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Louisiana and Texas watch Hurricane Rafael approach

storm track forecast map hurricane rafael

Latest storm could reach U.S. shores by Monday.

Gulf Coast businesses in Louisiana and Texas are keeping a watchful eye on the latest storm to emerge from the Gulf Of Mexico this week, as Hurricane Rafael nears Cuba.

The island nation today is bracing for storm surge, high winds, and destructive waves, according to the National Hurricane Center (NHC) at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).


The category 2 storm’s edges could also brush Florida as it heads northwest, causing tropical storm force winds in the lower and middle Florida keys. However, the weather agency said it is too soon to forecast Rafael’s impact on the U.S. western Gulf Coast.

The storm would be the latest blow to the region since Hurricane Milton last month and Hurricane Debby in August.

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Accenture and Microsoft launch business AI unit

In a move to meet rising demand for AI transformation, Accenture and Microsoft are launching a copilot business transformation practice to help organizations reinvent their business functions with both generative and agentic AI and with Copilot technologies.


The practice consists of 5,000 professionals from Accenture and from Avanade—the consulting firm’s joint venture with Microsoft. They will be supported by Microsoft product specialists who will work closely with the Accenture Center for Advanced AI. Together, that group will collaborate on AI and Copilot agent templates, extensions, plugins, and connectors to help organizations leverage their data and gen AI to reduce costs, improve efficiencies and drive growth, they said on Thursday.

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Consumer sales kept ticking in October, NRF says

Retail sales grew solidly over the past two months, demonstrating households’ capacity to spend and the strength of the economy, according to a National Retail Federation (NRF) analysis of U.S. Census Bureau data.

Census data showed that overall retail sales in October were up 0.4% seasonally adjusted month over month and up 2.8% unadjusted year over year. That compared with increases of 0.8% month over month and 2% year over year in September.

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Suppliers report spare capacity for fourth straight month

Factory demand weakened across global economies in October, resulting in one of the highest levels of spare capacity at suppliers in over a year, according to a report from the New Jersey-based procurement and supply chain solutions provider GEP.

That result came from the company’s “GEP Global Supply Chain Volatility Index,” an indicator tracking demand conditions, shortages, transportation costs, inventories, and backlogs based on a monthly survey of 27,000 businesses. The October index number was -0.39, which was up only slightly from its level of -0.43 in September.

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Small e-com firms struggle to find enough investment cash

Even as the e-commerce sector overall continues expanding toward a forecasted 41% of all retail sales by 2027, many small to medium e-commerce companies are struggling to find the investment funding they need to increase sales, according to a sector survey from online capital platform Stenn.

Global geopolitical instability and increasing inflation are causing e-commerce firms to face a liquidity crisis, which means companies may not be able to access the funds they need to grow, Stenn’s survey of 500 senior e-commerce leaders found. The research was conducted by Opinion Matters between August 29 and September 5.

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CSCMP EDGE keynote sampler: best practices, stories of inspiration

With six keynote and more than 100 educational sessions, CSCMP EDGE 2024 offered a wealth of content. Here are highlights from just some of the presentations.

A great American story

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