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Lululemon Has A 'Newness' Problem It Says It Will Fix
Shoppers Visited Lululemon's (LULU)...
Investopedia
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Shoppers visited Lululemon's (LULU) stores and website in the second quarter. When they got there, though, they didn’t see enough new stuff to buy.
That’s according to executives at the apparel company, which on Thursday reported second-quarter financial results that included a 3% drop in U.S. comparable-store sales and 1% growth in U.S. revenue.
Executives call the phenomenon “newness,” and it particularly affected women who hoped for more seasonal updates to “color, print, patterns and silhouettes” in some product categories, CEO Calvin McDonald said on a conference call with analysts, a transcript of which was provided by AlphaSense.
“It's become clear to us that this reduced newness, which is below our historical level, and stems from earlier product decisions, has impacted conversion rates, given the fewer new options available to our female guests,” McDonald said. “The newness that we had performed well. We simply did not have enough to inspire her to purchase.”
McDonald said the company is working to refresh its lineup “as quickly as possible,” citing as examples leggings, shorts and tracksuits. The missed opportunity, he said, came as shoppers continued to visit Lululemon channels but didn’t find what they wanted. “They were there with intent to spend,” he said.
“We are optimistic that we will begin to see the benefits of these strategies over the upcoming quarters and return to our historical levels of newness no later than spring 2025,” he said.
Shares of Lululemon were down about 1% in early afternoon trading after rising as much as 4% in the opening minutes of Friday's session.
The stock has had a rough year, losing nearly half its value.
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Instablog9ja
3 hrs
9
Influencer Daniel Regha has reacted to Chidimma Adetshina’s Miss Universe Nigeria 2024 victory.
He said honestly speaking, it just feels too predictable and so wrong that Chidimma who became a contestant last minute is being crowned the winner of Miss Universe Nigeria 2024. Other contestants didn’t really stand a chance the moment she entered the competition and that’s the truth.
Click to watch
Instablog9ja
4 hrs
14
Former governor of Jigawa State, Sule Lamido, has described President Bola Tinubu as a very daring and self-made man, who owes his emergence to nobody, including his predecessor, Muhammadu Buhari.
He said, “Prior to the convention, he (Tinubu) was in Abeokuta, Ogun State, where he boasted that it was his turn to rule Nigeria. And Buhari, very naive, was watching. He never liked Tinubu. There was somebody he wanted.
He didn’t even trust his own vice president, Professor (Yemi) Osinbajo; he wanted Ahmed Lawan, but his calculation was absurd. You have done eight years for the North and you wanted another Northerner for another eight years?! No. Maybe later but there are some dynamics which you can’t alter, not in Nigeria of today.
The president of Nigeria, after being in office for eight years, lacked the courage to push through his anointed choice. He was there at the convention and Tinubu that he never liked, he never believed in emerged. Tinubu knows that his victory wasn’t from Buhari, therefore, he owes him nothing.
He wasn’t the choice of Afenifere, Obasanjo never liked him, but he became president. All the other groups, including the governors, were there but he won. He was determined to demolish all obstacles and he crushed them.
We are working hard, but it is a huge task. It is going to be difficult with Tinubu, with his hold on the country, on the economy, and his audacity to say this is where I stand against Nigeria’s interest. It is something else. Tinubu is very daring; he is his own creation, he is a self-made man, right from Chicago, what he went through on the streets. Look at how he was able to fight the Alliance for Democracy and Afenifere and then Obasanjo. At the APC convention, Buhari was against him but he defeated Buhari. What are you talking about?
Don’t underestimate a man like that. Look at how he made it in life. He confronted all obstacles to get to where he is today, at the apex. There is no Nigerian like Tinubu who has been there on his own. Every established political arrangement, every institution, he demolished them. Now that he is in charge, he is not going to be easy to deal with. With Tinubu, Nigeria is a fiefdom, Tinubu is the emperor. And if you watch him closely, he doesn’t care.”
Investopedia
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The Dow, S&P 500, and Nasdaq were little changed at midday Friday after fresh data showed inflation continued to cool in July, as expected.
Intel (INTC) was the best-performing stock in the S&P 500 following a report the chipmaker is considering strategic options which could include a sale or spinoff of its foundry division.
Shares of Marvell Technology (MRVL) jumped after the networking circuits maker reported better-than-expected sales as it benefited from soaring demand for artificial intelligence (AI).
Alibaba Group (BABA) shares traded in the U.S. rose as Chinese regulators said the e-commerce firm completed a three-year “rectification” related to charges it engaged in monopolistic practices.
Ulta Beauty (ULTA) shares dropped after the maker of beauty products missed earnings and revenue estimates, had a surprise drop in comparable store sales, and cut its outlook as consumers pulled back discretionary spending and the company faced more competition.
Elastic N.V. (ESTC) shares cratered as the AI search and data company slashed its guidance, warning that it expects fewer customer commitments.
Oil and gold futures fell. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note was up slightly. The U.S. dollar advanced on the euro, pound, and yen. Prices for most major cryptocurrencies dropped.
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Mark_
7 hrs
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Healthwatch
12 hrs
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If your doctor recommends surgery, there's a lot to think about and many questions to answer. Do I really need this surgery? Should I get a second opinion? Will my insurance cover my operation? How long will my recovery take?
But here's something you might not have considered: does the sex of your surgeon affect the chances that your operation will go well? According to a study in JAMA Surgery, it just might.
How a surgeon's sex might affect surgical outcomes
The study looked at information drawn from more than 1.3 million adults and nearly 3,000 surgeons who performed one of 21 common elective or emergency surgeries in Canada between 2007 and 2019. The range of surgeries included appendectomies, knee and hip replacements, aortic aneurysm repairs, and spinal surgeries.
The researchers compared how often unfavorable outcomes (surgical complications, readmissions to the hospital, or death) occurred within 30 days of surgery among four patient groups:
Here's what they found:
The study was not designed to determine why these results were observed. However, its authors suggested that future research should compare specific differences in care, patient-surgeon relationships, measures of trust, and styles of communication between the four patient groups. It's also possible female surgeons follow standard guidelines more closely than their male counterparts. Physicians differ widely in how closely they adhere to guidelines, though it's unclear whether this might vary by physician sex.
Does other research suggest the sex of a doctor and patient matter?
This is not the first study to suggest physician sex matters when it comes to the quality of medical care. Other examples include a previous study of common surgeries, research regarding elderly patients admitted to the hospital, and patients with heart attacks. Each study found that patients of female physicians tended to fare better than those of male physicians. Similar results were reported for a review of research on patients with cardiovascular disease.
In this latest research there's an added twist: most of the difference in outcomes was among female patients cared for by male physicians. So, there's reason to take a good hard look at why this may be the case. What are female surgeons doing differently — especially with their female patients — that leads to better outcomes compared with male surgeons?
It's a sensitive subject
Let's face it: even raising the possibility that a surgeon's sex matters could make some doctors defensive, particularly those whose patients had worse outcomes. Most doctors likely believe that they provide high-quality care to all of their patients, regardless of a patient's sex. To suggest otherwise will predictably invite more than the usual amount of scrutiny and criticism of the research.
Of course, it's fair to raise questions and to be skeptical of a single study. For example, is it possible that male surgeons took on or were assigned more complex cases? Or, perhaps the non-surgeon members of the surgical teams, such as nurses, trainees, and physician assistants who provide care before, during and after surgery, had something to do with the results. While this study attempted to account for these and other factors, it was an observational study, for which it's often impossible to completely control for confounding factors.
The bottom line
There's little chance to do much planning if your surgery is an emergency. Even if your surgery is elective, in many countries — including Canada, where this study took place — most surgeons are male. That's true even in places where medical schools have similar numbers of male and female students. Any potential advantage may disappear if there's little chance of receiving care from a female surgeon.
A surgeon's expertise and experience with specific procedures matter most. It's impractical to pick your surgeon solely by sex, even in light of this latest research.
But if the patients of female surgeons truly have better outcomes than patients operated on by male surgeons, it is imperative to understand why. Sorting out what female surgeons are doing well (or what male surgeons aren't doing as well) is a worthy goal that could improve outcomes for all patients, regardless of their sex and that of their doctors.
Follow me on Twitter @RobShmerling
Source: Harvard Health Publishing
