BrownCafe
Shares of United Parcel Service Inc. sank 4.8% and FedEx Corp. dropped 4.7% in morning trade Tuesday, to lead all 20 of the Dow Jones Transportation Average’s components in losses, after Morgan Stanley analyst Ravi Shanker cut its price targets on the package deliverers, citing concerns over competition from Amazon.com Inc.’s Amazon Air. Amazon’s stock slipped 0.5%. Analyst Ravi Shanker cut his target on UPS to $87 from $92 at on FedEx to $230 from $240, as he believes “the market is missing the risk Amazon Air poses” to the companies
A year ago, KrebsOnSecurity warned that “Informed Delivery,” a new offering from the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) that lets residents view scanned images of all incoming mail, was likely to be abused by identity thieves and other fraudsters unless the USPS beefed up security around the program and made it easier for people to opt out. This week, the U.S. Secret Service issued an internal alert warning that many of its field offices have reported crooks are indeed using Informed Delivery to commit various identity theft and credit card fraud schemes.
Amazon is staffing up for the holiday rush with around 100,000 additional hires. As big as that number sounds, it’s actually fewer people than the e-commerce giant added in either the 2016 or 2017 holiday seasons, when it brought in 120,000 additional workers.
Citi analyst Mark May says he thinks the reduction in seasonal hiring is strong evidence that Amazon is succeeding with plans to automate operations in its warehouses.
“We’ve seen an acceleration in the use of robots within their fulfillment centers, and that has corresponded with fewer and fewer workers that they’re hiring around the holidays,” May told CNBC on Nov. 2. He added that 2018 is the “first time on record” Amazon plans to hire fewer holiday workers than it did the previous year.
Tesla Inc (TSLA.O) Chief Executive Elon Musk put electric heavy commercial trucks on the map in November 2017 when he unveiled the company’s futuristic, battery-powered Semi, booked hundreds of orders and said he would start delivering the vehicles by 2019.