The daily business briefing: October 30, 2019

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1. Coal company Murray Energy files for bankruptcy protection
2. U.K. lawmakers approve snap election to break Brexit impasse
3. Lawmakers grill Boeing CEO about early signs of 737 Max problems
4. Stocks struggle ahead of Fed decision on interest rates
5. Fiat Chrysler shares surge on news of Peugeot merger talks

published 30 October 2019

1. Coal company Murray Energy files for bankruptcy protection

Coal giant Murray Energy filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on Tuesday despite regulatory breaks from the Trump administration. President Trump has long vowed to bring back coal jobs and end what he called the "war on coal" being waged by Democrats. But Murray, based in Ohio, continued to struggle as utilities switched from coal to cheaper and cleaner alternatives, such as natural gas and renewable energy sources. Murray Energy CEO Robert Murray said the company now will be able to access cash and restructure. Cecil Roberts, president of United Mine Workers of America, said Murray couldn't withstand the combined effect of government preference for gas power generation, and falling coal exports. "Now comes the part where workers and their families pay the price for corporate decision-making and governmental actions," Roberts said in a prepared statement.

British lawmakers voted 438-20 on Tuesday to hold a general election on Dec. 12. The decision came on Prime Minister Boris Johnson's fourth attempt to win approval for an early election to break the impasse over Brexit. The last national vote resulted in a "hung Parliament" in 2017, producing a government lacking the power to pass its agenda. Johnson's ruling Conservatives are hoping they will pick up seats and win a clear majority so they will be able to get a deal approved so that Britain can exit the European Union as planned. The leader of the main opposition Labour party, Jeremy Corbyn, said he and his allies would campaign aggressively, "giving a message of real hope where this government offers nothing."

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Boeing CEO Dennis Muilenburg faced sharp questions Tuesday in a congressional hearing on what the aircraft maker knew about problems with a flight control system in its 737 Max jets before it was linked to two deadly crashes. Lawmakers asked Muilenburg to explain Boeing's delay in handing over internal 2016 messages describing apparent glitches with the system in a simulator. The crashes killed 346 people and resulted in the grounding of the once popular jets worldwide. "You have told me half-truths over and over again," Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.) told Muilenburg. Duckworth said Boeing should have done more to make pilots aware of the system's lack of safeguards. "You set those pilots up for failure," she said.

U.S. stock index futures were flat early Wednesday as investors awaited the Federal Reserve's decision on interest rates at the conclusion of a two-day meeting. Futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average, the S&P 500, and the Nasdaq were all down, but by less than 0.1 percent. The Fed is expected to announce its third quarter-point rate cut this year as it tries to maintain the U.S. economic expansion despite trade tensions and slowing global growth. CME Group's FedWatch tool puts the chance of another rate reduction in December at 23 percent, down from nearly 70 percent earlier this month. The central bank raised rates four times last year to keep a strengthening economy from overheating.

Fiat Chrysler shares jumped by as much as 8 percent on Tuesday after a report that the Italian-American carmaker was in talks about a merger with Peugeot-owner PSA Group. Fiat Chrysler confirmed the discussions on Wednesday after they were reported in The Wall Street Journal. A deal could create a nearly $50 billion trans-Atlantic auto-making powerhouse that would be the world's fourth largest by volume, the Journal reported. Fiat Chrysler recently held talks on teaming up with Renault, but it failed to win French government approval. Fiat has been seeking a partner to help it make investments necessary to keep up in the capital-heavy auto industry.

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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.