By Jeremy Schneider | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com | Posted July 12, 2019 at 09:30 AM | Updated July 12, 2019 at 11:02 AM
What was once rumored is now official: Ford is going to use VW's electric car platform, called MEB, for some of its own battery-powered vehicles. The announcement builds on the "global alliance" that the pair announced back in January. Ford says it will use VW's MEB to build "at least one high-volume fully electric vehicle" in Europe "starting in 2023." The MEB framework is already being used in a variety of yet-to-be-released EVs by Volkswagen and its subsidiary brands. Ford is the first external company beyond e.GO Mobile AG, a German EV startup, to use MEB, however.
Ford hopes to sell more than 600,000 vehicles using the MEB framework over a six-year period. A second model -- again, designed for Europe -- is under discussion at the company. "This supports Ford's European strategy, which involves continuing to play on its strengths – including commercial vehicles, compelling crossovers and imported iconic vehicles such as Mustang and Explorer," the company said in a press release. VW, meanwhile, has been working on MEB since 2016 and expects to build 15 million cars using the platform in the next decade. These include the camper-inspired I.D. Buzz and the still-under-wraps ID.3 hatchback.
In addition, VW is pouring $2.6 billion into Argo AI, a self-driving startup based in Pittsburgh. Ford has already invested in the company -- today's announcement means both automakers have an equal stake and, combined, a "substantial majority." Both companies plan to implement Argo AI's system into some of their future cars. Together, that should give Argo AI plenty of data to finesse its system and attract more automaker customers. Ford and VW say they will independently design "purpose-built vehicles to support the distinct people and goods movement initiatives of both companies." The specifics are unclear, but "purpose-built" suggests both companies are interested in driverless delivery and taxi vehicles.
Watch out, Tesla?
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It’s a prime time to score deals — but only if you’re savvy about it.
Amazon Prime Day begins at 3am ET on Monday July 15 and goes for 48 hours. It’s one of the biggest shopping days of the year, with Coresight Research predicting that Amazon AMZN, -0.81% could generate $5.8 billion in global sales over the two days. For its part, Amazon says it will launch more than one million deals across 18 countries, with new deals dropping hourly. Not all deals, of course, will be worth it, but if you’re savvy, “there will be really good deals,” says shopping expert Trae Bodge of TrueTrae.com. Here’s how to get the most from your Amazon Prime Day shopping — including where to get a free $10 that you can apply towards your purchases, and expert-recommended early deals you can snag now, like the Ring Video Doorbell Pro with a free Amazon Echo, for $169 (down from about $275) for Prime members.
First, become an Amazon Prime member (which you can do for free if you’re savvy).That’s because Prime Day sales are only for Prime members. You can sign up now for a 30-day free trial (if you don’t like it, cancel before the 30 days is up and it won’t cost you). If you keep it, the annual cost is $119, unless you’re a student and then it’s $59. Here’s a guide on whether Prime is right for you.
Get a $10 credit by signing up for the free Amazon Assistant service. “Install Amazon Assistant to your browser (a price alert tool) and you will get a coupon for $10 off $50 [on Amazon],” explains savings expert Andrea Woroch. Amazon Assistant is a browser plugin that gives you order and shipment updates and alerts you to sales. The catch: This offer is only for “Prime customers who haven’t used Amazon Assistant in the last 365 days” and the offer expires on July 30.
Score a $10 credit when you download and shop on the Amazon app for the first time. Prime customers (minus those doing just the free trial) who sign up for the app for the first time, and make a purchase using the app, can get $10 off their next order. People who use the camera or Alexa features in the app can get $5 towards a future purchase. “You can use the Amazon app to add items you want to buy or like to your watch list and you will get alerts when they go on sale on Prime Day,” adds Woroch. This offer ends on July 31.
Shop early deals. Amazon is already offering some great deals, experts say. Here are a few:
• Woroch’s pick: “The Ring Video Doorbell Pro comes with a free Echo Dot . The list price is $298.99 or $273.99 for Prime members, but you can snag it now for $169.”
• Bodge likes theFireTV recast (it’s a DVR for those who have cut the cord) that’s now just $129, down from $229.
• Amazon is also offering 30% off household essentials like paper towels and toilet paper and cleaning supplies. Bodge and Woroch both say there are some good deals to be had here.
Snag a $10 credit to spend on Prime Day when you spend $10 at Whole Foods. This applies to almost everything in Whole Foods except things like alcohol, taxes, tips, stamps and gift cards.“Just make sure you register or ask the store clerk how to get the credit applied to your account,” says Woroch.
Use cashback sites to deepen savings. “Get cash back through sites like Ebates and Swagbucks,” says Woroch — who highlights that Swagbucks is offering up to 5% cash back for purchases at Amazon through their site this month.
Shop using Amazon devices and services. Coresight Research notes that there will be “special deals for owners of the Amazon Echo, Dot and Tap artificial intelligence-enabled appliances on Prime Day.” Amazon highlights how this all works here. If you’re a Twitch Prime member, you’ll be able to “unlock free games, exclusive in-game content and live events featuring Apex Legends and EA Sports,” Coresight notes.
Know what to buy — and what to avoid. In general, you’ll find the best deals on Amazon’s own devices like the Echo, Dot and others. “Amazon’s proprietary devices are the bread and butter of Prime Day,” says Kristin McGrath, shopping expert and editor for Offers.com. Bodge adds that you can expect big deals on other Amazon brands too, like Amazon Essentials. There are plenty of things not to buy too, which MarketWatch highlights here.
Always compare prices and review return policies. “Just because it’s on sale on Amazon doesn’t mean you can’t find it somewhere else for less,” says Woroch. Sites like Walmart WMT, +0.83% Target TGT, +0.72% , eBay and others are offering their own deals. Woroch adds that you should “track price history. If you aren’t sure if something is at its all-time-best-price, run a quick price history check on CamelCamelCamel.com.” Beverly Harzog, personal finance and credit card expert at U.S. News & World Report likes the browser plugin Honey for getting good deals. And don’t forget to look at return policies, she adds.
(Bloomberg) -- Stocks in Europe climbed alongside U.S. equity futures as investors clung to their cautious optimism on the prospect of easier monetary policy. The euro edged higher for a third day.
The Stoxx Europe 600 rose as mining and chemicals shares rebounded. U.S. equity futures extended their advance after the S&P 500 index closed Thursday at a record high. Shares dipped in Australia and Japan and posted modest gains in Hong Kong, China and South Korea.
Government bonds extended their decline in Europe, heading for their worst week since at least October, after industrial output data for the euro region beat expectations. Treasury 10-year yields were steady near a one-month high.
The rally in risk assets is continuing to benefit from Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell’s dovish comments this week, even after strong U.S. inflation data on Thursday offered a potential complication to policy makers when they set rates at the end of the month.
Meanwhile, weak data from both Singapore and China sent another warning shot to the world economy on the impact of trade tensions. The reports came after President Donald Trump complained that China hasn’t increased its purchases of American farm products, a promise he said he had secured at his G-20 meeting with the country’s president Xi Jinping last month.
Elsewhere, WTI oil headed for its sixth advance in seven sessions as operators in the Gulf of Mexico braced for Tropical Storm Barry.
Here are some key events coming up:
U.S. producer prices are due on Friday.
Here are the main moves in markets:
Stocks
Futures on the S&P 500 Index advanced 0.2% as of 10:14 a.m. London time to the highest on record.The Stoxx Europe 600 Index gained 0.2%, the first advance in more than a week.The U.K.’s FTSE 100 Index jumped 0.3%, the first advance in more than a week.The MSCI Asia Pacific Index dipped 0.1%.The MSCI Emerging Market Index decreased 0.2%.
Currencies
The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index dipped 0.1%, the lowest in more than a week.The British pound climbed 0.1% to $1.2536, the strongest in more than a week.The Japanese yen advanced 0.1% to 108.39 per dollar, the strongest in more than a week.The euro gained 0.1% to $1.1265, the strongest in more than a week.
Bonds
The yield on 10-year Treasuries increased one basis point to 2.14% to the highest in a month.Germany’s 10-year yield advanced three basis points to -0.19% to the highest in six weeks.Britain’s 10-year yield gained one basis point to 0.845% to the highest in more than three weeks.
Commodities
Gold increased 0.2% to $1,407.28 an ounce.West Texas Intermediate crude gained 0.8% to $60.70 a barrel to the highest in more than seven weeks.
--With assistance from Adam Haigh.
To contact the reporter on this story: Laura Curtis in London at lcurtis7@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Samuel Potter at spotter33@bloomberg.net, Todd White
For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com
©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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© Reuters. Passerbys walk past an electric screen showing Asian markets indices outside a brokerage in Tokyo
By Andrew Galbraith
SHANGHAI (Reuters) - Asian shares shuttled between small losses and gains on Friday as investors awaited China trade, lending and growth data, and as worries over Sino-U.S. trade tensions deflated optimism rooted in expectations of a Federal Reserve rate cut this month.
But while an anticipated Fed cut did little to spur gains in Asian markets, European equities were expected to open higher.
Pan-region Euro Stoxx 50 futures () were up 0.29% at 3,500, German DAX futures () were up 0.36% at 12,367 and futures () were up 0.34% at 7,475. Financial spreadbetters expect Paris' CAC () to open 0.38% higher.
Later on Friday, China will release June trade data, with analysts expecting exports to have fallen as weakening global demand and a sharp hike in U.S. tariffs took a heavier toll on the world's largest trading nation.
China is also due to release lending data on Friday, while second-quarter GDP figures are scheduled for Monday. The world's second-largest economy is expected to have slowed to its weakest pace in at least 27 years, raising hopes for more stimulus to fend off a sharper slowdown.
"You've got key data coming out, and I don't see why anyone would want to take a position until you've got that data," said Michael Every, head of Asia-Pacific financial markets research at Rabobank in Hong Kong.
MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan (), which moved in a narrow range through the day, was flat in the afternoon. Chinese shares rose, with the CSI300 () adding 0.85%.
Australian shares () dipped 0.3% and Japan's Nikkei stock index () started the day with small losses, but ended 0.2% ahead.
Underscoring the economic impact of global trade tensions, Singapore's economy grew at its slowest pace in a decade in the second quarter as electronics manufacturing output declined for a sixth consecutive month in May, and as exports saw their biggest decline in more than three years.
Amid the global slowdown, U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell indicated on Thursday that a rate cut is likely at the Fed's next meeting.
Bets for such a cut remained strong despite a rise in U.S. consumer inflation in June, and helped to lift the on Thursday by 0.23% to end at a record closing high of 2,999.91 points.
While the Nasdaq Composite () fell 0.08%, the Dow Jones Industrial Average () also hit a record high close of 27,088.08 points, rising 0.85% on the day.
S&P 500 e-mini futures () were last up 0.23% at 3,011.
But a tweet by U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday in which he said that China was not living up to promises it made on buying agricultural products from American farmers threatened to revive worries over trade.
"Markets have enjoyed a bit of a calm spot in the U.S.-China trade war saga since the announcement of a truce and restarting of trade talks at the G20 meeting. Unfortunately, headlines are once again beginning to emerge," ANZ analysts wrote in a morning note.
"While this wasn't a big market mover, it does serve as a reminder that things could flare up again," they said.
WEAK TREASURY AUCTION
U.S. Treasury yields had jumped on Thursday after demand was weak for a $16 billion 30-year bond auction and after the U.S. Labor Department said its consumer price index excluding food and energy rose 0.3% in June, the biggest increase since January 2018.
The poorly received auction had pushed the 30-year yield as high as 2.672% on Thursday, according to Refinitiv data.
Yields continued to rise on Friday. Benchmark 10-year Treasury notes () last yielded 2.1359%, up from a U.S. close of 2.12% on Thursday, while the 30-year yield touched 2.6511%, up from a close of 2.639%.
"The CPI report will have no material impact on Fed guidance nor have a significant influence on the great Fed debate around 25 or 50," said Stephen Innes, managing partner at Vanguard Markets Pte, referring to expectations of the size of a July rate cut.
"After all, the FOMC is unquestionably willing to let inflation run hotter after spending the better part of a decade trying to ignite those flames," he said.
The dollar fell 0.15% against the yen to 108.32
The (), which tracks the greenback against a basket of six major rivals, was down 0.15% at 96.900.
Oil prices picked up as U.S. oil producers in the Gulf of Mexico cut by output by more than half, in the face of a tropical storm and as tensions in the Middle East remained.
Global benchmark Brent crude () gained 0.68% to $66.97 per barrel. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude () was up 0.61% to $60.57 a barrel.
Gold prices, dulled by the stronger-than-expected U.S. consumer inflation data, regained their shine thanks to renewed trade worries and rate cut expectations.
