Executive Summary

• This week’s note “From the Desk of Deborah Weinswig” discusses the increasingly crowded market for digital intelligent assistants and Amazon’s purpose behind Alexa.
• Walmart forecast that its US online sales would soar by about 40% in the fiscal year ending January 2019. The company also forecast that overall net sales would rise by at least 3% in the same period.
• The British Retail Consortium reported that UK retail sales grew by 1.9% year over year on a comparable basis in the four weeks ended September 30. Total retail sales rose by 2.3% during the period.
• German meal-kit firm HelloFresh said that it would make a second attempt at an initial public offering, with an aim to raise €250–€350 million (US$295–US$413 million).