Unbiased Reviews, News and Articles

Singapore wants to become a leading e-commerce hub in Asia - but there may be challenges ahead. As the pandemic reshapes consumer behaviour worldwide, more and more people in the region are shopping online and Southeast Asia's digital economy saw significant growth. "E-commerce in Southeast Asia - it's surging. But what sets Singapore apart (is) its policies and its initiatives that help cultivate an environment for the digital industry and the digital economy to thrive," said Ben King, country director at Google Singapore. Still, the city-state faces a skills shortage for digital talent - and that's critical for its ambition to become a global e-commerce player, he told CNBC's Christine Tan. The problem that we're seeing is not necessarily jobs - it's skills. There's an urgent need to help the workforce build digital skills to take on these jobs. - Ben King, Country Director at Google Singapore. To address the issue, the governmen...

CNBC's Jim Cramer on Friday advised investors to wait for shares of Nike to cool down before buying after the stock rallied double digits on a quarterly report that beat expectations by a long shot. "While the stock's far from cheap, business is booming, so you've got my blessing to buy some Nike the next time it pulls back," the "Mad Money" host said. Nike, which last hit a record high in January, saw shares jump to new highs after many market players took the wrong side of the trade ahead of the report, said Cramer, himself among the doubters. The stock closed at a record $154.35 per share Friday, gaining more than 20 points on unusually high trading volume powered by the surprise numbers. "Mega-capitalization companies don't usually see their stocks spike more than 15% on great earnings unless a lot of people were very, very wrong — or of course very, very short — going into the quarter," Cramer said. Cramer's charitable trust,...

Boat maker Brunswick will have low inventory by the end of 2021 as it continues seeing strong revenue growth and consumer demand, Brunswick CEO David Foulkes told CNBC on Friday. While Foulkes said he expects Brunswick to meet its production forecast for 2021, he noted that the company is still recovering from pandemic-induced supply chain disruptions and labor shortages.  "We're producing as much as we can, but we will still be in a very low inventory situation by the time we get through this year," Foulkes said on CNBC's "Power Lunch." He said it will probably take more than two years to meet retail demand and backfill the industry pipeline at current production rates. "We ended last year with unusually low inventory levels, and we're obviously a very seasonal business so we're producing pretty constantly through the year, but we need inventory to meet the needs of the peak selling season, which is really now for the Northern markets,...

Honoree Hal Lawton accepts award on stage during the 2019 Fashion Scholarship Fund Awards Gala on January 10, 2019 in New York City. Cindy Ord | Getty Images Tractor Supply Company has increased some prices in the face of inflation and supply chain constraints, headwinds that the retailer's CEO said he believes are here for the foreseeable future. "We have had some moderate price increases across our business. To date our customers have not demonstrated any elasticity or concerns there," Tractor Supply CEO Hal Lawton said on Friday during an interview at the National Retail Federation's online conference. "It's our obligation to try to keep the prices as low as we can for them, even as we navigate this inflationary environment that we are in that I suspect is more structural than transient, despite some of the other rhetoric," Lawton said. The company is facing price increases across the board, including the costs of raw materials and the tr...

Pedestrians walk past the American multinational sport clothing brand, Nike store and its logo seen in Hong Kong. Nike shares surged more than 14% on Friday morning, hitting a record high, after the sneaker maker forecast full-year sales topping $50 billion as its North American business rebounds from the lows of the coronavirus pandemic. And in greater China sales appear to be improving, with Nike management saying the company is confident about its ability to regain trust with customers there, amid threats to boycott Western brands over their comments expressing concern about alleged forced labour in Xinjiang. "These are times when strong brands can get stronger, and each quarter this reality becomes even more clear," Nike Chief Executive Officer John Donahoe said during an earnings call Thursday evening. Nike's stock was trading $152.70 at 9:35 a.m. ET. The retailer, which has a market cap of more than $211 billion, last saw its stock hit an all-time high of $147...

The Amazon logo displayed on a smartphone and a PC screen London - Britain's competition regulator on Friday launched a formal probe into Amazon and Google over concerns they haven't done enough to tackle fake reviews. "We are investigating concerns that Amazon and Google have not been doing enough to prevent or remove fake reviews to protect customers and honest businesses," Andrea Coscelli, chief executive of the CMA, said in a statement. "It's important that these tech platforms take responsibility and we stand ready to take action if we find that they are not doing enough." Misleading consumer reviews have proven to be a big problem in e-commerce, and Amazon is a prime target for brands looking to hype up their products online with fake, favorable write-ups. Last month, the company called on social media firms to help it weed out dishonest reviews. The Competition and Markets Authority began an initial investigation into the issue of fake revie...

CNBC's Jim Cramer on Thursday advised Carvana shareholders to lock in gains after a big surge in the stock. "I still think Carvana's a great long-term story, and I'd never recommend shorting the stock. But if you've owned it for this terrific run, maybe ... take some off the table as used car sales are showing signs of slowing in price increases," he said on "Mad Money." "Carvana's [stock has] come roaring back lately, but this is the rare turbo-charged growth name that's actually somewhat hostage to the broader economy," he added. The comments come one day after Carvana, an online used car marketplace, was the target of conflicting analyst recommendations. In a note out Tuesday, investment bank Jefferies kept its buy rating and raised its price target on Carvana shares to $400 from $375. Jefferies cited a low supply of used cars across the industry and strong demand. Meanwhile, JPMorgan downgraded the stock to neutral from ov...

Starbucks CEO Kevin Johnson on Thursday denied reports that the coffee company is running low on key supplies, telling CNBC it has enough cups and coffee to serve customers. There is "no shortage of cups, no shortage of coffee," Johnson said in an interview with Jim Cramer set to air on "Mad Money." Johnson was responding to earlier reports — including one from The Wall Street Journal — that said some Starbucks stores were short on cups and coffee syrups, among other things, as traffic at Starbucks rebounds from last year's slowdown. The article cited information from some store workers and an unnamed spokeswoman who said select markets were being hampered by the shortages. To be sure, Johnson said Starbucks continues to face operational challenges elsewhere that are testing the resiliency of the company's supply chain. "We've had some shortages in the bakery case, that certainly is true," he said. "If there's one area we've ...