The daily business briefing: May 21, 2019

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1. Ford says it will cut 7,000 jobs
2. Google to work with Huawei for 90 days after U.S. eases crackdown
3. Markets track shifting signs on Huawei, China trade
4. Home Depot reports better than expected quarterly results
5. Game of Thrones finale sets HBO ratings record

published 21 May 2019

1. Ford says it will cut 7,000 jobs

Ford announced Monday that it would cut 7,000 white-collar jobs to reduce costs. The automaker said it would start notifying affected workers on Tuesday. The cuts amount to about 10 percent of Ford's global salaried staff. The company expects to save about $600 million a year. About 2,400 of the eliminated jobs will be in North America. The cuts, announced in a letter from CEO Jim Hackett to employees, came as Ford executes a massive restructuring and spends $11 billion to remake its business in a bid to increase international sales and modernize its vehicle models. General Motors in November announced that it was slashing 8,000 non-union jobs, or 15 percent of its salaried and contract employees.

Google said Tuesday that it would work with Huawei Technologies over the next three months, dialing back a plan to cut ties with the Chinese tech giant after the Trump administration eased trade restrictions that target the smartphone maker. Just Sunday, Google said it would cut ties with Huawei, depriving it of services for the Android mobile operating system, after the Trump administration put Huawei on a blacklist. The Trump administration says Huawei gear can be used by China for spying, which the company denies. On Monday, the Commerce Department announced it was giving mobile phone companies and internet broadband providers a 90-day license to work with Huawei, which will let Google send software updates to Huawei's Android phones through August 19.

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Concerns about intensifying trade tensions between the U.S. and China rattled financial markets on Monday. Beijing said the Trump administration was nursing "extravagant expectations" for a deal to end the tit-for-tat tariffs President Trump started in what he said was an effort to force China to make its trade policies more fair to U.S. companies. The U.S. blacklisting of China's Huawei Technologies drove down technology stocks including suppliers Qualcomm, Micron Technology, and Broadcom. Morgan Stanley analysts warned that if trade talks collapse and the tariffs affect all U.S.-China trade, the global economy could head toward recession. U.S. stock futures gained early Tuesday after the Trump administration temporarily eased some trade restrictions on Huawei.

Home Depot shares fluctuated in pre-market trading on Tuesday after the home-improvement retailer reported quarterly earnings that beat Wall Street's expectations. The company posted earnings per share of $2.27, exceeding the Refinitiv consensus estimate of $2.18, despite a wet start in 2019 that could have cut into shoppers' enthusiasm for home-improvement projects in some parts of the country. Revenue came in at $26.381 billion, just over the $26.378 billion expected. "We were pleased with the underlying performance of the core business despite unfavorable weather in February and significant deflation in lumber prices compared to a year ago," Home Depot CEO and president Craig Menear said.

The final episode of Game of Thrones, "The Iron Throne," drew 19.3 million viewers on Sunday. This includes 13.6 million people who tuned into the initial 9:00 p.m. ET airing, as well as those who tuned in for replays and streamed the episode online. This breaks Game of Thrones' previous ratings record — 18.4 million people tuned in last Sunday night to the season's fifth episode, "The Bells." It also sets a new record for HBO itself. The season 4 premiere of The Sopranos previously held the HBO record for biggest linear audience with 13.4 million viewers in 2002. When including viewers who watch after the episode's Sunday night premiere, the eighth season of Game of Thrones has been averaging 44.2 million viewers.

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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.