In the US especially there has been a greater demand for homes with more space and supply restrictions, especially over the last 12 months. Combine this with very low mortgage rates and what you have is US prices up by almost 15% over the past year. Furthermore that’s the fastest 12-month rise in at least 30 years and this trend is not just true for the USA.
In the UK, the house prices are also up 13% year-on-year. The building society mentioned that the average price has increased from £216,403 (June 2020), to the current average of around £245,000. This is almost a record high and all of these factors involved make it very difficult for first-time buyers to secure a property.
Chief Economist Robert Gardner stated, “The pandemic is an unusual kind of shock – it has stimulated housing market activity rather than the shock holding back the market which is normally what happens.” The increase in annual growth was due partly to the prices being weak during the first lockdown which happened last year in the UK. In addition, nearly all parts of the UK witnessed a rise in house prices with the slowest rate being seen in Scotland.
However in the US, historically low mortgage rates have essentially increased buying power for Americans as many are looking for properties. This is especially true for the suburban markets where there have record high house prices. To conclude with, this is consistent with the hypothesis that COVID basically encouraged potential home owners to move from urban to suburban homes.
Nike has had a very successful strategy of providing for it’s customers directly, without having to deal with an middle man. Current data shows that Nike is currently Gen-Z’s favourite clothing brand, and this is no doubt the culmination of years of investment into the brand. It is already one of the most recognizable brands on the planet which may be why their current endeavour was so successful.
Most of Nike’s sales come from wholesale partners and sporting shops and other retail businesses. Just as recently as 2011, around 84% of the sales were in fact made to wholesale customers. The direct customer sales back then accounted for only around 16%, but there is currently a major shift taking place. Nike is now focusing more on selling directly to its customers and this has been rising year on year.
Some believe the rapid rise may also have been due to the pandemic, with the direct sales rising to 39%. With their recent revenue statements, it can be seen that for the 12 months leading up to may, Nike made a total revenue of $42 billion for the very first time. Furthermore, almost 40% of all these billions of dollars came from selling directly to customers.
Many think that this strategy is just common sense and will guarantee better profits. This is because Nike doesn’t have to share any of that profit with retailers and therefore keeps a higher profit margin. However as with anything, there is a disadvantage as Nike has had to do a lot more with customer service, manging returns and refunds, shipping, and a lot more.
Sources: msn, morningconsult
Could this be it? Maybe flying cars have finally arrived and are soon to become something of the present world. A Flying car completed a test flight between two international airports or Nitra and Bratislava, in Slovakia. It’s creator is a man named Professor Stefan Klein and he claims to have flown 40 hours in the air so far.
The car runs on a BMW ending and the fuel that it requires is not jet fuel, rather only petrol. Professor Klein also went on to mention how it could fly about 1000km and at a height of 2500m. The car is called the AirCar and it has a calm cruising seep of 120mph. Even after the test flight Professor Klein drove it straight into the city from the runway.
What’s amazing is that the transformation only takes 3 minutes or less as the wings rise up and then fold along the sides of the vehicle. However, all of this was not without time, energy and cost. The vehicle ultimately took two years to develop and it was not cheap, with the cost amounting to £1.7 million.
Prof Klien went on to say, “This flight starts a new era of dual-transportation vehicles. It opens a new category of transportation and returns the freedom originally attributed to cars back to the individual.” Morgan Stanley predicted in 2019 that the flying car sector could be worth around £1 trillion by 2040. There is a huge potential market that exists but whether this car will take off and become the trend, only time will tell.
Shortly after Microsoft passed the $2 trillion cap, Facebook also joined the $1 trillion club. Fort the first time ever Facebook hit $355.64 per share and the success was also due in part to the dismissal of an antitrust lawsuit by a federal court. The judge found that Facebook does not hold monopoly power and the accusations were that it was acting illegally.
It must be noted that Facebook is only one out of 5 companies that have passed this huge milestone. The other companies that are Microsoft, Apple, Amazon, and Alphabet which is the parent company of Google. Investors of Facebook saw this as a huge win for Facebook and this sent the share prices even higher.
The specific lawsuit also aimed to rid the company of Instagram and WhatsApp, which Facebook currently owns and has power over. However Facebook’s response to this complaint was that it is completely “nonsensical” and said that the Federal Trade Commission doesn’t understand the competitive nature of the high-tech industry. Furthermore the Judge went on to say that these allegations could easily have been filed between 2012 and 2014 which is when most of claimed illegal action took place.
There was another lawsuit which was also dismissed, this one having been filed December 2020. This other lawsuit was filed by 48 attorneys general against Facebook, however the company has not been proved not guilty of any of the claimed violations. For now the future is looking bright for Facebook, as any investor will tell you.