China’s Property Market Slump Persists in February | Business Matters (Mar. 17)

and in today's business matters chevron's confidence is manifesting as $2 billion in h stock Chevron Corp has revealed that it has bought nearly 5% of hes Corp the Houston based oil company said the purchase reflect chevron's continued confidence in the pending acquisition of hes in 2023 Chevron agreed to buy hes for $53 billion gaining access to guana's oil Rich stoic block merger has cleared the ftc's antitrust review but Exxon Mobile is challenging the deal claiming it has a right of first refusal over hess's Guana stake the case is said to be heard in May PepsiCo will poping some bubbly over its poppy deal the snack and drink company is buying the popular Prebiotic soda brand for nearly $2 billion this will expand pepico into the healthier soda category as demand dips for the company's Trad additional drinks and snacks Young Americans are increasingly turning to healthier drinks as part of a broader Fitness and lifestyle shift Pepsi is anticipating $300 million in cash tax benefits making the net purchase price of poppy 1.65 billion the deal is still need to be approved by Regulators a price tag is being put on clothing brand guests the Peril company says it received a proposal to take it private from whp Global the same company that owns toys or us and fashion labels like Annie Klein and ver Wang whp Global has offered to buy guest outstanding shares for $13 each this would exclude shares owned by co-founders Paul and Maurice arano and CEO Carlos Alber data from alag shows three owns roughly 43% of the company guest said it has formed a special committee to evaluate the privatization proposal and noted though that there's no guarantee the deal will happen despite measures to prop up China's property Market the sector continues to struggle official data released today showed declines last month in prices investment sales and new construction starts based on numbers from the National Bureau of Statistics new home prices dipped in February after two months of relatively steady prices authorities in China have said that stabilizing the property Market is a priority this year measures will include easing home buying restrictions and stimulating demand for housing upgrades but the property Market has added pressure from weakening consumer confidence and trade War fears and two fintech companies have teamed up to win over Walmart from buy now pay later leader a firm Swedish payment firm Clara has partnered with Consumer Finance app one pay to offer installment loans for purch pures at Walmart Clara said the payment option will be directly integrated at Walmart checkouts this year customers will be able to choose from 3 to 36 months for repayments and manage loans directly on the pay one pay app lender airm previously held the sought after partnership its shares fell following the announcement and tipping prompts now appearing at self checkouts coffee shops and even convenience stores how are consumers generally reacting to the growing number of tipping prompts earlier I talked to Scott baradel uh and he's a branding and consumer transends expert for more on the situation it seems to me like tipping prompts are appearing everywhere uh that's including like self checkouts coffee shops and even convenience stores uh some consumers I imagine uh feel they're being asked to tip everywhere they go so how are they generally reacting to this growing number of tipping crimes well awkwardly for the most part I mean it's uh it's it's something they don't like there's a new survey out from a company called wallet Hub that shows 90% of consumers don't like what's happened with the expansion of tipping expectations and they're put in situations where they're face Toof face with the person who's basically asking them for a tip you know handing them this uh tablet to to select 20 25 50% tips or more on and and increasingly um they feel obligated to do it um and they're and they're resentful about it would you say other than awkwardness would you say there's a feeling of frustration uh fatigue or any other word uh associated with this constant tipping requests yeah I mean definitely all of the above you know this all started in about 200 18 when Square came about and you started to have these new ways of kind of paying through in kind of iPad based payment where they could add in these kind of preset tipping options and it's just exploded and as you mentioned even self-served kiosks places where it doesn't make any sense and so we went from its hairdressers and and waiters and waitresses uh hotel concierges to everyone expects a tip man now and many people just kind of just they've retrenched and said I just don't want to tip anymore it's not fair you know Scott my understanding is that tipping has traditionally been uh as a way to reward service right so uh what is your view on being asked to tip in situations where no direct service is involved yeah I mean it it doesn't it's nonsensical is what it is it doesn't make any sense it's like a company saying you want to give us some more money on top of what you know you're we're charging you um it's kind of gone in this direction for a long time it used to be as you said for extraordinary Service uh you would give a tip but it's been for a long time in the in the in the fields where service businesses where tipping is common like in a restaurant the weight staff you know that they're not paid very well and so you feel bad you want to give them 20% even if it wasn't the best service in the world so it's become obligatory in certain Fields um you know your your the person who cuts your hair things like that they you know that based on what they get paid they're expecting that 20% and so that that kind of movement from it being for Extraordinary service or very good service to just doing their jobs was already happening in a number of Industries but now it's just spread everywhere and now it's just supplementing you know uh jobs that are probably where people just aren't being paid enough and so we're you know consumers are doing the jobs of the employers who really should be paying uh their people more and I think that's what most consumers think today well you may be right about that we'll just have to wait and see thank you very much for coming on today thank you and us retail sales Rose just 2% in February after a sharp 1.2% drop in January and this is signaling potential cautious consumer spending as economic uncertainty grows while sales increased at grocery stores and online retailers they fell at auto dealers restaurants and electronic stores economists expect consumer spending to be just slowing by 1 to 1.5% this quarter raising concerns about tariffs government spending cuts and inflation are affecting all income levels with major retailers like Walmart and Macy's reporting weaker outlooks despite steady hiring some companies like Dollar General are expected to close 100 stores as Financial pressures Mount president Trump said again last night that reciprocal t on us trade Partners will take effect starting on April 2nd Trump told reporters on board Air Force 1 that additional targeted tariffs will also be implemented Trump has said he does not plan to offer exemptions from steel and aluminum tariffs the administration's 25% tariffs on all aluminum and steel imported into the US went to into effect last week here's the president it's a Liberation day for our country because we're going to be getting back a lot of the wealth that we so foolishly gave up to other countries it's going to be reciprocal in other words whatever they're charging we're charging very simple if they're charging us we're charging them then in addition to that on autos on steel on Alum we're going to have some additional tis meanwhile Belgian authorities are investigating Chinese Telecom company Huawei for alleged bribery forgery and moneya laundering the charges are linked to the company's lobbying efforts in Brussels 15 members of the European Parliament may be implicated in nd's International correspondent David VZ reports from Paris Chinese telecommunications company Huawei has been banned from the European Parliament and the European commission as Belgian authorities investigate the tech Giants lobbying activities in Brussels Belgian prosecutors said the probe involves allegations of bribery forgery and money laundering as part of the probe police raided 21 locations across Belgium and Portugal including huawei's Brussels lobing office early reports indicate current and former members of European Parliament may be implicated authorities say huawe provided European officials with financial incentives luxury gifts and all expense paid trips to influence political decisions the alleged misconduct reportedly occurred from 2021 to the present since 2019 Western countries have reduced the use of huawei's 5G technology due to fears about security and spying from the Chinese firm the EU commission has disted itself from Huawei since then in 2020 3 it decided to stop Contracting operators that use Chinese technology in response to the investigation Huawei said it takes the allegation seriously and has a zero tolerance policy toward corruption regarding the current case the Belgian Court described a form of corruption that is played out very regularly and in great secrecy by the Chinese firm Belgium intelligence Services inquires now how China may be using its non-state actors including Senor lobbies in huawei's Brussels office to advance the interest of the Chinese State and the Communist party around the EU and NATO headquarters in Brussels David vies ND news Paris the Department of Justice is looking to extend two deadlines in US steel and nepon Steel's lawsuit against the committee on foreign investment the two companies in January jointly filed a lawsuit against the committee which scrutinizes foreign investments for National Security risk the legal action came after the committee recommended that a merger between the companies be rejected on National Security grounds us steel and nepon alleged that then President Joe Biden prejudiced the committee's decision and violated the company's right to a fair review the steel Giants claimed that Biden diso to win the favor of the United Steel Workers Union in a bid for reelection us steel is headquartered in the swing state of Pennsylvania Forever 21 has filed for bankruptcy again it's the second time the retailers us operating company has filed in the past 6 years in it's filing Sunday the company cided increased competition from foreign retailers of fast fashion it's been struggling in recent years to keep up with Chinese own retailers like xen and timu specifically since online shopping boomed during the pandemic Forever 21 said it will hold liquidation sales at its Us stores and is trying to find a buyer for some or all of its assets for Forever 21 first filed for bankruptcy in 2019 but was able to stay afloat after being purchased by investors Will Smith is releasing his first fulllength album in 20 years the actor who Rose to fame as a rapper teased the release with the single called Beautiful scars featuring Big Sean back in January the tracked list includes collaborations with Tiana Taylor Jack Ross and obana and his album lost and found released in March 2025 news of the album release comes the same week he and his Fresh Prince of Bel Air co-star Tiana Ali recreated an iconic scene from their hit TV series The Fresh Prince of Bel Air okay US Stocks rallied today for a second straight session and this comes as investors sought Bargains after the NASDAQ and S&P fell for four straight weeks um and assess the latest economic data to gauge the impact of the Trump administration's policies now the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta adjusted its forecast for first quarter economic activity to show a 2.1% contraction and this estimate is down from the earlier estimate on March 7th which was a 1.6% contraction so stocks have tumbled in recent weeks with S&P 500 dropping last week by more than 10% from its February record high and over the weekend treasury secretary Scott bent said in an interview that there are no guarantees when asked about a recession and that's it on today's business matters