MEXICO CITY (Reuters) – Amazon.com Inc’s total sales have soared during the coronavirus pandemic, yet in Latin America, the world’s biggest online retailer is locked in a dogfight with local rivals as it rolls out its Prime Day event in Mexico and, for the first time, Brazil.
During the Tuesday and Wednesday annual shopping event that spans 19 countries, the company will again showcase the discounts and free shipping that come along with a paid Prime membership – a strategy that has helped Amazon reel in repeat shoppers around the world.
Even so, analysts say Amazon faces an uphill battle in Latin America’s top two economies, where success or failure will set the bar for whether it can take on the rest of the region.
“Amazon in Latin America is not the monster that it is in the United States,” said Marcos Pueyrredon, president of Buenos
Pyka’s Pelican crop-spraying drone can carry more than its weight in chemicals and is designed to take off and land in 150 feet, half the length of a football field.
Courtesy of Pyka
Oakland-based Pyka shares a goal common to many high-tech California aviation startups: to build an autonomous electric passenger aircraft. However, its first steps to get there have taken the company far away from the pack, first to New Zealand and now to banana plantations in Costa Rica and Ecuador, where it’s preparing to field a robotic crop-spraying airplane called Pelican that CEO Michael Norcia says will prove out technology he believes will lead the way to an era of green, low-cost passenger planes.
The fat-bellied, 500-pound plane can carry more than its weight in liquid pesticides or fertilizer, and is engineered to take off and land in a ridiculously short space: 150 feet, half the length of
CHICAGO (Reuters) – Question: How can a company like Caterpillar CAT.N try to counter a slump in sales of bulldozers and trucks during a pandemic that has made every human a potential disease vector?
Jason Ramshaw, Commercial Manager for Caterpillar Construction Digital & Technology, demonstrates the Cat Command remote control console to operate a 320 excavator at Caterpillar’s Construction Industries EAME Sales Rally in Malaga, Spain, in an undated handout photograph. Caterpillar/Handout via REUTERS
Answer: Cut out human operators, perhaps?
Caterpillar’s autonomous driving technology, which can be bolted on to existing machines, is helping the U.S. heavy equipment maker mitigate the heavy impact of the coronavirus crisis on sales of its traditional workhorses.
With both small and large customers looking to protect their operations from future disruptions, demand has surged for machines that don’t require human operators on board.
Sales of Caterpillar’s autonomous technology for mining operations have been growing
Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway has made surprise bets on Barrick Gold and Snowflake in recent months, clashing with the investor’s past warnings about gold, tech stocks, and IPOs.
Berkshire’s bosses may be pursuing smaller, more frequent investments and cashing in on corporate actions, Brian Gongol, a longtime Berkshire shareholder, told Business Insider.
“I wouldn’t be surprised if Buffett, Weschler, Combs, and Ajit Jain all got on the phone and had a talk where they decided to ‘think small’ with some fraction of the company’s cash pile,” Gongol said.
Buffett and his team also signaled Berkshire was “the best big investment they could find” when they spent $5.1 billion buying back stock in May and June, Gongol said.
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Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway stunned investors when it revealed a $560 million stake in Barrick Gold in August, and shocked them again with its $735 million
American and European oil companies are taking vastly different approaches in the face of low oil prices and growing concerns about climate change.
Two views of oil’s future are an ocean apart
Pump jacks are stacked in front of rows of a windmill field in West Texas Wednesday, June 28, 2017 outside of Kermit, Texas. ( Steve Gonzales / Houston Chronicle )
Two views of oil’s future are an ocean apart
A pump jack stands next to wind turbines near Guymon, Oklahoma, U.S., on Friday, Sept. 25, 2020. After all the trauma the U.S. oil industry has been through this year — from production cuts to mass layoffs and a string of bankruptcies — many producers say they’re still prioritizing output over reducing debt. Photographer: Angus Mordant/Bloomberg
Two views of oil’s future are an ocean apart
Wind turbines and oil pumpjack in action Tuesday, Oct. 27, 2015, north
Oct 1 (Reuters) – Investors turned bearish on the Thai baht for the first time in two months, highlighting concerns over the pace of recovery in Southeast Asia’s second-largest economy through the COVID-19 pandemic and a domestic political crisis.
Bullish bets on most other emerging Asian currencies were scaled back with the U.S. dollar near two-month highs in recent weeks amid uncertainty leading up to the U.S. Presidential election, while market participants further increased short positions on the Indonesian rupiah IDR=.
Short positions on the baht THB=TH were at their highest since late-April, a fortnightly poll of 12 respondents showed, as the government tries to revive the tourism-reliant economy by approving long-stay visas for foreign tourists, providing tax incentives and cash handouts.
Last month, the Thai central bank left interest rates unchanged and upgraded its gross domestic product outlook, but more than two months of
(Reuters) – Investors turned bearish on the Thai baht for the first time in two months, highlighting concerns over the pace of recovery in Southeast Asia’s second-largest economy through the COVID-19 pandemic and a domestic political crisis.
FILE PHOTO: A Thailand Baht note is seen in this illustration photo June 1, 2017. REUTERS/Thomas White/Illustration
Bullish bets on most other emerging Asian currencies were scaled back with the U.S. dollar near two-month highs in recent weeks amid uncertainty leading up to the U.S. Presidential election, while market participants further increased short positions on the Indonesian rupiah IDR=.
Short positions on the baht THB=TH were at their highest since late-April, a fortnightly poll of 12 respondents showed, as the government tries to revive the tourism-reliant economy by approving long-stay visas for foreign tourists, providing tax incentives and cash handouts.
Last month, the Thai central bank left interest rates unchanged and upgraded
PLC has unveiled the most aggressive plans yet by a major oil company to pivot toward cleaner energy. But the revamp has so far failed to ignite enthusiasm among investors despite growing interest in renewables.
The British energy giant’s strategy—the biggest overhaul in its 111-year history—calls for a 40% reduction in oil-and-gas production over the coming decade, greater investment in low-carbon energy and a ramp-up in wind and solar power. No other major oil company has targeted such a steep decline in their main source of profit.
“Our new strategy is going to transform BP into a very different company, not overnight…but fast,” new Chief Executive Bernard Looney told investors this month at an event detailing the plans. He acknowledged there were “a few concerns, some skepticism and even a few myths” about the overhaul.
The 50-year-old BP lifer, who took the helm in February, said the
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MOSCOW (Reuters) – Sberbank <SBER.MM>, Russia’s dominant lender, is planning one of the biggest reinventions in its 179-year history as it seeks to join the likes of Apple and Google in the global pantheon of Big Tech.
The company, which is dropping the word “bank” from its logo as part of this drive, gave Reuters a preview of the devices it has developed to lead its charge – including a TV streaming box, virtual assistant and smart speaker – ahead of their official unveiling on Thursday.
Sberbank’s Chief Technology Officer David Rafalovsky also said in an interview that it was launching “SmartMarket”, an equivalent to Apple’s AppStore or Google Play.
“It’s a huge investment, not a big investment. Even for a successful company, it’s a huge investment,” he said about the new
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