Japanese automakers Nissan and Mitsubishi are strengthening their cooperation by expanding the number of models they make for each other in Japan.
Nissan and its smaller rival Mitsubishi have had what is called an original equipment manufacturer, or OEM, deal since December 2010. They manufacture specific vehicle models for each other and sell them under their own brands.
Nissan Motor Co. said Thursday it will provide the Fuga luxury sedan to Mitsubishi Motors Corp., starting from summer next year.
They have also started talks on Mitsubishi providing the Minicab-MiEV commercial electric car to Nissan in the fiscal year that begins April 2012.
Such OEM deals are fairly common in the auto industry. They allow companies to cut costs by increasing production scale and to expand their lineup of types of cars they don’t want to invest in the development or manufacturing of personal loans for bad credit.
Under an earlier agreement, Nissan, which also makes the Leaf electric car and March subcompact, is providing the NV200 Vanette compact van to Mitsubishi Motors from next month.
They also set up a joint venture called NMKV Co., which began operating in June, to work together on minicars for the Japanese market, which may later include other nations.
Mitsubishi President Osamu Masuko has said he hopes the joint venture will fuse his company’s design expertise with Nissan’s purchasing power.
“These initiatives are intended to strengthen the competitiveness of both companies in Japan,” both sides said in a statement.
WASHINGTON
CALGARY
Asian stock markets fell Monday, dragged by global economic worries after an unexpectedly weak U.S. jobs report and surging inflation in China.
Wall Street’s sharp drop before the weekend extended to Asia, where investors digested news that U.S. employers created the fewest number of jobs in nine months. The 18,000 net jobs in created in June were a fraction of what many economists expected and dampened hopes that the economy is improving.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 stock average lost 0.5 percent to 10,089.56, with a stronger yen adding more pressure to exporters.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng retreated 0.7 percent to 22,562.24, South Korea’s Kospi was down 0.8 percent at 2,162.48, and the Shanghai Composite index fell 0.1 percent to 2,796.05.
Also dragging sentiment was data released Saturday showing China’s inflation accelerated to a three-year high in June even as the overheated economy began to cool.
Consumer prices rose 6.4 percent over a year ago, a sharp jump from May’s 5.5 percent rate, China’s government said Saturday. Communist leaders declared taming prices their priority this year, but they have been frustrated amid inflation’s steady rise.
In Australia, the government’s new carbon tax proposal battered stocks. The S&P/ASX 200 shed 1.3 percent to 4,594.60.
Prime Minister Julia Gillard unveiled a plan Sunday to force the country’s 500 worst polluters to pay 23 Australian dollars ($25) for every ton of carbon dioxide they emit.
Australia’s flagship carrier Qantas said Monday the tax will cost it 110 million to 115 million Australian dollars ($118 million to $123 million) for the 2013 financial year and lead to an increase in passenger fares.
Qantas shares tumbled 2.8 percent.
In New York Friday, the Dow Jones industrial average lost 62.29, or 0.5 percent, to 12,657.20.
The Standard and Poor’s 500 index fell 9.42 points, or 0.7 percent, to 1,343.80. The tech-heavy Nasdaq composite dropped 12.85, or 0.4 percent, to 2,859.81.
Oil prices fell to below $96 a barrel Monday in Asia amid signs of a struggling U.S. economy.
Benchmark oil for August delivery was down 33 cents to $95.87 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Crude gave up $2.47 to settle at $96.20 on Friday.
In London, Brent crude was steady at $118.33 per barrel on the ICE Futures exchange.
Credit card issuers promise that you won
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The cost of maintaining empty buildings and the city’s declining student population are prompting St. Louis school officials to try to sell nearly a dozen vacant schools this summer. But two factors are complicating the sales: a tough economy and the lack of state and federal historic tax credits.
Six of the 11 schools went on sale last week. Five more will be held off the market until July in an effort to prevent a glut.
Job growth is sluggish among young adults, a key demographic for developers who in the past remodeled a few former schools as apartments or condos personal loans for bad credit.
St. Louis school officials are no longer reluctant to sell buildings to charter school operators, even though charters are luring more students each year from the school system. Mayor Francis Slay’s office has been working to attract more quality charter schools to the city, in the hope of stopping more families from leaving the city for better schools. In 2009, the city school system lifted its deed restriction prohibiting sale of its buildings to charter schools.
New census figures show an 8 percent drop
WASHINGTON
In my work as a financial journalist, I speak with a lot of advisors and just as many individual investors. Lately I
have an element of inflation protection because they can raise prices.
You own shares of all three?
Yes. So if their costs go up, they can raise prices. I also say Coca-Cola (KO, Fortune 500). I don’t know this for a fact, but I would assume Coca-Cola still makes money in Zimbabwe. If you’d had Zimbabwe bonds, you’d have been wiped out.
You’ve described your investment in AIG as one of your biggest mistakes and one that reduced your fund returns during the crisis by 6%. You sold all your shares. Now that the stock is down around 98% from its peak, do you find value in AIG?
One of the most important single considerations in investing in a complex financial institution is that the CEO has to serve as chief risk officer and to understand the nature of the risks being taken. It is very hard for somebody who came into AIG (AIG, Fortune 500) two or three years ago to really have a deep handle on procedure, the reserves, nature and risks to take. And it’s a very complex company. A lot of insurers are down so we spend a lot of time looking at AIG, but our fundamental concern is with the quality of the ongoing insurance business, and we are having a very hard time getting our arms around that which we wouldn’t have had trouble with 10 years ago.
You cut back your position on J.P. Morgan substantially recently. So what’s changed at J.P. Morgan?
We are huge admirers of that entire management team. You know people talk about Jamie Dimon, and Jamie Dimon is one of the best managers I’ve ever met. We’ve had some redemptions so we had to raise money. And in my view, J.P. Morgan (JPM, Fortune 500) had a relatively fuller value than some of the other financials we owned.
The second reason [we sold shares] was the unanimity opinion about the quality of the company. Our feeling was that there is always the risk of the change in perception when everybody thinks it’s great.
The third thing is that J.P. Morgan’s balance sheet is way more complicated than the nature of what makes up Wells Fargo’s balance sheet, or what makes up American Express’s balance sheet.
Okay, so what are you absolutely avoiding now?
That is a big question. I don’t know. I study the way ETFs have exploded, where there are a lot of people that are making a lot of money on ETFs. To me index funds for long-term investors are going to add real value. ETFs where you trade them intraday, or you can rotate sectors — I think these are very dangerous. Even though that doesn’t directly affect the investments that we look at.
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