Autor: Jane Austen

MS Amlin creates new partnerships team to support syndicate expansion January 28 2025 by Mithun Varkey Lloyd’s global (re)insurer MS Amlin has created a partnerships team to grow its distribution strategy as it seeks new growth opportunities.The team, which is a new class of business, will sit alongsi… To continue reading the full article and get full access to the InsuranceAsia News platform, please enquire about a subscription. Your company may already have a corporate license in place. Already a Subscriber? Please Login Join the mailing list Designed to help you stay ahead, our daily newsletter provides a round-up of…

(Reuters) – Nineteen Republican attorneys general have called on Costco Wholesale to abandon its diversity, equity, and inclusion policies, citing concerns about discrimination and legal risks. This comes after 98% of the U.S. retailer’s shareholders last week voted against a proposal requesting a report on the risks tied to its diversity and inclusion initiatives, pushing back against the growing scrutiny such policies face. Costco did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment outside regular business hours. State officials in a letter to Costco’s top boss Ron Vachris accused his company of doubling down on policies they allege violate…

Starbucks coffee at Prague Airport. – Image: anouchka (Getty Images) Starbucks (SBUX) will report its first earnings of the year tomorrow, and analysts are keeping a close eye on key indicators that could signal whether the company is on track for a turnaround in 2025. Bank of America (BAC) analyst Sara Senatore is closely monitoring U.S. performance, reasoning that if the “U.S. business starts working again, it would be hard to argue that the Starbucks brand is fundamentally weak.” Wall Street expects a slight improvement in U.S. same-store sales, forecasting a 4% decline compared to larger 6% drop in the…

Hugging Face introduced two new variants to its SmolVLM vision language models last week. The new artificial intelligence (AI) models are available in 256 million and 500 million parameter sizes, with the former being claimed as the world’s smallest vision model by the company. The new variants focus on retaining the efficiency of the older two-billion parameter model while reducing the size significantly. The company highlighted that the new models can be locally run on constrained devices, consumer laptops, or even potentially browser-based inference.Hugging Face Introduces Smaller SmolVLM AI ModelsIn a blog post, the company announced the SmolVLM-256M and SmolVLM-500M…

(Bloomberg) — Sign up for the India Edition newsletter by Menaka Doshi – an insider’s guide to the emerging economic powerhouse, and the billionaires and businesses behind its rise, delivered weekly. Most Read from Bloomberg A months-long selloff in Indian stocks is showing few signs of abating, with a gauge of smallcap shares plunging on Tuesday to take its losses from a September peak to 20%. The NSE Nifty Smallcap 250 Index was on course to enter a bear market after losing about 3.5% early in Tuesday’s session after a similar drop the previous day. The NSE India Volatility Index,…

Hong Kong CNN  —  China and India have agreed to resume direct commercial flights for the first time in five years, in the latest sign of warming relations between the world’s two most populous countries. Flights between India and mainland China were suspended at the onset of the Covid pandemic in early 2020, and remained halted following subsequent political tensions. The announcement on Monday came as India’s Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri met Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Beijing. In a statement, India’s Ministry of External Affairs said the two countries had reached a consensus “in principle to resume direct…

Technology firm Nvidia is now the world’s ninth most valuable brand, according to Brand Finance.   Credit: JHVEPhoto / Shutterstock The world’s 500 most valuable brands grew their brand value by 10% in the last year to $9.5trn, a figure that outpaced global economic growth which stood at 3%. Nvidia’s brand value has grown 98% in the last year, putting it in the top 10 of worldwide brands for the first time, according to Brand Finance’s Global 500 2025 research.   The technology firm was founded in 1993 as a computer chip business and has since capitalised on the AI…

Graco (NYSE:GGG) Reports Sales Below Analyst Estimates In Q4 Earnings, Stock Drops Fluid and coating equipment company Graco (NYSE:GGG) missed Wall Street’s revenue expectations in Q4 CY2024, with sales falling 3.2% year on year to $548.7 million. Its non-GAAP profit of $0.64 per share was 15.8% below analysts’ consensus estimates. Is now the time to buy Graco? Find out in our full research report. “We continued to experience slower demand across many end markets in the fourth quarter” Revenue: $548.7 million vs analyst estimates of $556.8 million (3.2% year-on-year decline, 1.5% miss) Adjusted EPS: $0.64 vs analyst expectations of $0.76…

Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong has raised concerns about the rising number of crypto tokens flooding the market. In a post on X Sunday, Armstrong claimed one million crypto tokens were being created on a weekly basis. With the massive influx of new tokens, he said, evaluating each token was no longer feasible. As per CoinMarketCap, over 10.19 million crypto tokens are currently in circulation.Armstrong, who co-founded Coinbase in 2012, said the flooding of crypto tokens into the market had become a problem. He also noted that regulators needed to put in place a blocking system for tokens that have not…

Dual promotes Marc Karapanovic to cyber lead for New Zealand January 28 2025 by Kristina Shperlik Howden-owned MGA Dual has promoted Marc Karapanovic to cyber lead for New Zealand, effective immediately.In his new role, Auckland-based Karapanovic will lead the development of SME cyber on the MGA’… To continue reading the full article and get full access to the InsuranceAsia News platform, please enquire about a subscription. Your company may already have a corporate license in place. Already a Subscriber? Please Login Join the mailing list Designed to help you stay ahead, our daily newsletter provides a round-up of the latest news…