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UK shoppers have rushed to buy Black Friday bargains, as retailers and payment ­firms report strong sales activity for the annual discount event. Online retailers said initial ­figures indicated Black Friday, now into its third year, had topped expectations. Meanwhile, in the US, where it all started, websites saw heavy traffic. The head of Macy's department store said it had seen a strong start to the sales, although its website later suffered glitches. The Nationwide Building Society said purchases by its customers were up 13% on a year ago, while the discount retailing site TopCashback reported a 43% increase in spending over last year.   http://www.bbc.com/news/business-38103426 

US shares have repeatedly set new record highs in recent weeks on expectations that President-elect Donald Trump's promises of tax cuts, higher infrastructure spending and reduced regulation would benefi­t certain industries. "In and of itself that is astonishing; the fact it comes following the biggest political shock in decades and before a near certain rate hike from the Fed is something else entirely," he said.   https://www.bbc.com/news/business-38103426

As Indonesia stands to see a boom in its e-commerce industry, logistics service providers are forced to prepare to cater to a growing number of customers. It’s indeed challenging to be a courier provider in Indonesia, a country scattered over 17,500 islands, in which most of the infrastructure is poorly developed.         With such a situation and lack of proper infrastructure, speedy delivery is a Herculean task and it may be even harder in the future, considering that the government plans to turn Indonesia into the biggest digital economy in Southeast Asia by 2020, with a targeted transaction value of 130 billion USD. A study from management consulting fi­rm McKinsey also shows that online sales could make up 7 to 8 percent of the country’s total retail market by 2020 from about 1 percent currently.   http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2016/11/28/logistics-service-providers-gear-up-for-e-commerce-boom.html

Indonesia has been one of the most lucrative investment destinations in the Asia-Pacifi­c, given the positive performance of the stock market and its stable currency. This is evidenced by foreign flows into the stock market reaching 28.76 trillion IDR (2.22 billion USD) in the last 12 months. At the end of the ­first round of the tax pardon program, the country saw declared assets of 3,622 trillion IDR.  Previously, JP Morgan predicted new asset declaration would be less than 2,000 trillion IDR by the end of the third round of the program in March 2017. Looking at the result of the ­first round of the program, it seems like the brokerage house will have to drastically revise their projection.   https://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2016/10/05/foreign-investors-get-double-gains-from-indonesia-market.html

China’s economy has shown a steady upward trend and has huge room for maneuver while there’s no basis for a sustained depreciation of the nation’s currency, said Premier Li Keqiang. Li, speaking as he met with President Barack Obama in New York, said the yuan will stay basically stable and at a reasonable and balanced level. Those comments echo the government’s recent commentary on the currency.  Li’s expression of con­dence in the nation’s economic outlook follow similar signals from the central bank this week.   http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-09-20/china-economy-on-steady-upward-trend-says-premier-li-keqiang

The integration of TNT Express into FedEx’s global transportation and logistics network should take four years and result in $750 million in annual savings, FedEx executives said Tuesday. “We are doubling down our commitment to the TNT integration,” Alan B. Graf Jr., executive vice presi- dent and CFO, said during an earnings call with Wall Street analysts. “We believe the TNT acquisition will be transformative,” not just for FedEx but the global logistics industry, he said. “We have seen almost immediate bene­ts as we begin the integration,” Graf said. “In the US and Canada, we are migrating TNT volume, formerly handled by third-party carriers,  into the FedEx portfolio.   http://www.joc.com/air-cargo/express-cargo/fedex/fedex-doubles-down-tnt-integration-boosts-revenue_20160920.html

Deutsche Post DHL chief executive Frank Appel says the company expects to see rapid growth in its Indonesian business as it seeks to capitalize on government plans to boost growth by improving infrastructure nationwide.          “We have very aggressive growth plans in Indonesia,” he said, adding that DHL planned to spend at least $50 million to expand its presence over the next two years. DHL commands a 60 percent market share of the logistics business in Indonesia. Much of its new investment will go towards boosting its workforce by 70 percent from 2,250 employees currently, and expanding warehouse space by 60 percent to a total of 262,400 square meters.

Signals indicating better economic conditions in the second half of this year have appeared. After data showing a sharp increase in cement consumption in August came out, more good news has followed from the automotive sector. The Association of Indonesian Automotive Manufacturers (Gaikindo) stated that car sales in August 2016 reached 96,294 units, up 6.3 percent from 90,537 units in August 2015. Toyota Astra Motor (TAM) vice president director Henry Tanoto predicted the sales volume would be higher toward the end of this year. "We predict it will continue to grow close to 5 percent until the end of the year," he said.   https://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2016/09/20/august-auto-sales-another-sign-of-economic-recovery.html