Raphael Stevens

When Subaru entered the United States in the 1960s it was panned by critics, and actually advertised its own cheap ugliness.Over the next several decades it would become a highly successful brand through a combination of offbeat but practical cars and a relentless focus on understanding its own customers.The scrappy brand enjoyed a 93-month sales increase streak that ended in 2019, and it has found ways to survive during the coronavirus pandemic.But it is not without challenges. The intense demand for its vehicles has at times brought growing pains — quality issues and recalls gave led to an unusual quarterly loss in 2018.There is also pressure on the company, like all automakers, to develop some kind of electrification strategy. Subaru does have a partnership with the much larger Japanese automaker Toyota, which is expected to soon produce an electric vehicle jointly made by the two companies. More

Pedestrians walk past a Nordstrom Inc. store.Ben Nelms | Bloomberg | Getty ImagesThe department store chain Nordstrom said Wednesday it will debut its own Livestream Shopping channel, as part of its broader ambitions to delve into e-commerce livestreaming, which is already a huge phenomenon in Asia.Retailers such as Nordstrom are playing catch-up in the U.S. to a trend that has been rampant for years overseas, in large part thanks to early efforts by the Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba.Shoppable livestreams, akin to QVC, have struggled to take off with Americans. Experts say that’s partially because American consumers have been less receptive to the idea of buying goods via livestream and because the U.S. lacks so-called multichannel networks, or MCNs, that provide livestreaming services for businesses. MCNs are more common across China and can help brands grow an online audience.In the coming months, Nordstrom will host, among other things, a styling livestream on “how to wear Burberry runway looks,” a spring beauty trend happy hour, and a conversation with the British makeup artist Charlotte Tilbury, the company said. During each event, customers will be able to shop the fashion products mentioned that are available on Nordstrom’s website and participate in a live chatroom.”There’s so much opportunity for us to get closer to the customer,” Fanya Chandler, a senior vice president at Nordstrom, said in an interview. “We hope customers see this as an opportunity to seamlessly shop and participate in an informative and entertaining event.”Amazon was an early mover in livestreaming on its home turf. It debuted Amazon Live in early 2019 — as a sort of livestreamed home shopping network. Facebook, meantime, has made shopping a bigger focus on its namesake social media platform and on Instagram. TikTok has hosted shoppable livestream events with Walmart, where users can browse Walmart fashion featured by TikTok creators without having to leave the social media app. Beauty conglomerates Estee Lauder and L’Oreal have also used streams for some of their brands.”As more retailers and brands turn to this channel to stay competitive and win customers, the market will see significant growth,” said Deborah Weinswig, the founder and CEO of Coresight Research, in a report on the state of e-commerce livestreaming in America.Social media influencers in particular are expected to have a more significant impact on younger consumers’ shopping behaviors moving forward, Weinswig added.In China, livestreaming is estimated to have driven about $125 billion in sales in 2020, up from $63 billion in 2019, according to Coresight. In the U.S., the market was worth about $6 billion last year and could reach $11 billion in 2021, the firm said. It expects the U.S. e-commerce livestreaming market could eclipse $25 billion by 2023.For Nordstrom, the idea of launching a shoppable livestreaming channel hasn’t been brewing for long. The company decided late into this past holiday season to experiment in the space, drawing on China’s playbook, it said.”I’ve been watching what’s happening in China for a while now, and it’s exciting that you can get this connection with the consumer immediately,” Nordstrom’s Chandler said. “Quite frankly, Covid has really accelerated all of the things that we’ve wanted to do.”Nordstrom shares are up about 43% year to date. The company has a market cap of $7.05 billion, which is bigger than Macy’s but smaller than Kohl’s. More

Retail sales in February slid more than expected.The Commerce Department said they dropped 3% versus the 0.5% loss economists anticipated. The SPDR S&P Retail ETF (XRT) closed down 2% on Tuesday, reflecting the decline.Winter appeared to be a contributor, but with an approaching economic reopening, stimulus and spring weather, retail may bounce back, TradingAnalysis.com founder Todd Gordon told CNBC’s “Trading Nation” on Tuesday.”It was set from a high-water mark from the prior reading,” he said of February’s larger-than-expected drop. “Everything that I’ve read from economists says it doesn’t seem to be long lasting. I think we’re still in a strong market.”Gordon noted that consumers are putting their health first, driven by Covid-19 — which the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found disproportionately affects Americans who are overweight and obese — and brought up Garmin as a potential contender for a fitness play.”I think there’s this new norm of more health-conscious outdoor activities. They’re well positioned. They do boats, they do outdoor recreation, they do biking,” he said of the wearable technology maker.Gordon also highlighted the success of other companies that use Garmin products.”There’s several boating companies,” he said. “Malibu and Thor [reported] record earnings, and those Garmin products are located in the products.”Gina Sanchez, founder and CEO of Chantico Global, said analysts always expected higher retail growth in the spring than the winter.When it came to the reopening, Sanchez was focused on stocks of companies offering various consumer services.”There’s still a lot of pent-up demand for services right now,” Sanchez, also chief market strategist at Lido Advisors, said in the same “Trading Nation” interview.”[People] just haven’t been able to go out. Gyms, for example, are reopening for the first time here in Los Angeles and across the nation. As that reopening happens, we’ve actually been seeing the spending in the goods names. We should see some catch-up in the service names.”Beyond the growth from reopening, TradingAnalysis.com’s Gordon saw more room to run for stocks.”I think we’re in an environment that even transcends the reopening trade,” he said. “We’re in the next tech bull market. I think Covid accelerated the path. … I think people are understating the strength of the bull market that we’re in.”Sanchez also expressed a positive outlook for the market, highlighting consumers’ saving rates.”I’m more bullish than normal, let’s put it that way,” the CEO said. “The savings rate really went up during the pandemic because so many things were closed. And that pent-up demand … just to go out and interact and socialize, that is going to be pretty impressive, the level of spending that we’ll see in the next 12 to 18 months.”Disclosure: Gordon owns shares of Garmin.Disclaimer More

A healthcare worker cares for a Covid-19 patient in the ICU ward at the Robert Bosch Hospital in Stuttgart, Germany, on Tuesday, Jan. 12, 2021.Bloomberg | Bloomberg | Getty ImagesIt’s no secret that Germany has been seeing a sharp rise in coronavirus cases in recent weeks but one leading health expert in the country is now warning of “exponential growth” in the number of infections.This comes at a time when the country has suspended the use of the AstraZeneca-University of Oxford coronavirus vaccine.Epidemiologist Dirk Brockmann, an expert at the Robert Koch Institute for infectious diseases, said that a recent loosening of Covid restrictions has allowed a more virulent variant of the virus, first discovered in the U.K. late last year, to spread rapidly.”We are exactly on the flank of the third wave. That can no longer be disputed. And, at this point, we have eased the restrictions and that is speeding up the exponential growth,” Brockmann told German broadcaster ARD on Tuesday.”It has been totally irrational to loosen up here. It’s just fueling this exponential growth,” he said.Germany was lauded for its initial response to the pandemic, managing to keep cases lower by an effective track and tracing regime, and keeping the death rate lower thanks to its modern hospital infrastructure.But in recent months, over winter and faced with new more virulent variants of the virus, it has appeared to struggle to contain infections. The EU’s sluggish vaccine rollout has not helped matters, with the bloc facing criticism for its slower procurement and deployment of vaccines. Germany’s vaccination rollout has faced several hurdles, frustrating officials and health experts in the country.German Chancellor Angela Merkel and state leaders agreed earlier this month to a gradual easing of restrictions along with an “emergency brake” that would allow the authorities to reverse course if the number of infections rises above 100 per 100,000 on three consecutive days.The emergency brake, the government said, had been envisaged “in the event that we experience exponential growth” of cases. Merkel and regional leaders are expected to review the measures on March 22 where they will decide whether to proceed to the next step of reopening, or not.The number of cases per 100,000 reported on Tuesday was 83.7, up from 68 a week ago, and the RKI has said that metric could reach 200 by the middle of next month, Reuters noted in a report Tuesday.Germany’s lockdown is currently due to run to at least March 28 but some restrictions have already been eased, with schools, daycare and hairdressers reopening at the start of the month.Then bookstores and florists were allowed to reopen and some museums too a week ago. Regional rules can vary, however, with states granted discretion over how and when they reopen given case rates.On March 22, Germany’s five-point plan to reopen had envisaged that some outdoor dining venues, theaters, and cinemas could reopen. But the rising number of infections could derail that timetable.Vaccine suspensionThe top epidemiologist’s comments come as Germany, and a handful of other European countries, have decided to suspend use of the coronavirus vaccine developed by AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford with concerns over reports of blood clots in a handful of vaccinated people.The move has baffled experts around the world, however, with the World Health Organization and European Medicines Agency (which are both carrying out a safety review of the vaccine) both insisting that all available evidence shows the vaccine is safe and effective and does not prompt a higher risk of blood clots, which are common in the general population.The vaccine maker itself has highlighted that the data shows that the number of blood clots in the vaccinated population has actually been lower than what might have been expected to occur naturally.The WHO and EMA, which is due to publish the findings of its safety review Thursday, say that the benefits of the vaccine outweigh the risks and that countries should not pause their immunization programs. Nonetheless, more than a dozen European countries have suspended its use. This could lead to a dangerous increase in infections, and deaths, experts say.”Latest figures suggest 40 fatal cases for every 20 million vaccinated with Astra-Zeneca jabs. Each case taken individually is always terrible, but this, as a percentage, is statistically insignificant. Instead, vaccination delays cost Europe about 2000 more deaths per day, and tens of billions of euros in lockdowns, closed businesses,” Guido Cozzi, professor of macroeconomics at the University of St. Gallen, said in a note Tuesday.Even if public health bodies like the WHO and EMA reiterate on Thursday that the vaccine is safe, experts fear that more damage has already been done to the vaccine’s reputation.AstraZeneca’s vaccine has already faced several hurdles, ranging from question marks over trial methodology and data, misplaced hesitation over the vaccine’s efficacy in the over-65s, and disputes over delays of supplies to the EU. Real world data shows the vaccine is extremely effective at preventing severe Covid cases, hospitalizations and deaths in adults. More

A vial of the Oxford University/AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine is seen at the Lochee Health Centre in Dundee, Scotland, Britain January 4, 2021.Andy Buchanan| Pool | ReutersLONDON — France and Italy say they are ready to quickly restart inoculation programs with the AstraZeneca vaccine if regulators confirm it’s still safe to use.The preliminary statement from the European Medicines Agency on Tuesday was “encouraging,” the office of Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi said Tuesday in a statement following a phone call with French President Emmanuel Macron. It added that in the event of a positive conclusion by the EMA, France and Italy were ready “to promptly restart” inoculations with the vaccine.The two countries are among more than a dozen that have suspended the AstraZeneca-Oxford University shot after reports of blood clots in a few of the citizens vaccinated.Concerns over potential side effects from the vaccine emerged last week after a female died in Austria. Since then, more countries have reported cases of blood clots and an unusual number of platelets in a few patients. AstraZeneca said Sunday that of the 17 million people vaccinated in the EU and the U.K., there have been 15 events of deep vein thrombosis and 22 instances of pulmonary embolism, as per data received until March 8.We are still firmly convinced that the benefits…outweigh the risk of these side effects.Emer CookeExecutive director at EMAEuropean health authorities are still of the opinion that the shot is good to use in the fight against Covid-19. The EMA said Tuesday that there is “no indication” so far that the reports of blood clots were directly caused by the vaccine.”We are still firmly convinced that the benefits…outweigh the risk of these side effects,” Emer Cooke, executive director of the EMA, said at a press conference.She confirmed the institution is studying 30 reports of unusual blood disorders and that it will announce the outcome of this work on Thursday.A group of EU countries, including Belgium and Poland, have kept administering the AstraZeneca shot. Those European countries that have suspended the vaccine are waiting for the EMA’s announcement to decide how to proceed.In the meantime, the EMA is “worried there might be an effect on the trust of the vaccines,” Cooke said on Tuesday. The EU’s vaccination program has faced various hurdles. Doubts among the population about the safety of vaccines could derail the EU’s main target of having 70% of the adult population vaccinated by the end of the summer.Stella Kyriakides, the EU’s commissioner for health, said Tuesday that “it is crucial that citizens can feel that they have the confidence and the trust in the vaccines that have been authorized by the European Medicines Agency, so that we can fight this virus together.”As of Monday, more than 6 million EU citizens had received the AstraZeneca vaccine out of more than 46 million inoculations, according to data from the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control.The European Commission also urged member states on Tuesday to use every single vaccine dose that they have access to.The ECDC data shows that more than 62 million doses have been distributed to member states, showing that there are almost 20 million doses that have yet been administered. More

Travelers walk through Beijing Daxing International Airport in Beijing, China, on Tuesday, Aug. 25, 2020.Yan Cong | Bloomberg | Getty ImagesChina is making it easier for foreigners who have been inoculated with Chinese-made coronavirus vaccines to enter the country, after shutting its borders for international travel more than a year ago due to Covid-19.Multiple Chinese embassies around the world — including those in the United States, United Kingdom, India, Israel and the Philippines — issued notices on Monday outlining how foreigners can go about applying for visas to enter China.But the instructions only apply to those who have been fully vaccinated using Covid-19 vaccines made in China and have the vaccination certificate to prove it.To be clear, people with valid residence permits can enter China without new visas. Those without Chinese vaccines can also apply for visas, but they will need stronger reasons or specific documents in order to meet the requirements.Vaccine nationalism is a possibility that cannot be ruled out given the absence of further explanation.Chong Ja IanAssociate professor of political scienceChong Ja Ian, an associate professor of political science at the National University of Singapore, weighed in on possible reasons for China’s move.”Vaccine nationalism is a possibility that cannot be ruled out given the absence of further explanation,” he told CNBC in an email.Chong also said some observers suggest this is a way for China to get more usage and recognition of its vaccines or get countries to approve their vaccines more quickly.China has developed five vaccines, and 34 countries have approved at least one Chinese vaccine, according to CNBC’s calculations based on a Covid-19 vaccine tracking site.For comparison, the Pfizer-BioNTech shot has been approved by 72 countries, while the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine has been approved in 74 countries.Chinese vaccines have been met with some skepticism as information is less readily available compared to those produced by western pharmaceutical companies.Covid-19 was first reported in the China, in the city of Wuhan, before it spread to the rest of the world. The coronavirus is mostly under control in China now, but the country’s borders have remained largely closed to foreigners.Entry requirementsEach embassy’s notice differed in wording, but generally, foreigners from certain countries who have been fully vaccinated with Chinese vaccines require fewer documents to apply for visas. They are also allowed into the country for more reasons — though tourism is not one of them.For example, the Chinese embassy in the United Kingdom said those applying to enter for business purposes will no longer need to produce an invitation letter from provincial governments or departments of commerce. Those without a Chinese vaccine will still need to produce an invitation letter in order to apply, based on visa requirements announced in November.China also expanded the scope of those eligible to apply for a visa for humanitarian purposes. Those from the U.K. seeking to enter the country to reunite with family can now submit an application if they have taken the Chinese shots.Without the Chinese vaccine, foreigners from the U.K. can only apply to enter if a family member is in critical condition and in need of care, or if they needed to arrange for funeral matters in China.The country’s quarantine measures of up to 21 days still apply where relevant and negative Covid tests will need to be presented. Applicants should wait 14 days after receiving a Chinese-made vaccine before seeking a visa to enter China. More