. On a year-over-year basis, the PCE Price Index was up 6.4% while the core PCE Price Index, which excludes food and energy, was up 5.4% -- its highest level since 1983. 

The Treasury market didn't react to the inflation data, perhaps because it wasn't surprising or because investors preferred to hide out in bonds amid the negative bias in equities ahead of the employment report tomorrow. The tight spreads continued to weigh on the financials sector for profitability reasons. 

The 2-yr yield decreased five basis points to 2.28%, and the 10-yr yield decreased three basis points to 2.33%. The U.S. Dollar Index rose 0.6% to 98.37. The CBOE Volatility Index increased 6.4% to 20.56. 

Separately, Walgreens Boots Alliance (WBA 44.77, -2.69, -5.7%) fell 6% despite the Dow component beating top and bottom-line estimates while UiPath (PATH 21.59, -7.45, -25.7%) was the latest growth stock to take a plunge after providing disappointing guidance. 

Reviewing Thursday's economic data:

  • Personal income increased 0.5% month-over-month in February (consensus 0.5%), though real personal disposable income was down 0.2%. Personal spending increased 0.2% (consensus 0.5%) while the personal savings rate as a percentage of disposable income increased to 6.3% from a revised 6.1% (from 6.4%) in January. Real personal spending was down 0.4%. The PCE Price Index was up 0.6% (consensus 0.6%), pushing the year-over-year rate to 6.4% from 6.0%. The core PCE Price Index, which excludes food and energy, was up 0.4% (consensus 0.4%), pushing the year-over-year rate up to 5.4% from 5.2% in January.
    • The key takeaway from the report is that inflation continues taking a bite out of wage gains, as real personal disposable income decreased 0.2% while the Core PCE Price Index rose to its highest level since 1983.
  • Initial jobless claims for the week ending March 26, increased by 14,000 to 202,000 ( consensus 200,000), rising off their lowest level since September 1969. Continuing jobless claims for the week ending March 19 decreased by 35,000 to 1.307 million, a level not seen since December 27, 1969.
    • The key takeaway from the report is that with claims hovering at levels not seen since late 1969/early 1970, the labor market remains tight, which can serve as a tailwind to already-high inflation.
  • The Chicago PMI for March increased to 62.9 (consensus 56.8) from 56.3 in February.

Looking ahead, investors will receive the Employment Situation report for March, the ISM Manufacturing Index for March, and Construction Spending for February on Friday.

  • Dow Jones Industrial Average -4.6% YTD
  • S&P 500 -5.0% YTD
  • Russell 2000 -7.8% YTD
  • Nasdaq Composite -9.1% YTD

>>> Microsoft acquires Minit to strengthen process mining capabilities

Microsoft acquires Minit to strengthen process mining capabilities

Today, Microsoft is announcing the acquisition of Minit, a leader in process mining technology that enables businesses to uncover opportunities for continuous process improvement and better operational efficiency.

Organizations across the globe are seeking to be more operationally resilient and accelerate their digital transformation plans. Seamless operations and ensuring that every component of each business process runs smoothly is critical, but most leaders are not able to understand the actual performance of their processes and end up making decisions based on subjective information. Gartner® notes that “Recent trends in automation and knowledge of the underlying processes and interactions are key to digital transformation.” *

Minit currently enables businesses to transform the way they analyze, monitor and optimize their processes. Minit’s solutions have helped businesses gain deep insights into how processes run, uncover root causes of operational challenges and help mitigate undesired process outcomes.

This acquisition will further empower Microsoft to help our customers digitally transform and drive operational excellence by creating a complete picture of their business processes, enabling every process to be easily and automatically analyzed and improved. Customers will be able to better understand their process data, uncover what operations look like in reality and drive process standardization and improvement across the entire organization to ensure compliance at every step.

Today’s announcement further signals Microsoft’s commitment to help organizations quickly discover and optimize their business processes by bringing data and execution together to unlock powerful insights. Learn more about getting started by visiting the Minit website.

For additional information about Microsoft process mining investments to date see our recent process advisor blog or the Process Advisor product page.

Read Minit’s announcement about the acquisition here.

*Gartner Market Guide for Process Mining, Marc Kerremans, Tushar Srivastava, Farhan Choudhary November 2021
GARTNER is a registered trademark and service mark of Gartner, Inc. and/or its affiliates in the U.S. and internationally and is used herein with permission. All rights reserved