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After a record-setting rally over the past week, commodities traders went all in on a massive gold sell-off on Tuesday. The price of the precious metal fell down to $4,118 an ounce, after a high of $4,381.52 an ounce just one day before. Meanwhile, silver is trading at $48.76 an ounce in midday trading at the time of this writing, down from $54.35 last week. At the time of this writing, the live gold spot price for an ounce of gold in U.S. dollars (USD) is $4,133.13, a gram of gold is $132.88 and one kilogram of gold is $132,883.22, according to JM Bullion.(Gold spot price can fluctuate by the second.) For some context, that means gold prices have decreased the most they have in four years, and silver is seeing its biggest drop since early 2021, per Bloomberg. This is a stunning reversal from last week, which saw gold and silver prices spiking as investors sought out a “safe haven” from more volatility in the stock market due to overall economic uncertainty. The two main ways to invest in gold and silver are by buying the physical metals, or through futures contracts. What’s causing the abrupt change? Analysts say it’s not just one thing causing the slump. They point to the current economic and political climate, including a prolonged government shutdown; upcoming U.S. and China trade talks amid Trump’s escalating tariff wars with Beijing; and softer than expected numbers from the US Consumer Price Index (CPI), which are expected to be released by end of week. The shutdown is delaying some economic and jobs data from coming out as government workers are currently furloughed, while at the same time, there have been mass firings. Meanwhile, a standoff with Beijing over rare earth minerals resulted in President Donald Trump threatening a massive increase of tariffs on Chinese products,” seemingly triggering a market sell-off. However, a retreat from gold and silver could mean the market is feeling more secureand therefore, a good sign investors aren’t running for cover.
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E-Commerce
My friend turned to me the other day with a sly smirk and whispered, Are you also part of Group 7? I shook my head, unsure of what she meantfeeling left out of whatever secret club she was referring to. It didnt take long for the algorithm to catch up with me. Within a few hours, my For You Page on TikTok was flooded, and before I knew it, I, too, was officially part of the internets newest inside joke. “Group 7” began as a simple experiment by musician Sophia James, who wanted to promote her new song So Unfairand experiment with the quirky nature of TikToks algorithm. TikToks For You Page, or FYP, described by the Guardian as uncannily good at predicting what videos will catch your eye,” works differently than older recommendation systems. Rather than passively waiting for users to engage with a video, it actively evaluates its own predictions, presenting content it anticipates users will find appealing and gauging their responses. It pushes the boundaries of your interests and monitors how you engage with those new videos it seeds in your For You Page, Chris Stokel-Walker, author of TikTok Boom and frequent Fast Company contributor, told the Guardian in 2022. Every user has the potential for global fame. Even with zero followers, a video can eventually land on someones FYP. Positive engagement can quickly snowball into millions of views. TikToks short-form format accelerates this learning. Leveraging this insight, James posted seven nearly identical videos of her track, each labeled with a different group number. You are in group [number], the text read. “Group 7,” uploaded last, swiftly became the algorithms favoriteand TikToks latest obsession. Before long, everyone wanted in. Users jumped on the “exclusive” group trend, now the center of TikTok lore. Can you imagine not being in Group 7? one user commented. I hereby declare group 7 is the most elite group, another added. Group 7 is the hot girl groupI dont make the rules. Even brands and celebrities crowded into the group. Clorox dubbed Group 7 clean girl coded. HBO Max chimed in with judging groups 16, and Shark Tank star Barbara Corcoran along with the actress Madelyn Cline also jumped on board. On music marketing and memes Its immaculate marketing, one TikTok user said in a viral post praising the stunt. And she wasnt wrong. James managed to get millions of people to stream, share, and memeify So Unfair without spending a cent on traditional promotion, now garnering over 2.5 million likes and 114,600 comments on her post. Fans soon began referring to the song as the Group 7 anthem. The track became ubiquitous, climbed the charts, and Sophia James emerged as the internets latest marketing sensation. According to the New York Times, she has gained more than 100,000 TikTok followers and seen a significant uptick in streams of her music. Taking her efforts beyond TikTok, James has launched an official “Group 7” section on her website, promoting a real-life meetup at the Bedford Pub in London on October 24. Are inside jokes the new marketing strategy? This is not the first instance of the internet transforming a half-joke into a cultural phenomenon. From the chair emoji saga to Crop and Story Time, TikTok users gravitate toward communities that feel exclusiveeven when built entirely on shared irony. Jamess experiment demonstrates a larger trend: In an era where authenticity is algorithmic, the best marketing doesnt feel like marketing at all.
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E-Commerce
Taylor Swift is an economic force all on her own. The superstars relationship with Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce brought not only eyeballs to his games but a monetary boost to the city overall. Thanks to her Eras tour, Swifties spent an estimated $5 billion across the country. And most recently, she spurred fans to give more than $2 million in donations to the Monterey Bay Aquariums sea otter programjust by wearing an old t-shirt. Earlier this month, Swift launched her The Official Release Party of a Showgirl movie, an 89-minute film tied to the release of her latest album. It was only shown in theaters for three days. Eagle-eyed fans noticed how, in that film, Swift wore a 1993 Monterey Bay Aquarium t-shirt featuring an illustration of sea otters. And swiftly, social media lit up with requests for us to bring it back, Liz MacDonald, Monterey Bay Aquarium director of content strategy, said via email. The Aquarium quickly realized this moment could be huge. It was an opportunity to elevate our Sea Otter Program to a global audience and engage new supporters in our conservation work in a big and fun way, MacDonald says. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Liberty Graphics Nature T-shirts (@libertygraphicstees) Long story shirt Aquarium staff got to work building a donation campaign about the t-shirt. They tracked down the original artwork from the 1990s, first printed by Harborside Graphics. That company has since become a part of Liberty Graphics, an employee-owned cooperative, and the aquarium worked directly with Liberty to re-issue the design. The campaign came together in about a week, offering the t-shirt for $65.13 (a nod to Swift’s favorite number, 13). In just seven hours, the aquarium hit its goal of raising $1.3 million. The re-issue of the sea otter shirt has since raised more than $2.3 million for the aquariums sea otter program, which has rescued, rehabilitated, and returned threatened southern sea otter pups to the wild for more than 40 years. The campaign was launched on Tiltify, an online fundraising platform that uses social media sites like Twitch and TikTok to foster virtual donations. Tiltifys flexibility and online experience (it has hosted campaigns for YouTube stars MrBeast and Jacksepticeye that brought donations in the double-digit millions in just hours) helped the aquarium respond to the viral moment, CEO Michael Wasserman says in a statement. When Swifties mobilized, we processed tens of thousands of orders . . . Most traditional donation platforms would crash handling 20,000 shirt orders in hours, plus 13,000+ backorders before the campaign had to pause for fulfillment, Wasserman said. This is the difference between modern giving and traditional fundraisingit’s interactive, social, and immediate. Even before the Tiltify campaign, Monterey Bay staff had noticed a bump of $13 donations coming in after Swifts movie. But the t-shirt campaign went beyond what staff could have expected. The outpouring of love for the Aquarium is honestly touching, MacDonald says, adding that she hopes the increased attention will draw even more people to the cause of helping sea otters. “We had a Taylor Swift dance party in the office when we hit our initial goal.”
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E-Commerce
OpenAI has released a new web browser, the companys latest bid to become consumers chief gateway to the web. The new browser, called ChatGPT Atlas, will initially be available on macOS on the desktop. Versions for Windows, iOS, and Android are coming soon, OpenAI says. OpenAI worked hard to build as many AI-driven features into Atlas as possible. For example, Atlas learns the users browsing history and, in some cases, can make content suggestions proactively. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman suggested that this first version of the browser is just the start, pledging to add way more stuff that we will tell you about later and adding that the company can take this pretty far. The browser also integrates an AI agent, which can perform certain tasks for the users, such as filling out web forms and booking reservations. These things can happen in the background while the user does other things on the web. This, OpenAI says, may cut down on the number of browser tabs that users must currently wade through. However, agent mode is only available to OpenAIs paying Plus and Pro subscribers. The Atlas browser isnt the only AI-first product out therePerplexity, for instance, launched its Comet browser earlier this year. But Atlas may pose a serious threat to Googles dominant Chrome browser, which plays a central role in the companys advertising business model. OpenAI announced the new browser via a livestream on Tuesday. We think AI presents a rare once-in-a-decade opportunity to rethink what a browser can be about, Altman said at the beginning of the stream.
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E-Commerce
The Coca-Cola Co. said sales of premium beverages and mini cans helped boost its third-quarter results despite tepid demand in the U.S. and elsewhere. The Atlanta beverage giant said Tuesday it continues to see a divergence among consumers in North America and Europe, with higher-income buyers opting for its more expensive brands like Smartwater, Topo Chico, and Fairlife, while middle- and lower-income consumers are under more pressure. Henrique Braun, Coke’s chief operating officer, said the company has focused on affordability by shrinking package sizes and leaning into sales of mini cans. Earlier this month, Coke announced it will sell individual, 7.5-ounce mini cans for the first time at North American convenience stores starting Jan. 1. The mini cans have a suggested retail price of $1.29. We’re pivoting accordingly. We know that the consumer landscape has not changed, Braun said during a conference call with investors. Coca-Cola said its organic revenue rose 6% to $12.41 billion in the July-September period. That was in line with what Wall Street expected, according to analysts polled by FactSet. Unit case volumes were up 1% worldwide, reversing a 1% slide in the second quarter. Case volumes were flat in North America and Latin America and down 1% in Asia. But they rose 4% in the companys Europe, Middle East and Africa region. Coke said prices grew 6% in the quarter, partly due to the mix of beverages sold. Coca-Cola Zero Sugar was a standout in the third quarter, with unit case volumes up 14% globally, while Diet Coke and Coca-Cola Light sales grew 2%. Case volumes for water, sports drinks, coffee and tea rose 3%, while dairy and juice volumes fell 3%. The companys net income jumped 30% to $3.69 billion. Adjusted for one-time items, Coke earned 82 cents per share. That was also higher than the 78 cents analysts forecast. Coca-Cola reiterated its full-year financial guidance, including organic revenue growth of 5% to 6% and adjusted earnings-per-share growth of 3%. Coke also said it continues to expect the impact of tariffs to be manageable. Coca-Cola shares rose 3.5% in morning trading Tuesday. Coca-Cola also said Tuesday it is refranchising its bottling operations in Africa. Coke and Gutsche Family Investments, a private South African company, have agreed to sell a 75% controlling interested in Coca-Cola Beverages Africa to Coca-Cola HBC AG, a major bottler for the company based in Switzerland. The deal is worth $2.55 billion. Coca-Cola will retain a 25% stake in Coca-Cola Beverages Africa. The transactions are expected to close by the end of 2026. Coca-Cola Beverages Africa is the largest bottler on the continent, operating in 14 countries and accounting for 40% of Cokes product volume in Africa. Coca-Cola HBC operates in 29 countries in Europe and Africa, including Nigeria and Egypt. Coca-Cola Chairman and CEO James Quincey said Tuesday that the deal in Africa and a similar transaction in India in July were the last two big pieces of a bottler refranchising plan that Coke set in motion a decade ago. Quincey said the strategy helps Coke focus more on brand building and innovation while bottlers can invest in the manufacturing system. The bottler performs better and it helps us drive overall growth for the total system, so that the combination grows faster and is more profitable, Quincey said. Rival PepsiCo is under some pressure from an activist investor, Elliott Investment Management, to refranchise its bottling operations in North America. Dee-Ann Durbin, AP business writer
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E-Commerce
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