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^FINANCIAL MARKETS
Asian stocks fall further on economy worries
BEIJING (AP) — Asian stocks fell for a fourth day today as weaker U.S. manufacturing and hiring data fueled jitters about the global economy.
In Asia trading today, Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 fell by an unusually wide margin of 2%. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng lost 0.5%. Sydney’s S&P-ASX 200 fell 2.2%. India’s Sensex opened down 0.5%. New Zealand, Taiwan and Southeast Asian markets also fell.
Chinese and Korean markets were closed for a holiday.
Wednesday on Wall Street, the benchmark S&P 500 index lost 1.8% after a survey by payroll processor ADP found hiring weakened in September.
That added to concern about earlier data showing U.S. manufacturing shrank last month by its widest margin in a decade. Those sent markets around the world tumbling.
^FACEBOOK-CONGRESS-ANTITRUST DOCUMENTS
House panel taps startup for Facebook files
UNDATED (AP) _ A U.S. congressional panel has requested a trove of internal Facebook documents that the company’s critics say will show how the social media giant unfairly leveraged its market dominance to crush or absorb competitors.
The request comes amid a flurry of new antitrust probes into whether Big Tech firms have unfairly used market power to crush competitors.
The documents were unearthed in a bitter four-year legal battle waged by a defunct startup called Six4Three. They could offer insight into Facebook’s behavior by providing an inside view of executive deliberations and decisions that might be viewed as anticompetitive conduct.
Other antitrust investigations have already cited the files as potentially important evidence in probes of Facebook.
^EUROPE-US-TRADE
US plans tariffs on EU cheese, wine, aircraft
BRUSSELS (AP) — Gouda cheese, single-malt whiskey and large aircraft are among the European imports the Trump administration plans to hit with tariffs after receiving the go-ahead Wednesday from the World Trade Organization in a case involving illegal European Union subsidies for the aircraft giant Airbus.
The targeted imports are worth $7.5 billion _ the full amount the WTO authorized.
The tariffs, to take effect Oct. 18, will be 10% for EU aircraft and 25% for everything else.
The administration received a green light for its latest import taxes Wednesday from the World Trade Organization, which ruled that the United States could impose the tariffs as retaliation for illegal aid that the 28-country EU gave to Airbus in its competition with its American rival Boeing. The WTO announcement culminates a 15-year fight over EU subsidies for Airbus.
^GM STRIKE-OFFER REJECTED
AP Source: GM offer short on earnings, temporary workers
DETROIT (AP) — A General Motors contract offer to striking union members has wage increases or lump-sum payments in all four years. But a person briefed on the offer says it was rejected because it took money from other places to fund profit sharing and didn’t give temporary workers a clear path to a full-time job.
Still, the offer made late Monday is likely to be the framework for whatever agreement is reached to end the strike by 49,000 workers that has halted production in the U.S. and severely cut output in Mexico and Canada.
A different person says much of what the union objected to has been removed or is being bargained. Neither person wanted to be identified because the talks are confidential.
Talks continued Wednesday with the strike in its third week.
^PICKUP TRUCK SALES
Ram unseats Chevy Silverado as No. 2 in US vehicle sales
DETROIT (AP) — Fiat Chrysler’s Ram pickup unseated General Motors’ Chevrolet Silverado as the second-best selling vehicle in the U.S. during the first nine months of the year.
Experts say with a United Auto Workers strike underway that has shut down GM’s pickup factories, the Ram likely will beat the Silverado for the full year for the first time.
Company figures released Wednesday show the Ram led the Silverado by nearly 52,000 as of Sept. 30. So far this year, U.S. buyers snapped up 461,115 Rams, a 23% increase over the same time last year. GM sold 409,316 Silverados during the first nine months, down 3.6% from a year ago.
Ford’s F-Series pickup remained the most popular vehicle in America with 662,574 sold through September. That’s down 2.4% from a year ago.
^TESLA-CAR SALES
Tesla’s 3Q car sales accelerate, but miss analysts’ target
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Tesla’s electric car sales accelerated again during the summer, but the company is still lagging behind the pace it needs to reach CEO Elon Musk’s goal for the entire year.
The company delivered 97,000 vehicles from July through September, more than in any other three-month period in its history. The performance increased Tesla’s sales for the first nine months of the year to nearly 255,000 cars. That means it will need to deliver about 105,000 vehicles during the final three months of the year to hit the low end of Musk’s sales target of 360,000 to 400,000 cars for all of 2019.
The third-quarter sales numbers announced Wednesday fell below average estimate of 99,000 vehicles among analysts polled by FactSet.
Tesla’s stock dropped 4% after the numbers came out.
^IVANKA TRUMP-GOOGLE
Google to commit to White House job training initiative
WASHINGTON (AP) — Google is committing to a White House initiative designed to get private companies to expand job training for American workers.
CEO Sundar Pichai (pih-CHEYE’) is making the announcement today during an appearance with White House senior adviser Ivanka Trump at El Centro community college in downtown Dallas.
Trump oversees the administration’s worker training efforts.
Google also plans to expand a program it developed that helps prepare people who don’t have experience or college degrees for entry-level information technology support jobs in less than six months.
Trump and Pichai will solicit feedback during a round-table discussion with students who have completed the tech giant’s IT support program.
^OPIOID CRISIS-SACKLER LAWSUITS
Cities push opioid lawsuits against family that owns Purdue
UNDATED (AP) _ A group of local governments is arguing that a federal bankruptcy judge should allow their lawsuits against members of the family that owns Purdue Pharma to proceed, even as the company is attempting to negotiate a nationwide opioids settlement through the court.
Similar filings are expected from several state attorneys general later this week.
In their filing Wednesday, 19 cities and towns in Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Virginia and elsewhere argue that settlement discussions with Purdue and members of the Sackler family are only “in their infancy.” Purdue is best known for its OxyContin painkiller.
The company filed for bankruptcy protection last month as part of a proposed settlement to more than 2,600 lawsuits. Its tentative deal with some attorneys general could be worth more than $10 billion over time.
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