US store sales down slightly for Thanksgiving and Black Friday 

NOV 29, 201511:03 AM

[CHICAGO] Sales at US brick-and-mortar stores on Thanksgiving Day and Black Friday were down slightly from last year, but the performance was still seen as strong in a holiday shopping season where discounts spread well beyond the weekend and many shoppers moved to the web.

Online sales were up by double digits, according to data released on Saturday.

Data from analytics firm RetailNext showed overall sales for both days fell 1.5 per cent on flat customer traffic, while average spending per shopper dropped 1.4 per cent.

Preliminary data from ShopperTrak showed sales at stores totaled about US$12.1 billion on Thursday and Friday. The company said it is an "estimated decrease from last year" but did not give the percentage decline due to an internal change in the way it calculates data. Last year, it reported sales of US$12.29 billion for the same period.

ShopperTrak will release its final sales numbers on Tuesday. It stuck by its forecast of a 2.4 per cent increase for November and December sales.

The data highlights the waning importance of Black Friday, which until a few years ago kicked off the holiday shopping season, as more retailers start discounting earlier in the month and open their doors on Thanksgiving Day.

Both firms said that despite the fall in sales over the two days, the performance must be interpreted as a good one for retail stores because sales held up amid rising competition from online shopping and were better than expected due to pent-up consumer demand and lower gas prices.

Last year Black friday and Thanksgiving sales were disappointing, forcing retailers to double down on discounts which led to a last-minute shopping frenzy. "It's still a good performance for the weekend, given the growth that is being witnessed online as well," ShopperTrak founder Bill Martin said.

ShopperTrak said Thanksgiving and Black Friday generated US$1.8 billion and US$10.4 billion in sales respectively. Martin said early promotions in November were a bigger factor hurting Black Friday than store openings on Thanksgiving evening.

Customer traffic remained flat on Thanksgiving Day from a year earlier while traffic fell 1.8 per cent on Black Friday, RetailNext said. Their estimate last year showed overall traffic for both days fell 14 per cent. "The numbers are down but it's still a better sales trend during the two days than we have seen for physical retail through the year and especially after a very difficult summer and October," Shelley Kohan, vice president of retail consulting at RetailNext, said.

Electronics and toys, which were better promotions did well, both firms said. Apparel sales struggled despite better promotions, Kohan said.

Separate data underscored the ongoing shift of shopping to online retailers.

Online Thanksgiving and Black Friday sales tracked by Adobe Digital Index were US$4.47 billion, up 18 per cent from a year earlier and higher than its expectation of US$4.35 billion. Adobe tracked 80 per cent of all online transactions from the top 100 US retailers.

Brick-and-mortar retailers who have online operations offered better web deals during Thanksgiving and Black Friday and saw higher sales than online only retailers, said Tamara Gaffney, principal research analyst at Adobe Digital Index.

She said discounting levels online averaged 26 and 24 per cent on both days respectively, and remained similar to last year's levels.

REUTERS

      

Ringleader of Paris attacks planned more strikes, mocked open borders: sources  

An undated file photograph of a man described as Abdelhamid Abaaoud that was published in the Islamic State's online magazine Dabiq and posted on a social media website. 

PHOTO: REUTERS

NOV 28, 20156:43 AM

[PARIS] The ringleader behind the Nov 13 attacks in Paris had plans to strike Jewish targets and to disrupt schools and the transport system in France, according to sources close to the investigation.

Abdelhamid Abaaoud, a Belgian national of Moroccan origin, also boasted of the ease with which he had re-entered Europe from Syria via Greece two months earlier, exploiting the confusion of the migrant crisis and the continent's passport-free Schengen system, the sources said on Friday.

Their comments, confirming excerpts from a confidential police witness statement leaked to a French magazine this week, fleshed out a picture of the Islamic State militant who spearheaded the Nov 13 attacks targeting cafes, a concert hall and sports stadium in Paris in which 130 people were killed.

The witness statement, quoted in the Valeurs Actuelles weekly magazine, describes how Abaaoud approached his cousin Hasna Ait Boulahcen two days after the killing spree asking her to hide him while he prepared further attacks.

Both Abaaoud and Boulahecen died on Nov. 18 in a shootout with police in St. Denis north of Paris at an apartment where the militant Islamist had been staying.

Speaking of the planned future attacks, Abaaoud told his cousin on Nov. 15 that "they would do worse (damage) in districts close to the Jews and would disrupt transport and schools", the witness statement said.

Abaaoud said he would give Boulahecen 5,000 euros (S$7,473.5) to buy two suits and two pairs of shoes for him and an unidentified accomplice to "look the part" in a planned attack on Paris' commercial district La Defense.

Paris prosecutor Francois Molins confirmed on Tuesday the militants had been plotting to attack La Defense on Nov 18. Reuters had previously reported the planned attack.

The witness statement also described how Abaaoud had boasted about slipping into Europe with refugees fleeing Syria's civil war and then spending two months in France undetected prior to the Nov 13 attacks. "France - zero," it quoted him as saying.

On Friday, the Paris prosecutor's office said it would open a preliminary investigation into how the confidential police witness statement was leaked to the press.

REUTERS

     

Europe: Shares retreat from three-month high as China wobbles

PHOTO: REUTERS

NOV 28, 20156:38 AM

[LONDON] A leading European share index retreated from a three-month high on Friday, hit by a drop in shares of mining companies after a slump in Chinese equities. Anticipation of further stimulus by the European Central Bank next week helped to cushion the fall.

The FTSEurofirst 300 ended down 0.26 per cent at 1,512.32, after posting its highest close since August on Thursday.

Mining stocks fell the most, declining 2.7 per cent. China, the world's biggest consumer of metals, saw stocks slide over 5 per cent after a regulatory crackdown and deteriorating industrial profits data.

Anglo American led the decline, falling 8.2 per cent after shutting down an Australian coal mine.

Some investors worried markets would see a repeat of events this past August, when China let its currency fall and jolted equities globally. Others said that might be less likely if the yuan joined the IMF's reserve basket next week. "Miners are suffering from China and a stronger US dollar outlook. There is clearly a risk that China will try and devalue the currency further, but there is less risk of that compared to earlier in the year," said Ankit Gheedia, equity and derivative strategist at BNP Paribas. "(However) Europe is still trading on the ECB next week, which is why the market is relatively resilient." Bets the ECB will extend or increase its quantitative easing programme next week helped to spur the FTSEurofirst 300 to Thursday's three-month highs.

Belgian bank KBC rose 2.6 per cent after disclosing new capital requirements from the ECB.

Altice extended gains over the last two sessions to more than 10 per cent. A Reuters report that it had won rights to show English Premier League soccer in France was confirmed shortly after the market closed on Thursday.

REUTERS

    
 

Oil prices slide amid oversupply worries

Oil prices slid Friday on concerns about global oversupply as traders looked ahead to next week's Opec meeting, skeptical the oil producers cartel will lower high output levels. 

PHOTO: REUTERS

NOV 28, 20157:02 AM

[NEW YORK] Oil prices slid Friday on concerns about global oversupply as traders looked ahead to next week's Opec meeting, skeptical the oil producers cartel will lower high output levels.

US benchmark West Texas Intermediate for delivery in January slid US$1.27 to US$41.71 a barrel in a shortened post-Thanksgiving holiday trading session on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

Brent North Sea crude for January, the international benchmark for oil, was down 58 cents at US$44.88 a barrel in late trade in London.

Energy economist James Williams, of WTRG Economics, said the market was paring down some of the surge in prices resulting from Turkey's shoot down Tuesday of a Russian warplane on the Syrian border.

"Prices reacted up for a day or two, and we've just reversed this reaction, as there's fundamentally no oil involved," Williams said.

With global crude supplies outpacing demand, traders were focused on next Friday's Opec meeting.

Price falls that began in mid-2014 accelerated after the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries decided in November 2014 to maintain output levels despite the weaker prices.

"The market is certainly looking ahead to next week's OPEC meeting and sensing not only there's going to be no change in Opec oil production but also Iran will be rejoining to the market in January with substantial quantities of oil," said Andy Lipow of Lipow Oil Associates.

The 12-nation Opec, which counts the world's biggest oil producer Saudi Arabia among its members as well as Nigeria, Venezuela and Iran, has scheduled a regular meeting in Vienna on December 4.

AFP

    
 

Three dead in shooting at US family planning centre

Three people were killed and several wounded when a gunman opened fire at a family planning center in Colorado in a standoff that dragged on for five hours Friday before he surrendered. 

PHOTO: AFP

NOV 28, 201511:13 AM

[COLORADO] Three people were killed and several wounded when a gunman opened fire at a family planning center in Colorado in a standoff that dragged on for five hours Friday before he surrendered.

A large area of snow-covered Colorado Springs was placed on lockdown into the evening, just a day after millions of Americans celebrated the Thanksgiving holiday, in the latest incident to shed a damning light on the United States' gun culture.

Mayor John Suthers paid tribute to police for getting the gunman into custody without further bloodshed at the Planned Parenthood building, where people scrambled into a safe room in a desperate bid to save themselves.

A police officer was among the dead, he said, while nine others - among them five police - were wounded. None of the injured were in a serious condition.

"I want to convey to the loved ones of the victims: this is a terrible, terrible tragedy that occurred here in Colorado Springs today," Suthers told reporters.

"Obviously, we lost two civilian victims, we mourn the loss of a very brave police officer." It was not immediately clear if the Planned Parenthood family planning center had been specifically targeted.

Abortion is one of the services Planned Parenthood provides for women, and the association has become a lightning rod for criticism by social conservatives.

The women's health care giant has also been mired in a months-long scandal after anti-abortion activists released secretly recorded videos showing the organization's officials discussing use of aborted fetal tissue for medical research.

Earlier, there had been fears that the unidentified gunman might have explosives with him, and police were carefully combing the scene after the siege came to an end when he surrendered.

Speaking at the scene before the standoff ended, police spokeswoman Lieutenant Catherine Buckley warned that the gunman had taken "items" and bags inside the building with him.

An unknown number of people were inside the clinic at the time of the shooting, on what had been a regular working day at Planned Parenthood, a day after Thanksgiving.

A sheriff's department SWAT team with at least one armored vehicle and several ambulances had also been on standby, as the evening drew in on the snowy scene.

The immediate vicinity was placed on lockdown and people were told to stay indoors.

Buckley said the shooter was armed with some kind of "long weapon" with a shoulder stock such as a rifle and some witnesses reported hearing automatic fire.

Quan Hoang, the owner of a nearby nail salon, told CNN that when he heard the gunfire break out, he feared a robbery was under way at a bank in the shopping area, which would have been bustling with people looking to pick up a bargain in the Black Friday sales.

"And we see cops, SWAT, the bomb squad, a whole bunch of people just trying to take cover around the Planned Parenthood area," he said by telephone.

"An officer came back in and said, 'Is everyone safe?' We asked him questions and he said they've barricaded him inside the Planned Parenthood and he was shooting out from the windows." A White House official said that President Barack Obama had been notified of the incident by his Homeland Security Advisor Lisa Monaco.

Vicki Cowart, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood Rocky Mountains, said that her initial information was that none of her staff or patients had been killed or injured.

Cowart said that she did not believe the center had been specifically targeted.

"We're very pleased that our own security systems were operating at top-notch," she told CNN.

That included rushing into a safe room.

"They were able to hunker down and some got out early throughout the afternoon, but those that didn't were in a safe spot," Cowart said.

AFP

    
 

Microsoft's Gates to start multi-billion-dollar clean tech initiative

Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates will launch a multi-billion-dollar clean energy research and development initiative with heads of state on Monday, the opening day of the UN climate change summit in Paris, the French government said Friday. 

PHOTO: REUTERS

NOV 28, 20157:09 AM

[NEW YORK] Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates will launch a multi-billion-dollar clean energy research and development initiative with heads of state on Monday, the opening day of the UN climate change summit in Paris, the French government said Friday.

Gates and a group of developing and developed countries will launch the Clean Tech Initiative, in which countries will commit to doubling their clean energy technology research and development budgets by 2020 and private investors will boost their own investments in the sector.

Access to clean energy technology will play a key role in a global agreement to combat climate change. More than 190 countries will negotiate a new pact in Paris from Nov. 30 to Dec. 11 at the 21st UN Conference of the Parties summit.

France, the United States, India, South Korea, Indonesia, Saudi Arabia, Australia, Canada and Norway have said they will join, a source close to the conference presidency told Reuters. "Gates' announcement should prompt other countries to follow suit," the source said.

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Gates will join Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, US President Barack Obama and French President Francois Hollande to announce the initiative on the opening day of the two-week summit, according to an agenda released Friday.

For India, the world's third largest greenhouse gas emitter, access to clean energy technology is at the core of its national strategy to combat climate change.

India has argued that developed countries need to help poorer countries gain access to renewable energy or zero-emission technologies by helping reduce costs and removing barriers such as intellectual property rights.

On the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in September, Gates attended a bilateral meeting focused on climate change between Hollande and Modi.

The French presidency source said India will be one of the founding beneficiaries of the new initiative. "This is one of the main points of the negotiation: how to improve clean technologies and give the poorest countries access to these technologies," the source said.

This summer Gates pledged US$2 billion of his personal wealth over the next five years to "bend the curve" on climate change.

In a blog post in July, he said more breakthrough technologies are needed to combat climate change and that current technologies reduce emissions at a cost that his "beyond astronomical." He said accelerating government funding for clean energy research and development is crucial to attracting private investment.

REUTERS