RAMLA, Israel — Israel’s ambulance service has stocked blood supplies in a fortified underground center, factories have moved out hazardous materials and municipal authorities are checking bomb shelters and water supplies as the country waits for a threatened attack from Iran and its proxies.

Israel has been fortifying its home front for months and many preparations have been in place since the start of the war in Gaza last October, when thousands of Hamas-led gunmen carried out a devastating cross-border attack on Israeli communities.

But the urgency has risen sharply over the past 10 days as a relatively contained conflict with the Iranian-backed Hezbollah movement in southern Lebanon has threatened to spiral into an all-out regional war.

“I know that the citizens of Israel are on alert, and I ask of you one thing — keep patient and cool,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Wednesday while meeting new army recruits.

“We are prepared for both defense and attack, we are striking our enemies and are also determined to defend ourselves,” he said.

Israel now finds itself facing the threat of a multifront war, confronting a clutch of militant movements — Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis in Yemen, all backed and funded by its longstanding enemy Iran.

An attack is expected in the coming days following vows from Iran and Hezbollah to retaliate for the assassinations last week of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran and Hezbollah military commander Fuad Shukr in Beirut.

After months of alarm and an attack by hundreds of Iranian missiles in April that was thwarted by Israel’s air defenses and the help of international allies, Israelis have become used to the crisis.

Tens of thousands of people were evacuated from northern areas in range of Hezbollah rockets at the start of the war and many border areas now have a ghostly, abandoned air.

But a prolonged bombardment from Hezbollah’s rocket arsenal could reach deeper into the country to sensitive targets like the port city of Haifa in northern Israel, which is well in range.

The city’s Rambam Hospital has been on alert since last October and has readied its three-floor, fortified underground facility to treat patients.

“We’re waiting to see what happens,” said David Ratner, a hospital spokesperson.

ALERT SYSTEM
The military is on high alert and last weekend it augmented its nationwide system of air raid sirens and broadcast alerts to include real-time text messages to be sent to residents in targeted areas.

Many local councils have advised residents to reduce non-essential activity, stay near protected areas and avoid large gatherings.

In Haifa, public bomb shelters have been equipped with digital systems so they can be unlocked remotely during an attack, said Yair Zilberman, director of the city’s security and emergency services department. They are also being equipped with generators.

A number of underground parking lots have been approved as makeshift shelters with enough space for thousands of residents if needed, Mr. Zilberman said.

In the city of Ramla in central Israel, national ambulance service Magen David Adom (MDA) has been collecting blood donations in a subterranean service center, shielded with extra-thick concrete walls, blast doors and airlocks.

“We’ve got the threats from Iran, we’ve got threats from Hezbollah,” said MDA’s Aryeh Myers. “Massive rocket attacks, massive threats to the state of Israel and we want to make sure that we are ready for anything.”

Last Thursday, the Environmental Protection Ministry held a situational assessment to decide how best to protect factories with inventories that could be dangerous if targeted in a missile strike, or how to deal with an attack on a building that contains asbestos.

The military said the Home Front Command keeps in constant contact with factories and local authorities to maintain a “complete picture of the inventory levels of hazardous materials.”

The Bazan Group, which operates in Haifa one of the largest oil refineries in the eastern Mediterranean, told Reuters it was “working to maintain energy security and the continuity of fuel supply to the economy.”

Mass cash withdrawals are another scenario for which authorities are preparing.

“The stock of banknotes and coins in the Bank of Israel and the banking system will, according to every visible forecast, be sufficient,” the Bank of Israel said. — Reuters

PARIS — Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo said she hopes the Olympic flame suspended below its balloon can remain in central Paris near the Louvre museum after the games end.

The flame — which is not a flame but an illusion of fire created with lights — has become a fixture of the Paris Olympics, with hundreds of Parisians and tourists coming to watch it every evening when it goes up at sundown in the Jardin des Tuileries park near the Louvre.

Ms. Hidalgo said it was not her decision to make, as the Louvre and Tuileries are state property, but added she had written to President Emmanuel Macron, asking for the flame to remain in place and not be moved to another location.

“I would very much like to keep this symbol of the games at this very spot because elsewhere it would not have the same significance,” Ms. Hidalgo said in an interview with France 2 television on Wednesday.

“Our heritage has been magnified by these games, and I think we need to add to it. Everybody is in love with Paris today, so let’s continue,” she said.

The designer of France’s Olympic cauldron, Mathieu Lehanneur, has said it would be an honor if the attraction were to become a permanent feature of the Paris skyline, much like the Eiffel Tower did after the 1889 World Fair.

Every day since the games opened, thousands have booked free tickets to get a close-up view of the cauldron in the daytime, before it rises above the French capital suspended below a hot-air balloon.

The balloon and its cauldron were unveiled on July 26, when French three-time Olympic gold medalists Marie-Jose Perec and Teddy Riner lit the flame at the end of the opening ceremony.

The Eiffel Tower, Paris’ best-known landmark, was built for the 1889 World Fair and meant to be destroyed. That never happened.

For now, the flame is set to be dismantled after the Olympic and Paralympic Games are over. Some have suggested it be moved to Parc de la Villette in northeast Paris, where several countries including host nation France have built national centers for their delegations.

French state-owned electric utility EDF, which is in charge of the flame, has said the flame is based on the simultaneous and controlled projection of a spray of mist and a powerful beam of light. — Reuters

MILAN — Investors in large consumer-goods companies are having to up their stock-picking game, as a post-pandemic spending splurge dries up and increasingly price-sensitive shoppers start to erode corporate pricing power.

Profit warnings in sectors ranging from luxury to food and airlines have fed into worries about a slowdown in the United States and other major economies.

These growth concerns were one of the factors behind a selloff that stripped around $4.8 trillion off global equities in just three days this month.

Stock pickers now need to identify those businesses that won’t suffer from a normalisation of spending patterns, let alone from an economic recession.

“Consumers have been able to absorb price increases thanks also to the exceptionally high level of savings accumulated (during the pandemic). It seems that now this is coming to an end,” Chiara Robba, head of LDI equity at Generali Asset Management in Paris, said.

“The second-quarter reporting season is showing some signs of consumer slowdown with consequent attempts from companies to reduce prices to boost consumption,” she said.

S&P Global’s business activity surveys in July suggested firms in the United States and the euro zone weren’t able to pass on higher costs quite as easily as before.

There’s now a long list of company earnings that point to a softening of pricing power or weakness in consumer spending.

Notable examples include Nestle and Ryanair in Europe and McDonald’s in the U.S., along with payment firms such as Visa and Worldline. In many cases, share prices have tumbled.

Forty companies have cut guidance so far this season in Europe, BofA said on Tuesday, the most in over a year, with a majority citing weak demand, including, surprisingly, in the U.S..

“Signs of consumer weakness have caused concern,” it said.

SOBERING-UP LUXURY SPENDING
The high-margin luxury industry hasn’t escaped and while companies point to the long downturn in China, investors are also paying close attention to spending patterns elsewhere.

Kering’s Saint Laurent cut prices of its Loulou bag in France, the UK, U.S. and China by 10-15% in May in a “very rare” move for the sector which Barclays said could reflect the brand acknowledging its earlier price hikes had been too aggressive.

Following three years of above-average increases, luxury price inflation is showing signs of returning to its long-term range of 5-7%, or below, said Luca Solca, an analyst at Bernstein in London.

“Weak brands that had been jumping on the bandwagon and increased prices materially are forced now to correct through discounts and promotions,” he said. “This is happening because middle-class consumers in the West are sobering up from the post-pandemic euphoria.”

Burberry, which sacked its CEO and warned on profit in July, has been cited as one example. Its shares erased almost one fifth of their value on earnings day.

Swatch and Hugo Boss have become the two most shorted stocks on the pan-Europe STOXX 600 index following disappointing numbers, data from Mediobanca shows.

Even sector leader LVMH, Europe’s second-largest listed company behind Danish drugmaker Novo Nordisk NOVO isn’t immune.

“There is certainly a sense of consumer resistance to higher prices, given the ongoing cost of living crisis,” Sanjiv Tumkur, head of equities at Rathbones Investment Management, said.

“This appears to be felt across all income segments – for example the luxury goods companies are seeing more challenging and volatile consumer conditions in many geographies, notably China, in all but the top end of the market.”

CONSUMER POLARISATION
Gillian Diesen, senior client portfolio manager at Pictet Asset Management, believes the latest earnings releases point more to consumer polarization than a generalized loss of pricing power.

“At the highest end, most premium brands… are raising pricing again this year, although at more normalized levels,” she said, adding that the trend extended beyond the luxury sector.

Carmaker Ferrari beat expectations thanks to sales of its pricier models, even though consumer demand in the auto sector has been variable.

Differentiation is a big factor too – sectors with low levels of differentiation, such as personal care and food and beverages, could be most at risk, said Generali’s Robba.

In sporting goods, Diesen said higher-end innovative brands like On and Deckers’ Hoka continue to benefit from pricing and sales growth, in contrast to mainstream names like Nike and Puma, which cut its profit outlook on Wednesday, sinking its shares to a six-year low.

In airlines, Rathbones’ Tumkur cautioned against extrapolating Ryanair’s warning to the rest of the industry, citing better demand at rivals Easyjet and Jet2.

“Ryanair is also more of a pure low-cost carrier, whereas its rivals have more exposure to package holidays, which seems to be currently prioritized more highly by customers,” he said. “As ever stock selection will be key.” — Reuters