Finatext Holdings Ltd. (HQ: Chiyoda, Tokyo | CEO: Ryota Hayashi) subsidiary, Nowcast Inc. (CEO: Masashi Tsujinaka), the leading Japanese Alternative Data analytics and solution provider, is pleased to announce that it has integrated Consumer Price Index Analytics into its multi-data source investment analytics platform, AlternaData.

Price Index Analytics Function Overview

AlternaData is Nowcast’s investment analytics platform designed to help investors in Japanese public companies to make better decisions. The addition of the Price Index function now allows investors to analyze both Consumer Transaction POS Data (including Supermarkets and Drugstores), as well as Economic Data Analysis on one platform, and gives them the ability to gain insights into sales trends for major food and daily necessities companies ahead of earnings disclosures.

This integration now allows for the analysis of various POS Data-based indexes within the AlternaData platform and offers users the following additional price trend data.

1. Price trend data by product category that can be broken down by region
2. Price trend data by company that can be broken down by product category

As an example use case, the platform visualizes a given product category’s price trend movements, and then breaks that down to a company level (e.g highlighting specifics of companies whose products have shown a significantly large price change), allowing an investment manager to analyze both product pricing trends and company pricing trends seamlessly. The platform is also useful for showing the influence of price changes on individual companies, allowing investors to gain a quantitative level of understanding. Moreover, the addition of the new ‘Company Price Index’ function puts into application the research and expertise of Nowcast Technical Director, Tsutomu Watanabe1.   
1.）T. Watanabe et al., "Measuring Inflation by Company", at Group experts consumer price indices in United Nations Economic Commission for Europe,  2016.

AlternaData - Spring 2022 Price Trends

Utilizing AlternaData’s price analytics function, Nowcast analyzed Spring 2022 price movements which are highlighted below.

Nikkei CPINow Index Reaches Highest Level in Two Years

• Upward price trend has continued from the index lows in May 2021
• Impact of April 2022 price revisions felt as April 6th YoY 7-day moving average of 1.7% signifies a two-year index high

Nikkei CPINow (YoY 7-day Moving Average)

Indications that April 2022 Recommended Retail Price (RRP) increases are already being seen price of processed cheese 

• When looking at the effect of the April 2022 RRP increases on Tomato-based Seasonings, Whiskey/Brandy, Processed Cheese and Paper-related products/equipment, an upward store price trend for processed cheese on April 4th can be seen.

April 2020 - Effect of RRP Increases on Product Price | Nikkei CPINow (YoY 7-day Moving Average)

AlternaData Trial and Mini-report Registration

All investors who register for an AlternaData platform trial will receive additional analysis to the above in our recently published Spring 2022 mini-report.

• Register for an AlternaData trial at this link: https://forms.gle/zJk4mz1xqNohwR1t8
• Trial expiration date: Monday, May 16th 2022

AlternaData Service Outline

1. Alternative Data Analytics
POS data from nationwide supermarkets and drugstores plus consumer economics data 
(Additional integration of household appliance & other POS data, and geolocation data are currently being looked into)

2. Alternative Data Update Frequency
Updated daily

3. Ticker Coverage
204 stock tickers

4. Platform Capabilities
Browse data by type (e.g To confirm most recent summary of sales trends)
Detailed analysis by individual company including earnings and monthly disclosure comparisons
Browse reports written by Nowcast’s Alternative Data Analysts
Downloadable data in Excel or CSV formats
Note: Additional analytical functions including; combined analysis for product level sales and climate data, top-down analysis based on industry data, competitor comparative analysis and consensus data comparative analysis will be added based on demand from clients.

5. Service Overview Documents
Please enquire separately

6. Contact Information
Nowcast Inc.
Masashi Tsujinaka
T: +81 3 6272 5550
E: info@nowcast.co.jp