The daily business briefing: May 3, 2023
Ford rebounds in 1st quarter and cuts Mach-E prices again, job openings fall for 3rd straight month, and more
1. Ford rebounds in 1st quarter, cuts Mach-E prices
Ford Motor on Tuesday reported $1.8 billion in first-quarter net income, reversing a $3.1 billion loss in the same period last year. The automaker rebounded after struggling with supply-chain bottlenecks as it "commanded top dollar for its pickup trucks and SUVs," The Wall Street Journal reported. For the second time in 2023, Ford slashed prices on its electric Mustang Mach-E, this time by as much as 8 percent. Ford CEO Jim Farley told analysts that by the end of the year Ford will have cut $5,000 from Mach-E costs since the vehicles launched over two years ago, allowing the company to cut the SUV's price to grab a bigger share of the market. Ford is switching to a lower-cost battery as Tesla slashes prices to protect its lead share of the EV market.
The Wall Street Journal Detroit Free Press
2. Job openings drop for 3rd straight month
U.S. job openings dropped to 9.6 million in March from 10 million in February, the third straight monthly drop, the Labor Department reported Tuesday. Layoffs increased to 1.8 million, the highest level since December 2020. The data added to signs that the labor market is softening as the Federal Reserve aggressively raises interest rates to fight inflation. Businesses, bracing for a possible recession, are desperately cut costs, often by trimming staff. Despite the changes, the job market remains tighter than normal, with 1.6 vacancies per unemployed person in March, although that's down from 1.7 in February and the lowest reading since October 2021.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
3. Late-night shows go dark as writers' strike begins
Late-night shows will start running repeats immediately in early fallout from the Writers Guild of America strike that started Tuesday, The New York Times reported, citing several people briefed with the plans. The shows going dark include The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, The Late Show With Stephen Colbert, Jimmy Kimmel Live!, Late Night With Seth Meyers, Comedy Central's The Daily Show, and HBO's programs hosted by John Oliver and Bill Maher. The writers are demanding more pay and a bigger share of residuals, which have fallen in recent years as TV production grew but streaming overshadowed broadcast TV. It wasn't immediately clear how long the shows would stay off the air. They gradually returned starting two months into the last strike, in 2007.
4. Stock futures rise slightly ahead of Fed decision
U.S. stock futures edged higher early Wednesday ahead of the Federal Reserve's next decision on raising interest rates. Futures tied to the Dow Jones Industrial Average were up 0.1 percent at 6:45 a.m. ET. S&P 500 and Nasdaq futures were up 0.2 percent. Analysts expected the Fed to raise interest rates by a quarter-point Wednesday at the close of a two-day policy meeting. Investors will be looking for clues in a post-meeting statement on when the central bank will pause the rate hikes. Wall Street had a rough day Tuesday, with all three of the main U.S. indexes dropping just over 1 percent as fears about the health of the banking sector continued after First Republic Bank collapsed and was taken over by JPMorgan.
5. Regional bank stocks fall as crisis continues
Regional bank shares continued to fall despite this week's First Republic rescue. Shares of PacWest, considered one of the weakest mid-sized banks, closed down 27.8 percent, its worst single-day decline since Silicon Valley Bank's implosion dragged down bank stocks on March 10. Another vulnerable bank, Western Alliance, fell 15.1 percent on Tuesday. "They are going from the weakest bank to the weakest bank. And it's not just the short sellers but it's the customers as well asking if their deposits are safe," said Chris Whalen, chair of Whalen Global Advisors, in the Financial Times. "The market is focusing on the weakest links and looking for banks that are vulnerable."
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Harold Maass is a contributing editor at The Week. He has been writing for The Week since the 2001 debut of the U.S. print edition and served as editor of TheWeek.com when it launched in 2008. Harold started his career as a newspaper reporter in South Florida and Haiti. He has previously worked for a variety of news outlets, including The Miami Herald, ABC News and Fox News, and for several years wrote a daily roundup of financial news for The Week and Yahoo Finance.
-
Big Tech critic Brendan Carr is Trump's FCC pick
In the Spotlight The next FCC commissioner wants to end content moderation practices on social media sites
By David Faris Published
-
ATACMS, the long-range American missiles being fired by Ukraine
The Explainer President Joe Biden has authorized their use for the first time in the war
By Justin Klawans, The Week US Published
-
The bacterial consequences of hurricanes
Under the radar Floodwaters are microbial hotbeds
By Devika Rao, The Week US Published
-
The daily business briefing: January 24, 2024
Business Briefing The S&P 500 sets a third straight record, Netflix adds more subscribers than expected, and more
By Harold Maass, The Week US Published
-
The daily business briefing: January 23, 2024
Business Briefing The Dow and S&P 500 set fresh records, Bitcoin falls as ETF enthusiasm fades, and more
By Harold Maass, The Week US Published
-
The daily business briefing: January 22, 2024
Business Briefing FAA recommends inspections of a second Boeing 737 model, Macy's rejects Arkhouse bid, and more
By Harold Maass, The Week US Published
-
The daily business briefing: January 19, 2024
Business Briefing Macy's to cut 2,350 jobs, Congress averts a government shutdown, and more
By Harold Maass, The Week US Published
-
The daily business briefing: January 18, 2024
Business Briefing Shell suspends shipments in the Red Sea, December retail sales beat expectations, and more
By Harold Maass, The Week US Published
-
The daily business briefing: January 17, 2024
Business Briefing Judge blocks JetBlue-Spirit merger plan, Goldman Sachs beats expectations with wealth-management boost, and more
By Harold Maass, The Week US Published
-
The daily business briefing: January 16, 2024
Business Briefing Boeing steps up inspections on 737 Max 9 jets, Zelenskyy fights for world leaders' attention at Davos, and more
By Harold Maass, The Week US Published
-
The daily business briefing: January 12, 2024
Business Briefing Inflation was slightly hotter than expected in December, Hertz is selling a third of its EVs to buy more gas cars, and more
By Harold Maass, The Week US Published