FINANCIAL MARKETS
Asia stocks lackluster as Japan falls, Fed speech awaited
TOKYO (AP) — Asian stocks were lackluster today as Japan’s index fell following a three-day holiday, and investors awaited a speech from the Federal Reserve chief.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 dropped 2.6 percent to 17,592.82 and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng lost 0.7 percent to 21,160.78. South Korea’s Kospi rose 0.1 percent to 1,947.10 and the Shanghai Composite Index gained 0.8 percent to 3,141.51. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 rose 1.2 percent to 5,060.10. Benchmarks in Taiwan, Thailand the Philippines were lower.
South Korea’s Hyundai bounced back after taking the brunt of negative sentiment in Asia stemming from Volkswagen’s emissions-rigging scandal. It was the turn of Japanese automakers to fall with Japan’s stock market open after a three-day holiday. Toyota Motor Corp. dropped 1.9 percent, Nissan Motor Co. fell 2.5 percent and Honda shed 3.0 percent. Mazda slumped 6.8 percent.
On Wall Street yesterday, the Standard & Poor’s 500 index gave up 3.98 points, or 0.2 percent, to finish the day at 1,938.76.
The Dow Jones industrial average lost 50.58 points, or 0.3 percent, to 16,279.89, and the Nasdaq composite fell 3.98 points, or 0.1 percent, to 4,752.74.
Many investors are awaiting a speech on inflation and monetary policy today by Federal Reserve Chairwoman Janet Yellen. Markets are looking for clues on the timing of the Fed’s first interest-rate hike in nearly a decade after it held off raising the Fed Funds earlier this month. The Fed has rate-setting meetings in October and December.
Benchmark U.S. crude was up 33 cents at $44.81 a barrel in electronic trading today on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract fell $1.88 to close at $44.48 a barrel in New York yesterday after a weak Chinese manufacturing report. Brent, a benchmark for international oils, was up 20 cents to $48.68 a barrel in London.
ECONOMY-THE DAY AHEAD
Major business and economic events scheduled for today
WASHINGTON (AP) — There are three government economic reports due out today.
The Labor Department will report on the number of people who applied for unemployment benefits last week.
Also, the Commerce Department will issue its August reports on durable goods and new home sales.
Freddie Mac will report on average U.S. mortgage rates as well.
VENTING ABOUT VOLKSWAGEN
Dealers, owners feel frustrated and betrayed by VW scandal
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Volkswagen dealers and owners are expressing anger and frustration as word spreads about how the carmaker rigged diesel emissions to pass U.S. tests.
Some now want to sell their cars, but they can’t get any interest because of the smog-test trickery. Others say they are joining class-action lawsuits against VW.
Dealers around the country are also struggling with diesel stock they can’t sell in the short-term.
Meanwhile, angry customers are demanding local dealers buy their cars back or offer compensation.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency disclosed Friday that VW used software that reduced emissions during smog testing but then turned off during regular driving.
The company’s CEO resigned yesterday. The scandal has wiped out billions in the company’s market value and could bring billions more in fines and criminal investigations.
POPE-SCALPING TICKETS
Scalpers turn papal tickets for profit, drawing church’s ire
PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Ticket scalpers are getting creative to make sure their listings don’t get deleted or lost as Pope Francis heads to New York and Philadelphia.
One lists $175 rosary beads that just happen to come with a pair of tickets to the pontiff’s outdoor Mass in Philadelphia.
The same tickets that papal visit organizers doled out free of charge through parishes and online giveaways weeks ago are available on the online gray market with hefty price tags.
Want a chance to see Pope Francis roll through New York’s Central Park on Friday? That’ll be $100.
Church and civic leaders have denounced the sales and asked websites to remove the listings. The auction site eBay has complied, saying the sales violate its terms of service.
FORD-SUPER DUTY
Ford reveals new Super Duty pickups
DETROIT (AP) — Ford’s Super Duty trucks are getting a new aluminum body, just like their smaller sibling, the Ford F-150 pickup.
Ford’s 2016 F-250, F-350 and F-450 trucks sit on a new high-strength steel frame and have aluminum body panels. The materials help shave up to 350 pounds off the vehicles’ weight, making them more nimble and fuel efficient and increasing towing capacity.
Ford will offer three engines: a 6.7-liter V8 diesel, a 6.2-liter V8 gas engine and a 6.8-liter V10. Fuel economy hasn’t been released.
Ford is also adding features, including blind spot detection, lane departure warning and LED lighting in the cargo box.
Super Duty work trucks make up about one-third of Ford’s F-Series sales.
The 2016 Super Duty goes on sale early next year.
AUTO COMPONENTS UNION
Workers at Alabama auto components plant vote to join union
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) — Workers at an automotive components manufacturing plant in northeast Alabama cited issues such as wage caps and growing use of temporary workers in their vote to join a labor union.
Commercial Vehicle Group Inc. plant employees in Piedmont voted yesterday to join the United Auto Workers. The plant roughly 85 miles northeast of Birmingham produces seats for large commercial trucks.
Workers said in a release that they voted 89-45 to join UAW because of high health care costs in addition to pay issues and wider use of temps who don’t qualify for benefits.
The company’s Chief Human Resources Officer Laura Macias said in an emailed statement that officials don’t believe union representation is in the best interest of employees, but officials respect workers’ rights to vote on the issue.
MINE WASTE SPILL-TREATMENT PLANT
EPA says it will build temporary treatment plant for mine
DENVER (AP) — The Environmental Protection Agency said yesterday it will set up a temporary treatment plant for wastewater flowing from the Gold King Mine in southwestern Colorado after 3 million gallons surged out of the mine in August, tainting rivers in three states.
Colorado’s two U.S. senators urged the agency to build a longer-term plant to treat acidic water flowing from multiple mines in the Upper Animas River watershed around Silverton, saying pollution from inactive shafts is a serious problem across the West.
The EPA said it needs the temporary plant for the Gold King Mine because it will be unsafe to operate the settling ponds that are now in use when winter temperatures fall below zero.
The $1.8 million facility is expected to start operating by Oct. 14 and run for up to 42 weeks. The EPA said it will cost $20,000 a week to operate.
EPA METHANE RULES-HEARINGS
EPA hears widely different views on methane emission threat
DENVER (AP) — Over-regulating methane emissions could discourage the use of environment-friendly natural gas, an energy industry representative told the Environmental Protection Agency yesterday.
However, a former Colorado air quality official countered that such controls would be a cost-effective way to fight climate change.
The EPA heard radically different views as it opened public hearings in Denver on its proposal to slash allowable methane emissions from oil and gas production. Sessions were also scheduled in Dallas yesterday and in Pittsburgh on Sept. 29.
The proposed rules are aimed at cutting the emissions by 40 to 45 percent by 2025 compared with 2012 levels.
Methane is a key component of natural gas and a powerful greenhouse gas that traps heat in the upper atmosphere.
CHINESE PRESIDENT
China’s president heads to Washington-the Capital
SEATTLE (AP) — China’s president Xi Jinping (shee jihn-peeng) departs Washington state Thursday for the other Washington, where tougher discussions on cybersecurity, intellectual property protections and human rights await.
Yesterday Mark Zuckerberg and Jeff Bezos, the founders of Facebook and Amazon, joined Chinese President Xi Jinping and other tech executives for a tour of the sprawling suburban Microsoft campus.
Xi was shown several demonstrations Wednesday of high-tech products, including a large device for data manipulation.
Protesters holding signs in English and Chinese lined the streets outside Microsoft in Redmond, Washington.
Xi was scheduled to conclude his public appearances in Washington state with a visit to a high school in Tacoma before heading to the White House.
CONGRESS-BUDGET
GOP pragmatists protest tea party shutdown tactics
WASHINGTON (AP) — Rank-and-file Republican lawmakers are increasingly protesting the tactics of tea party colleagues who demand that legislation to keep the government open also take away federal funding for Planned Parenthood. The leading proponent of that strategy remains unbowed.
Eleven GOP House freshmen — several facing difficult re-election races next year in Democratic-leaning districts — say they support a short-term funding bill needed to guarantee the government won’t shut down next week. But they oppose a shutdown confrontation over Planned Parenthood, which is under intense criticism for undercover videos that raise questions about its practice of supplying fetal tissue for scientific research.
A “Dear Colleague” letter by New York Rep. Elise Stefanik and Pennsylvania Rep. Ryan Costello promises to “avoid repeating the mistakes of the past” — a reference to the GOP-sparked 2013 shutdown over implementation of the new health care law.
DRUG PRICE SPIKES
Fury over drug price spikes rising, but increases aren’t new
TRENTON, N.J. (AP) — Hillary Clinton was among the patients and politicians who voiced outrage this week after it became public that the price of a 62-year-old drug used to treat a life-threatening infection had been raised by more than 5,000 percent.
But exorbitant drug price hikes like that have happened increasingly over the last few years. And they could become even more common because of decreasing competition in the pharmaceutical industry, among other factors.
The issue was brought to light after a Sunday article on drug price increases by The New York Times.
The story featured Turing Pharmaceuticals, a startup that paid Impax Laboratories $55 million in August for rights to Daraprim. It’s the only approved treatment for a rare parasitic infection called toxoplasmosis that mainly strikes pregnant women, cancer patients and AIDS patients.
Turing’s CEO, former hedge fund manager Martin Shkreli, soon raised Daraprim’s price from $13.50 to $750 per pill.
FERRARI-WYNN CASINO
Ferrari dealership inside Wynn Las Vegas casino to close
LAS VEGAS (AP) — A gambler’s chance to win big and buy a luxury Ferrari or Maserati without ever leaving the Wynn Las Vegas resort-casino is speeding away.
A Wynn Las Vegas spokesman confirmed the Penske-Wynn Ferrari dealership that opened with the casino 10 years ago will close before year’s end.
Wynn spokesman Michael Weaver says both sides opted not to renew the five-year lease.
The only authorized Ferrari dealer in Nevada attracts gawkers who pay $10 each just to look at the cars.
Weaver says Wynn expects to replace the dealership with something “unique and special.”
Anthony Pordon with Penske Automotive Group says the dealership hopes to move somewhere else. He says the location has been a great place to sell and service cars but the dealership might get more foot traffic in an auto mall.
BATMOBILE KNOCKOFF LAWSUIT
Court finds Batmobile is entitled to copyright protection
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Batman won’t have to worry about Batmobile knockoffs after a federal appeals court ruled the caped crusader’s vehicle is entitled to copyright protection.
The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said yesterday the Batmobile’s bat-like appearance and other distinct traits make it a character that can’t be replicated without permission from DC Comics, the copyright holder.
The ruling came in a lawsuit DC Comics brought against Mark Towle.
Towle produced replicas of the Batmobile as it appeared in the 1966 television show featuring Adam West as Batman, and the 1989 movie with Michael Keaton in the lead role. The 9th Circuit said Towle sold the cars for about $90,000 each.
Calls to attorneys for Towle were not immediately returned.
CYPRUS BAILOUT
IMF approves 126M euro disbursement for bailed-out Cyprus
NICOSIA, Cyprus (AP) — The International Monetary Fund has approved the disbursement of another 126 million euros ($140.5 million) for bailed-out Cyprus, saying that the island nation’s reform program continues to be “a success.”
The IMF said yesterday that total disbursements so far amount to around 882 million euros ($983.4 million) from a contribution of around 1 billion euros. Another 9 billion euros is being provided by the European Union’s bailout fund.
IMF Deputy Managing Director Mitsuhiro Furusawa said Cyprus’ economy fared better than expected in the first half of the year.
But he urged more efforts to deal with a huge number of bad loans, cautious spending in light of a high public debt and to expedite privatizations.
Cyprus’ March 2013 rescue deal included a grab of uninsured deposits from its two biggest banks.
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