UAW President Sean Fine during a webcast updating union members on negotiations with automakers in Detroit on October 6, 2023.ScreenshotDETROIT – The United Auto Workers union threatens a labor strike ford motor The largest US manufacturer if local union demands are not resolved by next week.Nearly 9,000 UAW auto workers at a Ford truck plant in Kentucky may go on strike at 12:01 a.m. on Feb. 23 if local contract issues persist, the Detroit union said Friday. The plant — Ford's largest in terms of employment and revenue — produces Ford Super Duty pickup trucks as well as the Ford…
Author: ricardofrancois
Wholesale prices rose more than expected in January, further complicating the inflation picture, according to a US Labor Department report on Friday.The producer price index, a measure of prices received by producers of domestic goods and services, rose 0.3% during the month, the biggest move since August. Economists surveyed by Dow Jones were looking for an increase of just 0.1%. The Producer Price Index fell by 0.2% in December.Excluding food and energy, the core Producer Price Index rose 0.5%, also against expectations for a 0.1% rise. The producer price index excluding food, energy and business services jumped 0.6%, the largest…
A general view of a kiosk near Charing Cross station in London, England, on January 20, 2024. (Photo by Alberto Bizzali/NoorPhoto via Getty Images)norphoto | norphoto | Getty ImagesLONDON – Stronger-than-expected January retail sales provided a glimmer of light for Britain's faltering economy on Friday – and suggest the country's recession will be short-lived, according to some economists.Sales rebounded 3.4% from December, according to the Office for National Statistics, the strongest monthly increase since April 2021. Economists polled by Reuters had expected a more modest growth of 1.5%.Sales volumes increased in all regions except lockdown, with food stores seeing the…
Ford Motor Company CEO Jim Farley gives a thumbs-up sign before announcing Ford Motor Company's partnership with China-based Amperex Technology to build an all-electric vehicle battery factory in Marshall, Michigan, during a press conference in Romulus, Michigan on February 13, 2023.Rebecca Cook | ReutersDetroit — “ ford motor CEO Jim Farley on Thursday urged Wall Street to forget about it Tesla And its FSD driver assistance systems are considered the future of the auto industry, competing investors should instead focus on the Detroit automaker's “Pro” fleet business.Farley compared the unit, which nearly doubled its pre-tax profits last year to $7.2…
At the end of last year, with mortgage rates falling, Sarah Brown began looking for a home to buy on the Isle of Wight. But she was conflicted: she expected them to fall further – and the longer she waited, the better the deal she would get. “At the same time, if mortgage interest rates went down, I was worried that rates would go up and I would end up paying more,” she says. When she spotted a house for sale at auction in January, she decided to act, winning a bid of £292,000, 9 per cent below the guide…
Research has shown that downsizing later in life can provide a significant boost to retirement finances as a result of long-term growth in UK property prices, but the rewards are unevenly distributed across the country.Savills, the estate agent, has calculated that someone without a mortgage moving from a four-bedroom house – with an average price of just over £560,000 in England and Wales – to an average two-bedroom house, would make a gain of 305 thousand pounds sterling. The average life expectancy of a 65-year-old is around 20 years, according to the Office for National Statistics. This means the freed-up…
Ford CEO Jim Farley discussed a range of topics Thursday from hybrids and electric vehicles to how the automaker deals with international competitors. Comments from the Wolfe Research investor conference left us feeling better about Ford's future. Wall Street appeared to agree, sending the club's stock up more than 2% in afternoon trading. Farley struck an optimistic tone about the future of the automaker's professional business, which consists of a commercial fleet of vehicles that includes software and services for businesses. He also said that focusing on hybrid cars will be a key strategy to offset the losses of electric…
The Commerce Department reported Thursday that consumer spending fell sharply in January, representing a potential early danger sign for the economy.Advance retail sales fell 0.8% during the month after rising downwardly revised 0.4% in December, according to the Census Bureau. The decline was expected: Economists surveyed by Dow Jones were looking for a 0.3% decline, partly to offset seasonal distortions that may have boosted December numbers.However, the decline was much larger than expected. Even excluding cars, sales fell 0.6%, well below estimates of a 0.2% increase.The sales report was adjusted for seasonal factors but not for inflation, so the release…
Pro-European Union demonstrators protest outside Parliament against Brexit on the fourth anniversary of Britain's formal departure from the European Union in London, United Kingdom on January 31, 2024.Future Publishing | Getty ImagesLONDON – Britain's post-Brexit performance has been “significantly weaker” than other advanced economies since the EU referendum in 2016, according to a new analysis by Goldman Sachs, which aims to measure the economic cost of a vote to leave the European Union.In a note last week titled “The Structural and Cyclical Costs of Brexit,” the Wall Street bank estimated that the UK economy grew by 5% over the past…
Stay informed with free updatesSimply sign up for myFT Digest of UK house prices – delivered straight to your inbox.UK house prices fell in the second half of 2023 driven by weakness in the London market, according to official data, underscoring the continuing pressure of rising borrowing costs.Average UK house prices fell by 1.4 per cent year-on-year in December 2023, the Office for National Statistics said on Wednesday. This was lower than the revised 2.3 per cent fall in November 2023, but represented six consecutive months of contraction.These numbers confirm the impact of high borrowing costs that affected the real…