The ASX 200 (Index: ^AXJO) (ASX: XJO) was eventful again this week. Here are four big stories you may have missed that affected the ASX 200 index:
Coles Group Limited (ASX: COL)
The supermarket business has signed an agreement with Microsoft to make use of its software and capabilities to create an enterprise platform for the company to make use of AI and analytics to improve on-shelf stock, more personalised offers to customers and better forecasting.
It takes a lot of computing power to analyse the amount of data that's being produced by things like Flybuys, so this could be a very good idea by Coles.
APRA Wants More Capital
Australian Prudential Regulatory Authority (APRA) responded to the submissions on the loss-absorbing capacity of banks this week.
APRA said it will require domestically systemically important banks, being Commonwealth Bank of Australia (ASX: CBA), Westpac Banking Corp (ASX: WBC), Australia and New Zealand Banking Group (ASX: ANZ) and National Australia Bank Ltd (ASX: NAB) to lift their total capital by three percentage points of risk-weighted assets (RWA) by 1 January 2024.
US Interest Rates
United States Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell has signalled this week that the US Fed will do what it is necessary to keep the US economy in a decent place.
It seems as though markets can't take any negative news these days without people calling for a rate cut.
If the US does cut interest rates it could give many asset classes a boost.
Nearmap Ltd's (ASX: NEA) miss
The aerial image business released some preliminary FY19 figures for the market this week, but it didn't go down well.
The share price Nearmap share price dropped around 10% after saying it expects to report an annualised contract value of $90.2 million, which would an increase of 36% from last year.
