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Tag: prices

  • Gold Prices: Hong Kong To The Rescue?

    Much of the recent fluctuation in gold prices was blamed on the improving American economy.

    The changing economic landscape in the United States is considered key for determining the long-term market value of the precious metal

    As such, gold suffered a drop in value as the US dollar strengthened; there is also the expectation that interest rates are due to rise in the near future.

    Despite the heavy focus on the American economy, the precious metals market was recently affected by the perceived political instability in Hong Kong.

    Thousands of pro-democracy supporters engaged in violent clashes with police on Sunday. They have occupied much of the financial center of Hong Kong, the sheer numbers bringing traffic to a halt in certain locations.

    These individuals are fighting what they feel is communist encroachment and will not budge until they are assured their message is heard.

    While the protesters may not be moving, the same cannot be said for stock prices. Hong Kong’s market saw two percent of its value shaved off as a result of wariness surrounding ongoing protests.

    This uncertainty recently crept into the global market. American stock futures were lower during pre-market trading on Monday. European shares were also negatively affected.

    As for gold, it received a slight reprieve as the price (for now) rose to $1,217.50 per ounce, up a total of $2.10. Meanwhile silver dropped by three cents to $17.55.

    Beyond Hong Kong protests possibly offering a boost, it’s also hoped that the “Golden Week” holidays in China will also lend a hand to gold prices.

    The problem is that it has been noted that the demand for gold in China is down overall. Even with the positive effect the situation in Hong Kong has had on the value of gold, it’s expected to continue a slow downward slide in value.

    Stateside, the growing economy and strengthening dollar aren’t the only economic factors driving gold prices down. There is much speculation surrounding the upcoming jobs report data to be released later in the week.

    The view of gold, even with its short term gains, continues to be somewhat bearish.

  • Silver Prices Lead To Surprising Show Of Optimism

    Silver prices fell to the lowest they’d ever been on Monday. While this may at first seem a discouraging sign, the word is that what will follow is a massive opportunity to buy.

    As of right now silver is trading at around $17.70 per ounce. For comparison’s sake, gold is currently valued at roughly $1,220 per ounce.

    Such an astronomical gap can likely be blamed on the “buy gold” craze that took hold during the worst of the recent recession.

    When the dust settled, everyone who was anyone coveted gold as protection from a weakened dollar and significant loss of wealth.

    That outlook seems to have changed drastically over the past year.

    The price of silver and gold have both been negatively affected by a strong dollar and the supposed inevitability of rising interest rates.

    On the other hand, the slightly negative economic outlook in Europe and Asia may also be driving the value of both silver and gold downward.

    Precious metals are presently seen in a bearish light, but could this change?

    As the value of silver continues to plummet, patient observers feel that there’s nowhere for the long neglected metal to go but up.

    However, not just yet.

    Investors are encouraged to wait until silver falls to $15 per ounce before they elect to buy. That would represent a 12 percent loss from where the metal closed on Monday.

    The reason could be that this represents a supposed baseline for the metal; it’s not expected to drop much lower than this for the foreseeable future.

    Onlookers do not expect either gold or silver to drop much lower than their current prices. Therefore investors are encouraged to wait out the falling price of silver. Once it hits the magical $15 range, some may start buying like there’s no tomorrow.

    As volatile silver continues to fluctuate in value, it will be interesting to see how many investors take that advice to heart.

  • Netflix Will Soon Be Raising Prices

    Netflix Will Soon Be Raising Prices

    Netflix is gearing up to make a move that may not sit well with its subscribers.

    On Monday, the Internet video service announced that the cost of monthly subscriptions would be going up within the next few months. They are estimating that the cost for new subscribers will increase by one to two dollars.

    The nearly 36 million current subscribers need not worry … yet. The company has explained that the current cusomters will continue to pay the $8.00 monthly subscription cost, that has been implemented since 2010, at least for the next year.

    The rising costs come as a measure for staying up-to-par with the competition. While Netflix currently has millions of subscribers, they are facing increased competition from cable networks such as HBO and Showtime, as well as other Internet video providers like Hulu.com and Amazon.com.

    Netflix also needs the added income to help pay for the rising costs of licensing the many videos and series they provide, such as their original series House of Cards and Orange is the New Black.

    “When we look at the shows and movies that we will be able to get if we have a bigger budget, it’s exciting,” Netflix CEO Reed Hastings told The Associated Press. “We want to make the service better and better so more people will join.”

    Hastings’ welcomes the competition and admitted that he is a subscriber to Amazon Prime. He described their services as “complementary to Netflix.” “We’re building this ecosystem together that’s about Internet video,” Hastings explained. “The more players there are in Internet video, the bigger that ecosystem gets…. and we’re all participating in that transformation.”

    Image via Wikimedia Commons

  • Penney Store Closings of 33 Locations Will Cut 2,000 Jobs

    On Wednesday, January 15th, J.C. Penney Co. announced the shutdown of 33 stores mainly located in smaller markets that have been experiencing a continual decline in customer visits.

    According to Chief Executive Mike Ullman, the clothing company chain has experienced a drastic fall in sales and the closing of selective locations will help to improve the performance of the company’s stores.

    This in result will affect present-day workers of Penney, which operates more than 1,000 locations and employees over 100,000 staff members. A staff cut of 2,000 workers is expected to occur within the next few weeks and will be completed by May.

    The company, who has endure nine quarters without a successful profit, proposes that this strategy will help revive their loss by saving $65 million annually.

    The company has not closed a large portion of its stores since 2001, but unfortunately, the ex-CEO’s prior strategy of replacing sales and discount promotions with low prices caused the company to plummet in revenue.

    J.C. Penney to close 33 stores, cut 2,000 positions. http://t.co/6RzqIhrPUq

    Ullman, who replaced former CEO Ron Johnson in April, “has restored promotions, brought back popular private-label brands and reinstated commissions for some salesmen while ending his predecessor’s strategy of remodeling the stores into collections of boutiques,” according to Bloomberg.

    Kirk Ludtke, an analyst of CRT Capital Group, agrees that Ullman’s new strategy has improved the condition of the store.

    “I think he’s done a good job of stabilizing the situation,” Ludtke reported to USA Today.

    Ludkte also states that Penney’s closing will assist them in catching up to other national chains in the market.

    However, Penney’s is not the only clothing company going through a setback.

    Macy’s announced last week that it plans to cut 2,500 staff workers, close down a few stores but open new locations as well.

    Analysts have concluded that early discounts during the holiday season were not too kind to retailers across the nation, which ultimately resulted in the reevaluation of store performances and profit.

     Image via Wikimedia Commons

  • Chipotle Eyes Price Increase in Quest to Remove GMOs

    The cost of a burrito at Chipotle may be going up in the near future.

    The company just reported their Q3 earnings, and in the earnings call CEO and Founder Steve Ells said that a 3-5% price increase could be on the way. The increase could come, in large part, as a product of the restaurant chain attempting to fully remove genetically modified organisms from their ingredients.

    “We are not going to make a decision today on pricing but I think that it’s probably in kind of a mid-single digit range, whether that’s 3, 4, 5 kind of percent. What it will depend on is what happens with general ingredient inflation between now and then and then what it costs us to remove GMOs from the rest of our ingredients,” said Ells.

    “Once we have all that information at hand we’ll be able to do a better job of figuring out what the price increase might be. And in terms of timing it’s really hinging more on removing GMOs. We’d really like to make more progress, understand what that’s going to cost, how much time that’s going to take, all that kind of stuff and then we’ll feel better about coordinating a price increase around the time that we’re removing GMOs and we think that there might be an opportunity as well. We think it will be a pretty exciting time for us when we can announce that.”

    Current Chipotle ingredients that contain GMOs include soybean oil, corn flour, and cornstarch.

    “We decided we’d rather try to avoid GMO ingredients until perhaps the science is more clear,” said Ells earlier this year. “There are some things that we just can’t, today, get non-GMO.”

    “I don’t know that I can say today that we have no soybean oil, but very shortly, in weeks, we will have none. It will not be long before a Chipotle is GMO-free.”

    One of Chipotle’s main marks of pride over the years has been their “Food with Integrity” commitment, which means that when possible, Chipotle sources uses ingredients that are sustainably grown and occasionally local.

    “We are not aware of any other restaurant company anywhere near our sight that’s even attempting to do this and so to actually accomplish it will be pretty exciting and we’d like to time that excitement around with the price increase,” said Ells.

    Chipotle reported an 18% increase in revenue in Q3, up to $826.9 million.

    Image via Avlxyz, Flickr

  • Gas Prices Reach 8-Month Low

    After a two month high with a national average of $3.46 a gallon, gas prices tilt to an 8-month low of approximately 35 cents since the top of the year. While most Americans consider this incredible feat a reason to leap for joy, the price dip only gets better, as prices are anticipated an additional 20 to 25 cents in the next few weeks.

    However, it’s not an unexplained wonder. There’s three reasons to serve as justification for the price drop. GasBuddy chief oil analyst, Tom Kloza reports that diminishing petroleum oil prices, lower consumer demand, and the surge in United States refinement, are all factors in the notable decline in gas prices.

    In August, crude oil prices surged to a two-year high estimated at $112 a barrel based on the possibility of a disruption in global supplies due to United States military’s involvement with the war in Syria. As possibilities of United States involvement with Syria waned, so did the potential strain of tensions with Iran. As a result, crude prices sailed to an impressive $103.13 a barrel Tuesday. Wholesale petroleum slated for delivery in October, are expected to go for $2.66 a gallon, which equates to 60 cents below August retail prices in some United States markets.

     

     

     

    AAA reports that gasoline has been priced about $3 a gallon for 1,000 days consecutively, which is something that’s never happened before.

    GasBuddy reports that the best bargains have also been noted in the southern regions of the United States in areas like Louisiana, Mississippi, Texas, Georgia, South Carolina, and Tennessee. Some outlets in these particular areas actually have gasoline priced at a little over $3 a gallon.

    Average Regular Gas Price By State
    South Carolina 3.096 -0.011
    Mississippi 3.160 -0.018
    Missouri 3.194 -0.028
    Texas 3.196 -0.013
    Arkansas 3.200 -0.017

    The best bargains on gas can be found in South Carolina with prices averaging approximately $3.13 a gallon. Hawaii has been listed as the most expensive with a gallon of gas priced at an average of around $4.30.

    Image via Wikimedia Commons

  • EA Is Raising Xbox One, PS4 Game Prices In The UK

    Well, this is troubling.

    GAME, a major UK games retailer, said that EA will be raising the prices of its next-gen games on the Xbox One and PS4. Gamers in the UK will be paying £54.99 for EA’s games instead of the usual £44.99 price tag that many have become accustomed to over the last generation.

    What makes this so worrisome is that it shows third parties are willing to raise prices when first parties aren’t. Sony and Microsoft have both confirmed that games will still cost $59.99/£44.99 on the PS4 and Xbox One, but said that third parties were allowed to do what they wanted. Giving that freedom to third parties was eventually going to lead to higher game prices, but it was unexpected to see it happen this soon.

    Of course, this news only affects UK gamers for now. EA has not announced pricing for the U.S. or Europe at large yet. Stores like GameStop have applied a placeholder price of $59.99 to EA’s next-gen games, but they’re placeholders. Retailers expect EA to follow suit with everyone else by sticking to the same $59.99 price tag, but it wouldn’t be completely out of the realm of reason for EA to increase the price of games by $10.

    This is definitely cause for concern, but the price increase might not end up affecting UK gamers. TechRadar points out that Activision raised the price of two previous Call of Duty games to £54.99, but many stores still sold the games at the usual £44.99 price tag. MSRPs are meant to be broken, and retailers will want to break it this holiday season.

    Still, we’ve contacted EA for further clarification on its pricing scheme for next gen games. We’ll update if and when we hear back.

  • First-Party PS4 Games Won’t See A Price Hike, Will Stay At $60

    There was some concern earlier this week that the price of games would go up in the next generation. Microsoft helped calm fears by saying its games would remain at $60, and now others are starting to confirm the same.

    Shacknews reports that a Sony representative has confirmed that the company’s first-party titles will remain at $60:

    “…we have announced the pricing for our first party line up of PS4 launch and launch window games. All four titles, Killzone: Shadow Fall, Driveclub, Knack, and inFamous Second Son are all $59.99.”

    The news should come as a relief for those concerned that Sony would push for higher game prices going into the next generation. A price increase wasn’t exactly out of the question as the ricing price of game development could be tied to a price increase at retail.

    So, Microsoft and Sony are both locked in at $60. What about third-parties? They’re free to charge whatever they want so they very well could bump up prices to $70. It wouldn’t exactly be novel as Sony used to offer its first-party titles on the PS2 for $40 while third-parties charged $50. Could we see a similar situation on next-gen consoles?

    As Shacknews points out, Amazon is listing all third-party games for next-gen consoles at $60. It very well could be a placeholder, but it’s not likely. These are most likely the prices that retailers were given to expect and I wouldn’t think that third-parties would try to shake up game pricing in the immediate future.

    Instead, we might see game prices going up incrementally over the next few years through game pack-ins and extra content that they’ll argue warrants the price increase. In fact, some publishers already do this with digital deluxe versions of games that add a few bonuses for an extra $20. We can only hope that publishers will start to offer better bonuses if they intend to continue the practice.

  • Study: The High Cost of Gasoline

    How many times have you personally made the choice to not go on a trip or made dinner plans around how much gas you are going to spend in the process. You have probably heard this and said it your self to people at work and on the street: “Gas prices are ridiculous.” More and more people are having to give something up in order to be able to afford to drive.

    These days are long gone

    A recent study revealed that 36% of people are now having to give something else up in order to just make it to work and back. Here is a breakdown of the lifestyle changes people are making:

    • Dine out less often – 70 percent
    • Spend less money on entertainment (going out to the movies, attractions, concerts, etc…) – 64 percent
    • Postpone seasonal clothes shopping – 37 percent
    • Cancel paid online or other subscriptions (Netflix, Hulu Plus, etc…) – 22 percent
    • Cancel cable, satellite or other TV service – 15 percent
    • Reduce cell phone usage – 12 percent
    • Cancel internet service – 5 percent
    • Other – 16 percent

    “For many Americans who are just getting back on their feet, rising gas prices can be a tough financial hurdle,” said Jackie Warrick at CouponCabin.com, the company conducting the survey. “In addition to making basic lifestyle choices to afford gasoline, 75 percent of adults are making changes to their driving habits to lessen the blow to their wallet.”

    Of the Three out of four of those surveyed that plan to make changes to their driving habits, 61 percent plan to drive less over all, 9 percent plan to carpool, 8% will ride the bus and 6% plan on buying a hyrid/energy efficient vehicle.

    About one -in-four people have stated that they will take on credit card debt just to pay for gas in the coming months

    The high price of gasoline is going to continue to hurt U.S. recovery. If you are giving all of your money to the oil companies, that leaves little to spend on products and services offered here in America.

  • Netflix Reminder: Price Change in Two Days

    Here at WebProNews, keeping you abreast about the goings-on in the tech industry is job one, but we’re also here to inform and, in some cases, remind people of upcoming changes. With that in mind, here’s our public service announcement for today:

    The oft-discussed and ridiculed Netflix price changes are going to go into effect in two days. That’s right, those of you who want both streaming and DVD rentals, on September 1st, be prepared to pay more for these services. In case it slipped your mind, here’s a refresher concerning the Netflix price changes:

    Plan 1: Unlimited Streaming (no DVDs) for $7.99 a month
    Plan 2: Unlimited DVDs, 1 out at-a-time (no streaming), for $7.99 a month.

    That’s all fine and good, but to have both streaming and rentals, the price goes up to $15.98 a month. For those of you who are like me and have both options, it means you’ll either:

    A. change your plan to either streaming or DVDs, or,
    B. prepare to pay more the for the ability to have both.

    Needless to say, when Netflix announced these adjustments, the proverbial poop hit the fan all over the Internet. Netflix’s Facebook page was inundated with replies–most of them negative–as was Netflix’s blog post that announced these changes.

    To date, the Netflix Facebook discussion as reached over 80,000 comments. The blog post in question quickly hit the 5000 comment threshold, and there are an additional 12,000-plus comments from the Facebook/Blogger plugin that allows users to comment on a post via their Facebook account.

    That’s almost 100,000 responses to the Netflix price hike, courtesy of social media, and I haven’t even included anything from Twitter, which would undoubtedly push this total well over the 1 million comments mark. That’s a lot of feedback, and most of it was not in agreement with Netflix’s decision.

    Is the price hike and subsequent backlash the very definition of a first world problem? Perhaps, but people love their movies, and they don’t like price increases. Considering the social media world we live in, such reaction was inevitable. With that in mind, allow us to end where we began:

    The Netflix price changes will be arriving in two days, or, depending on when you read this, September 1st. Much like daylight savings, don’t forget to adjust your account accordingly, unless you want to get snagged by unwanted increases on your debit/credit card.

  • Nintendo Wii Price Cut On The Way?

    Nintendo Wii Price Cut On The Way?

    Now you won’t have any excuse not to grab a Wii, sports resort and play those love handles away.

    Engadget is reporting that a trusted source has informed them that Nintendo’s little white console will be dropping $50, from $200 to $150 soon.  They report that the date for the price drop will most likely be May 15th.  The last universal price cut on the Wii was way back in September of 2009, when the price also dropped $50, from $250 to $200.

    Popularity of the Wii console has diminished for the past few years.  The drop-off has been steady, with the console selling over 10 million units in 2008, down to 9 million in 2009 and most recently 7 million in 2010.  Most recently, Microsoft’s Xbox sales beat the Wii by nearly 100,000 units in February, according to CNET.

    Last year, Nintendo partnered with the American Heart Association to promote healthy living through video-game-exercise.  Their seal of approval appeared on Wii consoles,  Wii Sports Resort, and Wii Fit.  This writer definitively links does not want to correlate the declining Wii sales to the fact that Americans are fat and lazy.

    Adding fuel to the rumor, GoNintendo has posted a leaked internal price sheet from Kmart that also has the new Wii price set at $149.99.