Wednesday’s business headlines

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) – Here’s a look at Wednesday’s business headlines.

COVID habits

In 2021, consumers will be demanding, anxious and creative in dealing with change, Euromonitor forecasts in its annual trend report. People will expect increased activism from brands they use, new options for digital services in their daily lives and more help in achieving mental and physical wellness.

Trends like heightened safety concerns and demand for more open-air spaces will continue after the pandemic wanes.

Smartwatches

Researchers at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai has found evidence that suggests smartwatches can detect COVID-19 symptoms before a person has become aware they they are affected.

One of the early signs of a COVID-19 infection is inflammation in infected areas of the body and when inflammation begins. The body responds by slightly altering blood flow.

That change in blood flow can be seen in slight changes to a person’s heartbeat, detectable via smartwatches like the one from Apple.

Self-driving car

Microsoft has taken a stake in the General Motors-run Cruise self-driving company.

It will see Cruise Microsoft’s Azure cloud computing platform for its operations.

Cruise recent began testing its fully driverless vehicles in San Francisco for the first time.

Netflix

Netflix topped 200 million subscribers with the year-end boosts, the stock jumped 10%.

The streaming service bounced back from a third-quarter stall to top 8 million new customers in holiday period.

As COVID restrictions ramped up more people stayed home and watched streaming services.