H&M Has Lagged Behind Zara Owner Inditex In Online Shopping. Both Stocks Fell.
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    HOUSE MEDIAN ASKING PRICES AND WEEKLY CHANGE     Sydney $1,617,056 (+0.24%)       Melbourne $1,000,525 (-0.63%)       Brisbane $1,042,046 (-0.57%)       Adelaide $935,729 (-0.10%)       Perth $926,969 (+0.05%)       Hobart $747,180 (-1.31%)       Darwin $765,724 (+2.11%)       Canberra $969,015 (+0.41%)       National $1,064,466 (+0.02%)                UNIT MEDIAN ASKING PRICES AND WEEKLY CHANGE     Sydney $762,768 (+0.19%)       Melbourne $477,217 (+0.91%)       Brisbane $655,017 (-0.25%)       Adelaide $503,220 (+0.13%)       Perth $506,109 (-0.69%)       Hobart $538,123 (+0.07%)       Darwin $392,695 (+2.21%)       Canberra $507,202 (+0.63%)       National $563,984 (+0.16%)                HOUSES FOR SALE AND WEEKLY CHANGE     Sydney 11,236 (+860)       Melbourne 14,447 (+809)       Brisbane 7,855 (+165)       Adelaide 2,564 (+97)       Perth 7,208 (+167)       Hobart 1,205 (+31)       Darwin 179 (+1)       Canberra 1,172 (+79)       National 45,866 (+2,209)                UNITS FOR SALE AND WEEKLY CHANGE     Sydney 8,798 (+348)       Melbourne 6,789 (+167)       Brisbane 1,627 (+44)       Adelaide 378 (-3)       Perth 1,628 (+21)       Hobart 230 (+2)       Darwin 257 (-2)       Canberra 1,162 (+42)       National 20,869 (+619)                HOUSE MEDIAN ASKING RENTS AND WEEKLY CHANGE     Sydney $800 ($0)       Melbourne $590 (-$5)       Brisbane $650 ($0)       Adelaide $620 ($0)       Perth $700 ($0)       Hobart $570 ($0)       Darwin $760 (+$10)       Canberra $700 (+$5)       National $682 (+$2)                UNIT MEDIAN ASKING RENTS AND WEEKLY CHANGE     Sydney $750 ($0)       Melbourne $600 ($0)       Brisbane $650 ($0)       Adelaide $500 ($0)       Perth $650 ($0)       Hobart $450 ($0)       Darwin $580 (-$3)       Canberra $580 ($0)       National $608 (-$)                HOUSES FOR RENT AND WEEKLY CHANGE     Sydney 6,578 (-8)       Melbourne 8,259 (-152)       Brisbane 4,220 (-209)       Adelaide 1,555 (-25)       Perth 2,249 (-66)       Hobart 200 (-5)       Darwin 136 (-8)       Canberra 600 (-30)       National 23,797 (-503)                UNITS FOR RENT AND WEEKLY CHANGE     Sydney 10,121 (-465)       Melbourne 7,272 (-299)       Brisbane 2,271 (-100)       Adelaide 433 (+6)       Perth 693 (-24)       Hobart 84 (+1)       Darwin 193 (-22)       Canberra 582 (-14)       National 21,649 (-917)                HOUSE ANNUAL GROSS YIELDS AND TREND         Sydney 2.57% (↓)       Melbourne 3.07% (↓)     Brisbane 3.24% (↑)      Adelaide 3.45% (↑)        Perth 3.93% (↓)     Hobart 3.97% (↑)        Darwin 5.16% (↓)     Canberra 3.76% (↑)      National 3.33% (↑)             UNIT ANNUAL GROSS YIELDS AND TREND         Sydney 5.11% (↓)       Melbourne 6.54% (↓)     Brisbane 5.16% (↑)        Adelaide 5.17% (↓)     Perth 6.68% (↑)        Hobart 4.35% (↓)       Darwin 7.68% (↓)       Canberra 5.95% (↓)       National 5.60% (↓)            HOUSE RENTAL VACANCY RATES AND TREND       Sydney 2.0% (↑)      Melbourne 1.9% (↑)      Brisbane 1.4% (↑)      Adelaide 1.3% (↑)      Perth 1.2% (↑)      Hobart 1.0% (↑)      Darwin 1.6% (↑)      Canberra 2.7% (↑)      National 1.7% (↑)             UNIT RENTAL VACANCY RATES AND TREND       Sydney 2.4% (↑)      Melbourne 3.8% (↑)      Brisbane 2.0% (↑)      Adelaide 1.1% (↑)      Perth 0.9% (↑)      Hobart 1.4% (↑)      Darwin 2.8% (↑)      Canberra 2.9% (↑)      National 2.2% (↑)             AVERAGE DAYS TO SELL HOUSES AND TREND         Sydney 37.5 (↓)       Melbourne 40.0 (↓)       Brisbane 38.2 (↓)       Adelaide 33.4 (↓)     Perth 45.9 (↑)        Hobart 39.4 (↓)       Darwin 42.4 (↓)       Canberra 40.6 (↓)       National 39.7 (↓)            AVERAGE DAYS TO SELL UNITS AND TREND         Sydney 35.0 (↓)       Melbourne 40.2 (↓)       Brisbane 34.4 (↓)       Adelaide 32.0 (↓)     Perth 46.6 (↑)        Hobart 39.6 (↓)     Darwin 49.6 (↑)      Canberra 49.0 (↑)        National 40.8 (↓)           
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H&M Has Lagged Behind Zara Owner Inditex In Online Shopping. Both Stocks Fell.

By Jack Denton
Wed, Dec 16, 2020 12:11amGrey Clock 2 min

The Covid-19 pandemic caused sales to slump at retail giants Inditex and Hennes & Mauritz (H&M) in November, reversing glimmers of a recovery and shining a light on the very different online sales performance between the two companies.

Shares in both companies fell in European trading, with Inditex, which owns Zara, trading near 2% lower and H&M dropping more than 2% on Tuesday.

The back story. As global coronavirus infection rates slowed through the summer and government restrictions were loosened, shoppers flocked back to stores after months of retail closures. Both Spanish Inditex and Swedish H&M—the largest and second-largest fashion chains in the world, respectively—returned to profitability in the autumn after large losses.

With the Covid-19 pandemic keeping millions of shoppers housebound, Inditex has made a key investment in expanding online shopping. In June, the company announced a €2.7 billion ($4.34 billion) investment plan to improve online operations and increase store footprint, of which €1 billion was earmarked for digital investments.

H&M, still controlled by its founding Persson family, was already struggling before the pandemic hit. The company has been slower to shift to online shopping in favour of its more than 5,000 stores and the low-cost fashion strategy it helped pioneer.

What’s new. Both companies reported results on Tuesday—Inditex for the three months to the end of October, and H&M for the quarter ending Nov. 30 as well as the full year.

Store and online sales grew slowly from August to October at Inditex, with October sales at 94% of 2019 levels at constant currencies. In total, net sales of €6.1 billion in the third quarter were 14% lower than the same period in 2019. However, as coronavirus cases surged in November, 21% of stores remained closed and sales fell to 81% of 2019 levels.

At H&M, net sales for the fourth quarter were 10% lower in local currencies from the same period last year. Much of that came in the final month: sales were down by just 3% year-over-year from Sept. 1 to Oct. 21, but were 22% lower than 2019 in the period from Oct. 22 to Nov. 30.

Looking ahead. The results from the retail giants show the impact the second wave of Covid-19 has brought on sales. Fears over how much this hurts the bottom line for the full year is what may have caused both stocks to fall.

But the results also shine a light on the companies’ different online strategies—a crucial sales platform beyond the pandemic. Inditex reported that online sales grew 76% in the nine months to the end of October, while analysts expect H&M to lag far behind. The Swedish retailer didn’t post any fresh online figures on Tuesday. It had posted online sales growth of 40% in the second quarter and just 27% in the third.



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Tech Giants Double Down on Their Massive AI Spending

Amazon, Google, Microsoft and Meta pour billions into artificial intelligence, undeterred by DeepSeek’s rise

By NATE RATTNER AND JASON DEAN
Fri, Feb 7, 2025 3 min

Tech giants projected tens of billions of dollars in increased investment this year and sent a stark message about their plans for AI: We’re just getting started.

The four biggest spenders on the data centers that power artificial-intelligence systems all said in recent days that they would jack up investments further in 2025 after record outlays last year. Microsoft , Google and Meta Platforms have projected combined capital expenditures of at least $215 billion for their current fiscal years, an annual increase of more than 45%.

Amazon.com didn’t provide a full-year estimate but indicated on Thursday that total capex across its businesses is on course to grow to more than $100 billion, and said most of the increase will be for AI.

Their comments in recent quarterly earnings reports showed the AI arms race is still gaining momentum despite investor anxiety over the impact of China’s DeepSeek and whether these big U.S. companies will sufficiently profit from their unprecedented spending spree.

Investors have been especially shaken that DeepSeek replicated much of the capability of leading American AI systems despite spending less money and using fewer and less-powerful chips, according to its Chinese developer. Leaders of the U.S. companies were unbowed , touting advances in their own technology and arguing that lower costs will make AI more affordable and grow the demand for their cloud computing services, which AI needs to operate.

“We think virtually every application that we know of today is going to be reinvented with AI inside of it,” Amazon Chief Executive Andy Jassy said on Thursday’s earnings call.

Here is a breakdown of each company’s plans:

Amazon said a measure of its capex that includes leased equipment rose to a record of about $26 billion in the final quarter of 2024 , driven by spending in its cloud-computing division on equipment for data centers that host AI applications. Executives projected it would maintain the fourth-quarter spending volume in 2025, meaning an annual total of more than $100 billion by that measure.

The company—which gets most of its revenue from e-commerce and most of its profit from cloud computing—also projected overall sales for the current quarter that missed analysts’ expectations. Its shares slid about 4% in after-hours trading Thursday. The stock rose more than 40% in 2024 and was up nearly 9% this year before its earnings report.

Jassy said AI has the potential to propel historic change and that Amazon wants to be a leader of that progress.

“AI represents for sure the biggest opportunity since cloud and probably the biggest technology shift and opportunity in business since the internet,” Jassy said.

Google shares are down about 7% since its earnings report Tuesday, which showed disappointing growth in its cloud-computing business. Still, parent-company Alphabet said it is accelerating investments in AI data centers as part of a surge in capital expenditures this year to about $75 billion, from $52.5 billion in 2024. The spending will go to infrastructure both for Google’s own use and for cloud-computing clients.

“I think part of the reason we are so excited about the AI opportunity is we know we can drive extraordinary use cases because the cost of actually using it is going to keep coming down,” said CEO Sundar Pichai .

AI is “as big as it comes, and that’s why you’re seeing us invest to meet that moment,” he said.

Microsoft has said it plans to spend $80 billion on AI data centers in the fiscal year ending in June, and that spending would grow further next year , albeit at a slower pace.

Chief Executive Satya Nadella said AI will become much more extensively used , which he said is good news. “As AI becomes more efficient and accessible, we will see exponentially more demand,” Nadella said.

Growth for Microsoft’s cloud-computing business in the latest quarter also disappointed investors, leaving its stock down about 6% since its earnings report last week.

Meta, too, outlined a sizable increase in its investments driven by AI, including $60 billion to $65 billion in planned capital expenditures this year, roughly 70% higher than analysts had projected. Shares in Meta are up about 5% since its earnings report last week.

CEO Mark Zuckerberg said investing vast sums will enable it to adjust the technology as AI advances.

“That’s generally an advantage that we’re now going to be able to provide a higher quality of service than others who don’t necessarily have the business model to support it on a sustainable basis,” he said.

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