Consumer confidence takes a plunge

Jul 25, 2023

ECONOMY

US consumer confidence fell by the most in two years as souring views on the labor market, higher borrowing costs and lingering inflation curbed optimism. The Conference Board’s index fell to 106.1 this month from 114 in July, data out Tuesday showed. The number was below all estimates in a Bloomberg survey, and the decline reversed most of the advance over the previous two months. The group’s measure of current conditions fell to 144.8, the lowest since November. A gauge of expectations — which reflects consumers’ six-month outlook — dropped to 80.2, leaving it slightly above June’s level. — BLOOMBERG NEWS

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RETAIL

Best Buy sales and profits slid in the second quarter as the nation’s largest consumer electronics chain continues to wrestle with a pullback in spending on gadgets after Americans splurged during the pandemic. The decline in sales was smaller than what Wall Street had anticipated, however, and profits were better than expected. Comparable sales — sales from physical stores open at least a year, and digital channels — fell 6.3 percent, dragged down by declines in computing and appliances. — ASSOCIATED PRESS

REAL ESTATE

Home prices in the United States climbed for a fifth month as buyers competed for deals in the least affordable market in decades. A national gauge of prices rose 0.7 percent in June from May, according to seasonally adjusted data from S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller. While rising mortgage rates have pushed some would-be homebuyers to the sidelines, there’s still plenty of demand from determined shoppers, who are left to battle over a severely limited inventory of listings. Elevated prices spurred by the supply crunch and higher borrowing costs have combined to make this the most-unaffordable housing market since 1984, according to Black Knight Inc. — BLOOMBERG NEWS

INTERNATIONAL

London’s traffic cameras are under attack. Police say hundreds of license plate-reading cameras have been damaged, disconnected, or stolen by opponents of an anti-pollution charge on older vehicles that came into force across the metropolis on Tuesday. The vandalism by vigilantes calling themselves the Blade Runners shows that emotions are running high over the city’s UltraLow Emission Zone. London’s mayor says the measure will cut air pollution that is linked to about 4,000 deaths a year in the British capital. Critics say it’s a cash grab that will penalize suburban residents who depend on their cars for work and essential travel. London’s plan, known as the ULEZ, levies a 12.50 pound (about $16) daily charge on most gas cars and vans built before 2006 and on pre-2015 diesel vehicles. Introduced in central London in 2019, it was expanded in 2021 to the city’s inner suburbs. Beginning Tuesday it covers all of Greater London, including the sprawling outer suburbs where more than half the city’s 9 million people live. — ASSOCIATED PRESS

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INTERNATIONAL

The UK government confirmed a three-month delay to post-Brexit border checks on European food imports that were due to begin in January 2024. The checks on “medium-risk animal products, plants, plant products, and high-risk food,” which the UK committed to imposing as part of its 2020 Brexit agreement with the European Union, will now be implemented in April 2024, the Cabinet Office said in a statement published on its website on Tuesday. Bloomberg reported in June that ministers were weighing options to blunt the cost of the checks over fears they could worsen the country’s inflation problem. The measures have already been postponed several times, after the government concluded that they would add at least £1 billion ($1.3 billion) in annual costs to British importers. — BLOOMBERG NEWS

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AUTOMOTIVE

All 28 vehicle assembly lines at Toyota’s 14 auto plants in Japan shut down Tuesday over a problem in its computer system that deals with incoming auto parts. The automaker doesn’t believe the problem was caused by a cyberattack but the cause is still under investigation, said spokeswoman Sawako Takeda. Toyota said later that production will restart on Wednesday. The shutdown comes after a shortage of computer chips and other auto parts stalled production in Asian nations affected by social restrictions over the coronavirus pandemic. — ASSOCIATED PRESS

RAILROADS

Norfolk Southern railroad is recovering from a “hardware-related technology outage” that impacted its rail systems Monday, but there may be lingering effects for at least a couple of weeks. The railroad said there is no indication that the outage was related to any cybersecurity incident. All system functionality was restored by 7 p.m. Eastern on Monday, the company said, and it is bringing the rail network back online. Norfolk Southern, based in Atlanta, is in the crosshairs of federal regulators after a derailment in Ohio earlier this year led to a fiery, toxic chemical spill. — ASSOCIATED PRESS

AVIATION

The British government said Tuesday that a breakdown at the nationwide air traffic control system that saw hundreds of flights delayed and canceled was not caused by a cyberattack. Transport Secretary Mark Harper said the problem was caused by a “technical fault” at flight control operator National Air Traffic Services. The company said the outage had hit its ability to process flight plans automatically, meaning that for several hours the plans had to be input manually, a much slower process that meant fewer flights could take off and land. Harper said it was the worst incident of its kind in almost a decade. He told the BBC that “it is going to take some days to get people back to where they should be.” — ASSOCIATED PRESS

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WORKPLACE

Amazon employees have been pushing back against the company’s return-to-office policy for months — and it seems CEO Andy Jassy has had enough. During a pre-recorded internal Q&A session earlier this month, Jassy told employees it was “past the time to disagree and commit” with the policy, which requires corporate employees to be in the office three days a week. The phrase “disagree and commit” is one of Amazon’s leadership principles, and was used often by the company’s founder and current executive chairman, Jeff Bezos. “If you can’t disagree and commit, it’s probably not going work out for you at Amazon,” Jassy said, adding it wasn’t right for some employees to be in the office three days a week while others refuse to do so. His comments were first reported by Business Insider, and later shared by Amazon. — ASSOCIATED PRESS

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FINANCE

Goldman Sachs agreed to pay $5.5 million to settle a US regulator’s allegations that it failed to fully record and retain thousands of phone calls. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission alleged on Tuesday that two separate outside systems the Wall Street giant relied on to record some audio conversations, as required by the the regulator, sometimes failed during 2020. In 2019, the firm settled CFTC allegations it failed to record phone lines of a trading and sales desk in 2014. — BLOOMBERG NEWS