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FINANCIAL MARKETS
Stocks plunge amid virus fears
NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks are tumbling following a sell-off in markets in Europe and Japan after China announced a sharp rise in cases of a deadly new virus that threatens to crimp global economic growth.
The major U.S. indexes gave up a significant amount of their gains for January and bond yields moved lower as investors headed for safer holdings. Gold prices rose.
Airlines, resorts and other companies that rely on travel and tourism saw steep losses.
The Dow industrials were down by more than 400 points in morning trading.
FEDERAL RESERVE
Fed seems content with low rates but confronts challenges
WASHINGTON (AP) — For the first time in years, Federal Reserve officials will hold their latest policy meeting this week feeling broadly satisfied with where interest rates are and with seemingly no inclination to change them anytime soon.
Chairman Jerome Powell has expressed a sense of gratification with Fed policy, thanks in large part to a steady if unspectacular economy driven by a robust job market.
The unemployment rate is at a 50-year low, and growth remains solid if modest.
On Wednesday, economists expect the Fed will keep its benchmark short-term rate in a range of 1.5% to 1.75%, a historically low level.
NEW HOME SALES
US new-home sales slipped 0.4% in December
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. sales of newly built homes fell 0.4% in December, cooling slightly after low mortgage rates fueled gains for much of 2019.
The Commerce Department says that new single-family houses sold at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 694,000 last month. But for all of 2019, sales climbed 10.3% to 681,000, the highest total since 2007 when 776,000 new homes were sold as the housing bubble was beginning to deflate ahead of the Great Recession.
Last year’s gains were driven entirely by new homes purchased in the South and West. Sales of new homes slumped in the Northeast and Midwest in 2019.
Lower mortgage rates began to boost real estate sales relative to 2018. December’s median new-home sales price was $331,400, up 0.5% from a year ago.
GM-ELECTRIC VEHICLE PLANT
GM to invest $2.2B in Detroit to build electric vehicles
DETROIT (AP) — General Motors is spending $2.2 billion to refurbish an underused Detroit factory so it can build electric and self-driving vehicles, eventually employing 2,200 people.
GM says the factory will start building the company's first electric pickup late in 2021. It will be followed by a self-driving shuttle for GM's Cruise autonomous vehicle unit.
The truck will be the first of several electric vehicles to be built at the plant. The company has plans to revive the Hummer nameplate for one of the vehicles.
In November of 2018 GM announced plans to close the factory along with three others in the U.S. But the company promised to reopen the Detroit-area plant to build electric vehicles during last fall's contentious contract negotiations with the United Auto Workers union.
At that time the plant employed about 1,500 hourly and salaried workers. Currently the plant is working on one shift with about 900 workers making the Cadillac CT6 and Chevrolet Impala sedans.
The factory will be shut down at the end of February, when renovations are expected to begin
REGIONAL CLIMATE PLAN
Northeast governors slow to embrace regional climate pact
CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — A growing number of governors in the Northeast are raising doubts about a regional pact that would cap pollution from vehicles and other transport sources.
So far, New Hampshire's Republican Gov. Chris Sununu has said the state won't join the pact due to concerns about higher gas prices.
Vermont's Republican Gov. Phil Scott has said he wouldn't support the pact if it amounted to a carbon tax.
Maine's Democratic Gov. Janet Mills has also raised concerns about the impact on the state's drivers.
GERMANY-H&M-PRIVACY PROBE
German privacy watchdog investigates clothing retailer H&M
BERLIN (AP) — A German privacy watchdog says it has opened an investigation into clothing retailer H&M amid evidence that the Swedish retailer committed “massive data protection breaches” by spying on its customer service representatives in Germany.
Hamburg's data protection commissioner says it has reviewed a hard drive revealing that superiors at the site in Nuremberg kept “detailed and systematic” records about employees' health and their private lives, which were accessible to all company managers.
H&M has expressed its “honest regret” to the affected staff.
BROKERAGES-SERIAL FRAUD
Ex-broker charged with fraud blames sloppy paperwork
SCRANTON, Pa. (AP) — A former financial planner who was ordered to pay millions of dollars in damages to customers he allegedly tricked into high-risk investments is testifying at his criminal fraud trial in Pennsylvania.
Anthony Diaz took the witness stand at the federal courthouse in Scranton on Monday. He blamed some of his woes on sloppy paperwork and incompetent or underhanded brokerage companies.
Diaz was kicked out of the securities industry in 2015 over persistent customer complaints and rules infractions. He's battling an 11-count indictment alleging wire and mail fraud.
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