1 ) Ford Motor Company announces a 10% reduction in its work force by eliminating 7,000 jobs world wide. These jobs are salaried white-collar jobs, which are part of a major restructuring to eliminate bureaucracy and increase the number of workers reporting to each manager. Technologies allow large corporations to streamline their management staff and thereby reduce their staff.
2) The U.S. home sales fell unexpectedly in April with persistent weakness in lower-priced housing market. This market segment had been experiencing an acute shortage of properties. Economist had been forecasting a 2.7% rise in home sales, but the existing home sales dropped 4.4% from last year, making this the 14th straight year-on-year decrease in home sales. Existing home sales make up about 90% of U.S. home sales.
3) The United States Postal Service has started a two week test of commercialized autonomous vehicle technology to carry the mail cross country via robot driven semi-trucks. The test run is between Phoenix and Dallas with five round trips, each 2,100 long. Each test truck will have a safety driver on guard and an engineer. The test vehicles will travel the interstates through Arizona, New Mexico and Texas. To drive the same route would require multiple human truck drivers.
4) 21 MAY 19 Stock market closings:
Dow 25,877.33 up 197.43
Nasdaq 7,785.72 up 83.35
S&P 500 2,864.36 up 24.13
10 Year Yield: up at 2.43%
Oil: down at $62.97