Daily Dash - June, 9, 2007

June 9, 2008

The Latest Business Headlines from WWJ Newsradio 950

Kerkorians Ford Stake Rising | The investor's share of Ford will increase by 20 million shares, prompting speculation about his next move, The Wall Street Journal reports. | Story

Oshawa Plant Protests | GM workers fighting the closure of a Canadian truck plant plan to escalate their protests in the coming days, The Canadian Press reports. | Story

Scavengers Stealing Metal | Lawmakers are considering measures to fight the theft of copper and other metals from buildings, utility lines and vehicles, Crain's Detroit Business reports. | Story

Housing Troubles Up North | The northwest corner of the Lower Peninsula is seeing the impact of the national housing industry troubles, The Detroit Free Press reports. | Story

Dow Falls 394 | Friday's plunge reflects a resurgence of recession fears that investors had been trying to put aside. The Dow is down 14% from its October record of 14164.| Story

This Week in 'Your Company'

The race is on as auto industry reacts to higher gas prices.

Gas prices, image problems make future of minivans uncertain.

Canadian union boss vows to fight GM plant closure.

Could oil prices be headed for a crash? One writer thinks so.

National jobless rate jumps most since 1986.

Office workers hate their chairs, survey finds.

Today's Worldwide Automotive Report podcast.

THE RACE IS ON AS CAR MAKERS REACT TO THE REALITY OF HIGHER GAS PRICES

For those who thought they had a handle on the pace of change in the U.S. auto market, vehicle sales figures for May were a startling wake-up call. The Detroit Three are not wasting any time responding to the changes those numbers represent.

Hit by gasoline prices that rose faster than anyone expected, vehicle makers found themselves in a market that had shifted suddenly – and radically – away from trucks and SUVs and toward smaller, lighter cars.

General Motors Corp. saw its sales plunge 28 percent in May compared to a year earlier, with a 37 percent decline in truck and SUV sales and a 14 percent drop in car sales. Ford Motor Co. sales fell 16 percent for the month, while Chrysler LLC's sales were down 25 percent and Toyota Motor Corp.'s sales slipped 4 percent. Overall sales were down 11 percent compared to last May.

The three domestic auto makers are reacting quickly with new plant closings, production cuts and plans to overhaul their product lines. But only time will tell whether those changes will create enough change fast enough, said Bruce Belzowski, assistant research scientist at the University of Michigan's Transportation Research Institute. More...

Future of Minivans Uncertain; Gas Prices Not the Only Reason

While the rapid decline in pickup truck and sport-utility vehicles sales has been grabbing the headlines, minivan sales have also taken a tumble. They have fallen 20 percent in the first five months of this year. And unlike trucks, which could rebound once the construction industry picks up, it's unclear if minivans have a future in the U.S. market – or if they're being killed off by crossovers and the stodgy taint of the soccer mom image. More...

Canadian Union to Fight Against Closure of GM Plant

The Canadian Auto Workers could strike or take other action against General Motors Corp. because the company won't budge on plans to close an Ontario pickup truck factory, the union's president said Friday. Buzz Hargrove said GM committed to keeping the Oshawa plant open. But earlier this week, GM said it would close the plant in 2009. More...

COULD OIL PRICES BE HEADED FOR A CRASH? If you think $4-per-gallon (or higher) gasoline is here to stay, you're wrong, according to Shawn Tully, editor at large for Fortune. Conventional wisdom says that the world has changed and that high oil prices are permanent. "But if you stick to basic economics, it's clear that the only question is when – not if – prices will succumb," Tully writes in a column posted Friday at Fortune.com. Why? Because high prices provide a powerful incentive for oil companies to over-produce and for consumers to cut back on their demand. As with the housing market, Tully says, the market will eventually be glutted with too much supply, driving costs back down to Earth. To read the entire column, click here.

JOBLESS RATE JUMPS MOST SINCE 1986: The nation's unemployment rate jumped to 5.5 percent in May, the biggest monthly rise since 1986 as nervous employers cut 49,000 jobs. The latest snapshot of business conditions showed a deeply troubled economy, with dwindling job opportunities in a time of continuing hardship in the housing, credit and financial sectors. With employers worried about a sharp slowdown and their own prospects, they clamped down on hiring in May, said Friday's report from the Labor Department. The unemployment rate soared from 5 percent in April to 5.5 percent in May. That was the biggest one-month jump in the rate since February 1986. The increase left the jobless rate at its highest since October 2004. More...

BUSH CONSIDERING NEW ECONOMIC MEASURES: President Bush is considering new measures to help stimulate the battered economy, the White House said Friday. The government's $168 billion stimulus package, passed in February, began getting tax rebate checks to people last month and helped to energize shoppers. ''We're beginning to see signs that the stimulus may be working,'' Bush said at the Department of Housing and Urban Development. But analysts believe consumers still are anxious, and a weakening job market could make people feel less inclined to spend. This, and talk that the economy already has fallen into its first recession since 2001, has led to questions about whether a second stimulus might be warranted. More...

OFFICE WORKERS HATE THEIR CHAIRS, SURVEY FINDS: Are you comfortable? If you are sitting in an office chair right now, chanced are good that you aren’t. That’s the finding of a survey from furniture designer and manufacturer Allsteel Inc. and market research company Harris Interactive. The survey found that only 17 percent of U.S. office chair users feel their office chairs are very comfortable and 32 percent say their chairs are actually uncomfortable. Fifty-seven percent said they would love to replace their current chairs. More...

WORLDWIDE AUTOMOTIVE REPORT PODCAST: WWJ Newsradio 950's Jeff Gilbert takes an in depth look at the upcoming "Eyes on Design" Conference.

HEAR 'EDUCATION MINUTE' ON WWJ AND ONLINE: WWJ Newsradio 950's Pat Vitale gives education tips in an on-air series that is a joint production of Eastern Michigan University-Education First! and WWJ. "Education Minute" airs daily on WWJ at 9:22 a.m., 12:23 p.m.; 5:40 p.m., and 9:53 p.m. For podcasts of Vitale's reports, as well as other resources for helping our kids learn, click here.

Note: While the Daily Dash editor, James Melton, is on vacation, this is 'The Dash Lite.' James will return along with your complete Daily Dash newsletter on Monday, June 16.