Members of a United Auto Workers union local went on strike Monday at General Motors’ Fairfax facility — hitting the plant that makes GM’s popular Malibu sedan.
During talks over the weekend, UAW Local 31 set a Monday morning strike deadline because union negotiators believed the two sides remained far from an agreement. The Fairfax plant employs more than 2,500 UAW members.
The plant makes the Chevrolet Malibu, a medium-sized sedan that was named "Car of the Year" at this year’s North American International Auto Show in Detroit.
The strike hits a key GM (GM, Fortune 500) product at a time when the company can ill afford it cash til payday loan.
Last week GM announced that it lost $3.3 billion in the first quarter, due largely to one-time charges and North American losses that offset gains in the rest of the world.
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A top aide to billionaire investor Kirk Kerkorian says Ford Motor Co. should sell its Volvo and Mercury brands.
Jerry York tells Automotive News for a story Thursday he sees no reason for keeping them. York says he’s confident in Ford’s turnaround plan and thinks the automaker will put Volvo on the market within 1 1/2 years.
Kerkorian disclosed Monday that he acquired a 4.7% stake in Ford and hoped to boost his holdings. His investment company plans to make an offer for up to 20 million additional shares at $8.50 a share.
Ford (F, Fortune 500) spokesman Mark Truby told The Associated Press on Friday that Volvo isn’t for sale and that the company is investing in Mercury savings account payday advance. But he said the automaker continues to evaluate its portfolio.
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The Federal Reserve joined two European central banks on Friday in expanding programs to spread more cash through the banking system in hopes of restoring confidence in credit markets.
The Fed said it would increase the size of cash auctions to banks, while the European Central Bank and the Swiss National Bank will boost their auctions of U.S. dollar funds.
In addition, the Fed said it would widen one of its lending programs to allow big bond market firms to swap a broader array of hard-to-trade securities for top-rated and liquid U.S. Treasury debt.
“They’re trying to target their actions,” said Rick Meckler, president of LibertyView Capital Management in Jersey City, New Jersey. “I don’t think this will be the last move either. They’ll continue to look to restore markets to the conditions they were before the crisis.”
Credit markets have not operated normally since rising defaults on U.S payday loans. subprime mortgages touched off a full-blown credit crisis in August, as banks shrank from lending to each other because they were worried about taking on toxic collateral.
Central banks, in turn, have unleashed extraordinary measures to return lending to normal.
The deep downturn in the U.S. housing market and subsequent credit tightening spurred the Fed to cut interest rates sharply to buffer the economy. Then on Wednesday it trimmed rates by a modest quarter percentage point and suggested it would now step to the sidelines to see if the medicine works.
The Fed’s announcement on Friday signals policy-makers feel they need to rely on measures besides rate cuts to calm markets and get at the problems besetting the economy.
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A buildup in inventories kept the U.S. economy afloat in the first quarter despite the weakest consumer spending since 2001 and reduced business investment, a government report on Wednesday showed.
Gross domestic product grew at a 0.6 percent annual rate in the first quarter, the Commerce Department said. That matched the fourth quarter’s advance and topped forecasts for 0.2 percent growth, but did not end a debate on whether the country was sliding into recession.
The Federal Reserve weighed in later with another small cut in official interest rates to counter what policy-makers characterized as weak economic activity.
Some economists said the GDP report suggested the economy was on a bit firmer ground than had been thought, but others braced for worse times ahead as businesses ratchet back production further to try to sell off inventories.
“There are some very troubling signs in this report,” said economist Paul Ashworth of Capital Economics Ltd in London payday loans. “The GDP figure is being flattered by the strength of demand abroad and an involuntary inventory accumulation.”
Stock prices were higher in mid-afternoon in volatile trading. Stocks had a positive tone from early trading, buoyed by hopes that employment will hold up. ADP Employer Services said it found private-sector companies added 10,000 jobs in April, a sharp contrast to forecasts that they would cut jobs.
The government is set to issue its report on April employment this Friday and forecasts are that 80,000 more jobs will be cut. Jobs were lost in each of the first three months this year.
HOUSING STILL WEIGHS
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