Autos: UAW Passes Contracts With Ford, GM
Autos: UAW passes contracts with Ford, GM
After a season of contentious negotiations, the United Auto Workers union now has contracts with the three big Detroit automakers, said Dee-Ann Durbin in the Associated Press. Workers narrowly ratified deals with General Motors and Ford last week, after approving a deal with Fiat Chrysler in October. The union achieved its goal of ending an unpopular two-tier wage system that prevented newer workers from eventually earning the same as veteran employees, but many workers were upset that they weren’t able to reverse other “painful concessions”— like forgoing guaranteed pay raises—made while automakers were struggling following the financial crisis.
Housing: Home equity goes untapped
Despite the housing market’s rebound, homeowners aren’t feeling flush, said Joe Light in The Wall Street Journal. Home equity has roughly doubled to $12.1 trillion since 2011, but its impact on consumer spending is the lowest since the early 1990s. Homeowners borrowed $43.5 bil lion against their homes during the first half of 2015—just a quarter of the amount they did during the same period in 2007, the last time equity was this high. Many homeowners don’t realize they have equity to tap. Roughly 27 percent of homeowners think they are underwater on their mortgage, though just 8.7 percent currently are.
Tech: Square’s initial public offering underwhelms
Mobile payments company Square was stung last week by Wall Street’s growing tech skepticism, said Andrea Chang and David Pierson in the Los Angeles Times. The Silicon Valley darling lowered its initial public offering from the expected $11 to $13 per share to $9, given a market environment in which investors are increasingly questioning the value of multibillion-dollar tech startups. Square, which has yet to make a profit, faces fierce competition from PayPal, American Express, and others.
Commerce: Delivery firms expect joyous holidays
Shipping companies anticipate a bumper holiday season this year, said Laura Stevens in The Wall Street Journal. Parcel-delivery services like FedEx, UPS, and DHL are expecting to ship record numbers of packages, thanks to growth in online shopping and changing inventory strategies by retailers that involve stocking fewer goods in stores in order to better respond to “rapidly shifting consumer demand.” UPS predicts its deliveries will increase 10 percent over last year’s, to a record 630 million packages between Black Friday and New Year’s Eve.
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