Beer flows from a bottle of
Stella Artois into a glass in this picture illustration taken in
Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina November 5, 2015. REUTERS/Dado
Ruvic/File Photo
(Reuters)
- Brewer SABMiller (SAB.L) posted an 8 percent fall in revenue even as
beverage sales rose 2 percent by volume in fiscal year 2016, as foreign
currencies struggled against a strong dollar.
The
brewer of Miller Lite, Castle Lager and other beers said its revenue
rose 5 percent in the year ended March 31, on a constant currency basis,
as sales grew stronger in Africa and Latin America.
SABMiller's
group net produce revenue came in at $24.2 billion for the year, down
from the $26.3 billion it earned a year ago including the impact from
currency exchange rates.
(Reporting by Vidya L Nathan in Bengaluru, Editing by Sunil Nair)
Men are refelcted in a screen displaying market indices outside a brokerage in Tokyo, Japan April 19, 2016. REUTERS/Thomas Peter
By Hideyuki Sano
TOKYO (Reuters) - Asian shares
recovered from two-month lows on Tuesday after a rebound in technology
giant Apple Corp and oil price gains boosted Wall Street.
MSCI's
broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan rose 0.8 percent,
extending the recovery from its two month low set on Friday. Japan's
Nikkei gained about 1.1 percent.
European shares are
seen opening higher with spread-betters expecting 0.3-0.4 percent gains
in Europe's major bourses. Euro stoxx 50 futures opened up 0.6 percent.
"The
market's risk appetite seems to be coming back, or rather, its
excessive pessimism is easing," said Masahiro Ichikawa, senior
strategist at Sumitomo Mitsui Asset Management.
Wall
Street rallied sharply on Monday, fuelled by a jump in Apple shares and
gains from energy stocks that were backed by stronger oil prices, with
the S&P 500 gaining 1.0 percent.
Shares in
Apple, which had lost about one-fifth of their value in the past month
on worries about the company's slowing sales growth, finished 3.7
percent higher after Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway reported taking
a stake of about $1 billion in the iPhone maker.
Oil
prices were at six-month highs as the market focused on supply
disruptions that prompted long-time bear Goldman Sachs to issue a
bullish assessment on near-term prices. Goldman had long warned of
global storage hitting capacity and of another oil price crash to as low
as $20 per barrel.
A
combination of Nigerian, Venezuelan and other outages, declining U.S.
production and virtually frozen inflows of Canadian crude after
wildfires in Alberta's oil sands region helped to lift oil prices.
"The
increasing intensity in supply-side disruptions in the oil market
should see prices well supported in the short term," ANZ said in a
research note.
Brent crude futures rose 0.6 percent
to $49.29 per barrel, after having risen 2.4 percent on Monday, when it
rallied to $49.47 earlier, its highest since early November.
U.S. crude's West Texas Intermediate (WTI) futures went up 1.1 percent to $48.24, having risen 3.3 percent on Monday.
Yet
concerns about a slowdown in the Chinese economy could weigh on Asian
shares in the near term after data published on Saturday showed
investment, factory output and retail sales all grew more slowly than
expected in April.
In the past month, shares in
Greater China were among the worst performers globally. Hong Kong,
Taiwan and Shanghai shares have all registered falls of around 7
percent.
Mainland Chinese shares were flat, with
Shanghai composite index still hovering near two-month low hit last
week, as investors fret that Beijing might pull back on monetary
stimulus, focusing on structural and financial reforms even as the
economic recovery struggles to gain traction.
"The
logic underpinning a market rebound has collapsed because the economy is
not good, but the government refrains from using fresh stimulus," said
Li Kongyi, strategist at Fortune Securities.
In the
currency market, the British pound rose 0.6 percent to $1.4478 helped in
part by a report that the "remain" camp held a 15-point lead over its
"leave" rivals in Britain's EU referendum campaign.
The
dollar was little changed against other currencies. Against the yen,
the U.S. currency stood at 109.09 yen, stuck in its well-worn range in
the past week.
The euro traded at $1.1315, off its two-week low of $1.1283 touched on Friday.
The
Australian dollar rose 0.8 percent to $0.7345 after minutes of the
Reserve Bank of Australia's May policy meeting surprised some investors
with a less-dovish-than-expected tone.
(Additional reporting by Aaron Sheldrick; Editing by Simon Cameron-Moore & Shri Navaratnam)
Airlines are generally something that we can all
complain about together. But according to a new study, Americans are
more satisfied with air travel than ever before.
Despite the constant news about flight delays, cramped seats, scary turbulence and in-flight confrontations, the North American Airline Satisfaction Study from J.D. Power found that customer satisfaction is at a 10-year high.
One reason customers are so happy is because fares are lower
than they’ve been in a long time. Thanks to lower jet fuel prices, the
airfare prediction app Hopper reports that advanced-purchase tickets
cost 20% less that two years ago, and fares this summer are expected to
reach a seven-year low. The average price of an airline ticket in the U.S. dropped to $363 in the fourth quarter of 2015. According to the Department of Transportation, that's the lowest it's been since 2010.
The J.D. Power study also attributed overall higher
satisfaction with air travel to the simple fact that we’ve gotten used
to all those extra fees. Passengers are just resigned to
the fact that they have to pay for booking, baggage, seat, and in-flight
food fees that they no longer view paying them as a negative thing –
it’s just part of travel. (By the way, U.S. airlines collected $3.8 billion in baggage fees alone in 2015.)
One group that does have a problem with baggage fees: the U.S. Senate. On Thursday, a handful of lawmakers asked major airlines
to do away with baggage fees, especially during the busy summer travel
months. They predict that without fees, more passengers will check bags,
and security lines will move faster. The airline industry doesn’t agree, saying that if they remove fees, then fares might increase.
.
Outside of finances, J.D. Power reports that features
like entertainment options, Wi-Fi, and power plugs have also
contributed to overall satisfaction. Rick Garlick, global
travel and hospitality practice lead at J.D. Power, says airlines
realize how important the customer experience truly is. “Airlines are
making positive strides by adding value to its products and services
with newer and cleaner planes, better in-flight services, improving
on-time arrivals and bumping fewer passengers from their flights,”
Garlick says.
When it comes to specific airlines, Alaska Airlines (ALK)
dominates the competition. For the ninth consecutive year, the regional
airline has ranked highest among traditional carriers with an index
score of 751 out of 1,000. Delta (DAL) came in second with a score of 725.
For low-cost carriers, JetBlue (JBLU) topped the charts for the 11th consecutive year with a score of 790 out of 1000. This is the 12th time the airline has performed the highest in the study. Southwest came in right behind JetBlue with a score of 789.
And this isn’t
the only study confirming that passengers are in-like with airlines. In
April the Airline Quality Rating (AQR) released its report
about airline performance and the results reflected the same message.
Overall, the airline industry AQR score improved in 2015 showing that
on-time arrival percentages had increased and the number of mishandled
baggage had fallen.
With
that said, customer complaints rose by 37%, proving that travelers will
continue to have high standards with it comes to air travel.
