Business Highlights: The UAW prepares to expand its strike, Sam Bankman-Fried’s parents are sued
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United Auto Workers threaten to expand targeted strike if there is no substantive progress by Friday
DETROIT (AP) — The United Auto Workers union is preparing to expand its strike against Detroit’s Big Three unless it sees progress in contract negotiations. In a video statement late Monday, UAW President Shawn Fain said workers at more factories will join those already on strike at noon Friday unless there is “serious progress” toward agreements. The UAW’s strike, which is limited to three plants, is now in its fifth day. Meanwhile in Washington, a White House official says the Biden administration reversed a plan to send acting Labor Secretary Julie Su and senior adviser Gene Sperling to Detroit this week to meet with both sides.
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FTX attorneys accuse Sam Bankman-Fried’s parents of unjustly enriching themselves with company funds
DOVER, Del. (AP) — Lawyers for collapsed cryptocurrency exchange FTX Trading are accusing Sam Bankman-Fried’s parents of exploiting their influence over their son and the company he founded to enrich themselves by millions of dollars. A lawsuit against Allan Joseph Bankman and Barbara Fried was filed Monday as part of the FTX bankruptcy case in Delaware. It alleges the couple siphoned millions of dollars from the company, while spending lavishly on a luxury home in the Bahamas and funneling contributions to political committees and Stanford University. Bankman is a Stanford University law professor and expert in tax law, and Fried is a retired Stanford law professor. Attorneys for Bankman and Fried say the claims against them are completely false.
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Instacart’s IPO surges as the grocery delivery company goes from the supermarket to the stock market
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Instacart delivered in its stock market debut. The San Francisco-based company’s shares rose 12.3% Tuesday after they started trading on the Nasdaq stock exchange under the ticker symbol “CART.” Instacart provides delivery and pickup from 85% of U.S. grocers, or more than 80,000 stores, using a network of 600,000 freelance shoppers. It says it has 7.7 million active customers and much more potential growth ahead. But it’s also facing growing competition from delivery companies like DoorDash. The IPO is a long-awaited step for Instacart, which was founded in 2012.
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Stock market today: Wall Street slips ahead of Fed decision on rates
NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks slipped as Wall Street waits for the Federal Reserve’s latest decision on interest rates. The S&P 500 fell 0.2% Tuesday. The Dow fell 106 points, and the Nasdaq composite was down 0.2%. Stocks have been see-sawing for weeks on uncertainty about whether the Fed is done with its market-shaking hikes to interest rates. Its latest announcement arrives Wednesday. Treasury yields climbed, and the 10-year yield is close to its highest level since 2007. High yields have pushed mortgage rates higher, and a report in the morning showed much weaker homebuilding activity than expected.
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Germany went from envy of the world to the worst-performing major developed economy. What happened?
ESSEN, Germany (AP) — Germany racked up one economic success after another for most of this century. But the loss of Russian natural gas due to the war in Ukraine has dealt a severe blow to its industry through higher energy costs. The country will be the world’s only major economy expected to shrink this year. But that’s only part of the story. The energy crisis shined a harsh light on longstanding cracks in the economy’s foundation: too much bureaucracy, not enough digital technology, lagging spending on infrastructure. Companies want action but instead see too much squabbling among the three-party government coalition. Still, Germany has strengths that could help it address the downturn.
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Speaker McCarthy faces an almost impossible task trying to unite House GOP and fund the government
WASHINGTON (AP) — Speaker Kevin McCarthy is trying to accomplish what at times seems impossible. The Republican speaker is working furiously to convince his colleagues to come together to pass a conservative bill to keep the federal government open. But it has little chance of actually preventing a federal shutdown. Whatever Republicans come up with in the House is expected to be rejected by the Senate where Democrats and most Republicans together want to fund the government. With time dwindling, plans for a Tuesday test vote were scrapped as negotiations resumed. Congress faces a Sept. 30 deadline to reach a deal. But even a popular defense bill was turned back Tuesday as conservatives press for cuts.
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Foreign firms in China say vague rules and tensions with Washington hurting business, surveys show
Foreign companies operating in China say tensions with Washington over technology, trade and other issues and uncertainty over Chinese policies are damaging the business environment and causing some to reassess their plans for investing in the giant market. The results of surveys released Tuesday by the American Chamber of Commerce in Shanghai and by the European Union Chamber of Commerce in China largely concurred in appealing for greater certainty and clarity over China’s stance toward foreign businesses. Shanghai AmCham’s survey showed a continued downgrading of China’s importance as an overseas destination for investment, even though two-thirds of the 325 companies responding said they had no immediate plans to change their China strategy.
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Ukraine complains to WTO about Hungary, Poland and Slovakia banning its food products
GENEVA (AP) — Ukraine is filing a complaint at the World Trade Organization against Hungary, Poland and Slovakia after they banned grain and other food products coming from the war-torn country. The move announced Tuesday by the Ukrainian prime minister widens a rift between Ukraine and three members of the European Union. The bloc has been a pivotal backer of Kyiv as it works to fight off Russia’s invasion. In a break with the wider EU, Poland, Hungary and Slovakia have announced bans on grain and other food from Ukraine, a major agricultural supplier to parts of the world where people are going hungry. They were joined Tuesday by Croatia. Farmers say the imports hurt growers by lowering local prices.
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The S&P 500 fell 9.58 points, or 0.2%, to 4,443.95. The Dow Jones Industrial Average shed 106.57 points, or 0.3%, to 34,517.73. The Nasdaq composite dropped 32.05 points, or 0.2%, to 13,678.19. The Russell 2000 index of smaller companies ended down 7.77 points, or 0.4% to 1,826.53.