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By Arriana McLymore and Neil J Kanatt (Reuters) -U.S. holiday online sales are expected to grow at a slower pace this year, according to projections by data firm Adobe Analytics released on Monday, as macroeconomic uncertainty continues to pressure consumer spending. Adobe expects U.S. online sales to rise 5.3% to $253.4 billion between November 1 and December 31, this year, compared with an 8.7% rise last year. Cyber Monday, a major online shopping event that takes place on the Monday after Thanksgiving, is expected to be the biggest online shopping day of the season and year, with sales rising 6.3% to $14.2 billion on the day, Adobe said. The holiday shopping period, a key driver of sales for retailers at the end of the year, will be even more critical this year as shifting trade policies under the Trump administration and persistent inflation take a toll on consumer spending. "You have consumers dealing with a lot in the broader economy," said Vivek Pandya, director at Adobe Digital Insights. "We anticipate them taking advantage of these major sales moments, and we still see them leaning on the online sector as an area to get better deals." Adobe Analytics expects shoppers to kick off some of their early holiday purchases during Amazon's October Big Deal Days, October 7 through October 8, and competing sales events. It forecasts $9 billion in spending between the two days, a 6.2% increase compared with last year. Retailers have issued mixed outlooks ahead of the holiday season. Target and Best Buy maintained their annual forecasts, while Walmart and Macy's raised theirs. Toymaker Mattel, however, reduced its expectations. Adobe's forecast, which relies on direct online transactions based on more than 1 trillion visits to U.S. retail websites, echoes similar expectations of a subdued holiday season, with shoppers prioritizing essentials, hunting for deeper discounts, and cutting back on discretionary purchases. The forecast sees shopping on mobile devices driving 56.1% of total online spending compared with desktop shopping, and a $2 billion increase in "buy now pay later" spending. Buy now, pay later services let shoppers expand their purchasing power by paying for merchandise in monthly installments spread out over as many as 36 months; however, the most common payments are four-installment plans. Adobe said discounts would likely reach up to 28%, similar to last year, as shoppers not just look for the lowest price, but trade up to higher-value items in categories, including sporting goods and electronics, as they seek more value out of their dollar. (Reporting by Arriana McLymore in New York City and Neil J Kanatt in Bengaluru; Editing by Jacqueline Wong)

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By Akash Sriram (Reuters) -Tesla teased an October 7 event, in which investors and analysts anticipate a more affordable model to sustain sales momentum, sending the shares of the Elon Musk-led electric automaker 4% higher on Monday. In a nine-second video posted on social media platform X on Sunday, Tesla showed a vehicle with its headlights illuminated in a dark setting, while hinting at an event set for Tuesday in a separate video that had "10/7" at the end. The teaser follows Tesla's record third-quarter deliveries, driven by a surge in EV purchases ahead of the expiration of the $7,500 U.S. EV tax credit on September 30. However, analysts expect Tesla's annual deliveries to fall for a second straight year to about 1.62 million vehicles, as expiring incentives and a demand slowdown linked to CEO Musk's polarizing politics weigh on sales. Tesla has previously delayed rolling out a lower-cost version of the Model Y in the U.S. It said in June it had made "first builds" of the vehicle, but would start selling it in the fourth quarter and ramp up output at a pace that would be slower than planned. The stripped-down version is designed to be roughly 20% cheaper to produce than the refreshed Model Y and could scale to about 250,000 units a year in the U.S. by 2026. Wall Street expects Tesla's deliveries to jump next year to 1.85 million vehicles, with the cheaper model accounting for 155,610 units in 2026, according to Visible Alpha estimates. "Tesla is teasing something big as a flurry of X posts has fans bracing for what looks like the launch of a more affordable Model Y tomorrow," said Matt Britzman, senior equity analyst, Hargreaves Lansdown, who personally owns Tesla shares. "The price tag will be the real tell, offering clues on how far Tesla has pushed cost savings and how much new demand it can unlock." The company has not introduced a new mass-market vehicle in years, relying heavily on incremental updates to the Model 3 and Model Y to drive sales. Sales of its last major launch, the Cybertruck, have struggled, with Tesla offering thousands of dollars in discounts for vehicles in inventory in the past few months.  A U.S. recall filing in March showed 46,096 Cybertrucks had been built between its introduction in November 2023 and early this year. (Reporting by Mrinmay Dey and Akash Sriram in Bengaluru; Editing by Jamie Freed, Mrigank Dhaniwala and Arun Koyyur)

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By Mike Scarcella WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The U.S. Supreme Court declined on Monday to hear a bid by Europe's largest software maker SAP to avoid a lawsuit by U.S. data technology company Teradata that accused it of violating American antitrust law. The justices turned away SAP's appeal of a lower court's decision that let Teradata pursue claims that its larger German rival violated U.S. antitrust law by tying sales of business-planning applications to the purchase of a key SAP database that can perform transactional and analytical functions. San Diego-based Teradata makes a rival analytics database. Teradata filed its lawsuit against SAP in federal court in California in 2018. SAP has denied any wrongdoing. A judge has scheduled an April 2026 trial on Teradata's claims, as well as on a counterclaim that SAP lodged against Teradata accusing it of patent infringement. "We are disappointed the Supreme Court has declined to review these important legal issues. We remain confident in our position, reject Teradata's claims and look forward to resolving the matter in the trial court," SAP said in a statement. Teradata did not immediately respond to a request for comment. SAP sells "enterprise resource planning" software to companies that lets them manage data used in daily activities such as finance and supply-chain operations. Teradata makes a database that can provide analytics on such a substantial amount of data. The company said SAP customers relied on other tech companies like Teradata to handle the data that SAP's applications produced. The lawsuit accused SAP of illegally tying sales of its business operations software to a new product that was developed to compete with Teradata's database.  Two key legal standards guide how judges resolve whether conduct restrains competition: the "per se rule," under which alleged conduct is presumed illegal; and the "rule of reason," under which judges balance between anticompetitive effects and a defendant's procompetitive justification. SAP won in the district court, but the San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals revived Teradata's case in 2024. The 9th Circuit said there was a material dispute between the companies that a jury could take up and decide. The 9th Circuit, using a version of the "per se rule," applied too stringent a standard in evaluating Teradata's claims, SAP told the Supreme Court in a filing. SAP said the 9th Circuit's ruling clashed with how another federal appeals court in Washington in 2001 resolved a landmark antitrust case against Microsoft. In its filing at the Supreme Court, SAP said its two products were integrated, and that such integration benefits consumers and allows companies to compete effectively. Teradata urged the justices to reject SAP's appeal. It disputed that SAP's two products were integrated and also denied there was any divide among the federal appeals courts about which rules judges should use to evaluate antitrust lawsuits. Meta Platforms and Microsoft jointly submitted a friend-of-the-court brief backing SAP at the Supreme Court. (Reporting by Mike Scarcella; Editing by Will Dunham)

(The article has been published through a syndicated feed. Except for the headline, the content has been published verbatim. Liability lies with original publisher.)