Contract manufacturer Jabil expects some “consumer-centric” end markets “to underperform” during its fiscal 2023 ending Aug. 31, “compared to the robust growth of the past 18 months,” said Chief Financial Officer Mike Dastoor on an earnings call Tuesday for fiscal Q4 ended Aug. 31.
Nearly three in 10 consumers are planning to spend less this holiday season than in previous years, and only 10% plan to spend more, reported Gartner Monday. For consumers who anticipate spending more, the vast majority said it’s because of brands raising prices due to inflation, it said.
Samsung’s Sept. 2 disclosures that cybercriminals had illegally accessed and stolen confidential “personally identifiable information” (PII) from millions of Samsung customers’ accounts sparked the second class-action fraud complaint within a week from consumers contending the company was lax in protecting their sensitive data from hackers.
Costco’s e-commerce sales increased 8.4% year over year in its fiscal Q4 ended Aug. 28, said Chief Financial Officer Richard Galanti on an earnings call Thursday. “The largest e-com merchandise department in dollars, what we call majors, which includes everything from computers to appliances to TVs to audio, was up in the high-single digits,” he said. Costco has had “minor improvement in a few areas” in recent inflationary trends, said Galanti. “Pressures from higher commodity prices, higher wages and higher transportation costs and supply chain disruptions -- they’re still present, but we are seeing just a little light at the end of the tunnel.” Supply chain disruptions have “improved a little,” he said. Costco no longer is experiencing “any big capacity issues or container shortages,” he said. “Domestically, port delays have improved.” The rail strike “was thankfully averted, [but] in anticipation of a strike, there were some rail ramp closures and delays in restarting that,” he said. “But the view from our buyers is that this should be eliminated for the most part toward the end of this week.”
Though some recent "data points” show “an uptick in the return to office level” in many U.S. cities, “the reality is some companies have paused their investments as they define their own workplace strategies or weigh their choices in a volatile macroeconomic environment,” said Steelcase CEO Sara Armbruster on an earnings call Thursday for fiscal Q2 ended Aug. 26. “The lagging return to office that so many companies are facing, primarily in the Americas, along with the possibility of a recession, is likely contributing to slower decision-making,” she said. “We’ve begun to see the impact of that slowdown on our incoming order volume level in the Americas, and we believe others in our industry are feeling that same downward pressure.” Despite recent “positive trends,” fiscal Q2 order volume for Steelcase, the world’s largest office furniture manufacturer, was down 8% in its Americas “core business,” she said.
Amazon and Amazon Web Services “expressly deny” they violated the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act by using the company’s Rekognition facial-imaging technology to monitor employees in Amazon fulfillment centers, said the companies in a notice of removal Wednesday (docket 1:22-cv-05159) in U.S. District Court in Chicago. Amazon and AWS “intend to defend this matter vigorously,” they said.
Even before President Joe Biden signed the Chips and Science Act into law Aug. 9 (see 2208090062), Analog Devices, Inc., had invested about $1 billion internally “to build out semiconductor fabrication capability” at its factories in Ireland and U.S. fabs in Beaverton, Oregon, and Camas, Washington, CEO Vincent Roche told a J.P. Morgan investment conference Tuesday. “We've been making sure that we secure ADI's manufacturing needs and the footprint that we need” at nodes of 18 nanometers and above, he said. “We've done that without Chips Act funding. We're taking a very, very hard look now at the resiliency of our supply chain at 90 nanometers and below.” ADI “flagged” to its investors that it expects an increase in capital expenditures in its manufacturing operations “over the next few years,” he said. “Any activity we take upon ourselves to build more resiliency in our manufacturing model, Chips Act funding either in Europe or America is something that we'll be in conversation on.” ADI deploys a “hybrid manufacturing model,” said Roche. “We're not intending to build everything that we need inside ADI. We've had a very successful partnership with many of the brand-name foundries over the last several years. So we intend to work in a collaborative way with these vendors for the next several years.”
The data breach that Samsung disclosed publicly Sept. 2 exposed consumers’ “personally identifiable information” (PII) to harm because the company “intentionally, willfully, recklessly, or negligently” failed to take “adequate and reasonable measures to ensure its data systems were protected against unauthorized intrusions,” alleged a class-action complaint Monday (in docket 1:22-cv-07974) in U.S. District Court in Manhattan.
The SEC and AT&T face an Oct. 17 court deadline for submitting a proposed schedule through the start of trial in their 18-month legal fight, including an estimate about how long a trial would last, said an order (docket 1:21-cv-01951) signed by U.S. District Judge Paul Engelmayer. The judge, in a Sept. 8 opinion, denied the parties’ cross motions for summary judgment in the case, in which the SEC sued AT&T for violations of the commission’s fair disclosure regulation (Reg FD).
The “massive acceleration” of digital commerce “infrastructure” around the world was “one of the most important things that happened during the pandemic,” Visa President Ryan McInerney told an Autonomous Research investment conference Thursday. He also said consumer spending, from Visa’s perspective, remains stable in most of the world, despite record-high inflation, waning consumer confidence and geopolitical tensions from the war in Ukraine.