Editor's Note:

Begining next week the Council of Industry's Member Briefing will publish 3 days per week - Monday, Wednesday and Thursday.

Core Capital Goods Orders, Shipments Increase In October

New orders for key U.S.-manufactured capital goods increased in October and shipments of these goods rose solidly, suggesting business spending on equipment remained strong at the start of the fourth quarter. Non-defense capital goods orders excluding aircraft, a closely watched proxy for business spending, rose 0.5% following an upwardly revised 1.1% gain in September, the Commerce Department's Census Bureau said on Tuesday.

Business spending on equipment increased at a still-solid 5.4% annualized rate in the third quarter, the Commerce Department's Bureau of Economic Analysis said in a separate report, slowing after a robust growth pace in the first half of the year. The economy grew at a 4.3% rate last quarter after expanding at a 3.8% pace in the April-June quarter. Orders for durable goods, items ranging from toasters to aircraft meant to last three years or more, decreased 2.2% in October after rising 0.7% in September. Non-defense aircraft and parts orders plunged 32.4%. Boeing reported on its website that it had received only 15 aircraft orders in October compared to 96 in September.

Read more at Reuters

Companies Are Outlining Plans for 2026. Hiring Isn’t One of Them.

Companies are looking to stay lean into 2026 while relying on technology to take on more tasks. Forecasters at jobs site Indeed expect relatively minimal hiring growth in 2026. At a gathering of CEOs in Midtown Manhattan this month organized by the Yale School of Management, 66% of leaders surveyed said they planned to either fire workers or maintain the size of their existing teams next year. Only a third indicated they planned to hire.

The reluctance to add staff reflects concerns about the economy, along with the belief that artificial intelligence could handle more work inside major companies. Other employers hired too many people after the pandemic and are still correcting for that. The pause in hiring could be temporary if companies decide they do require more people to meet their growth goals. But the mood now, Waller said, is that companies simply don’t need any extra labor. This environment means many employees are clinging to their jobs. At International Business Machines, employees are leaving the technology giant at the lowest rate in 30 years, CEO Arvind Krishna said. In the U.S., voluntary attrition at IBM is now under 2%, a decline from the typical 7%. 

Read more at The WSJ

State Hiring Broadly Cooled in Q3 Amid Gradually Rising Unemployment

The recent slowdown in the U.S. labor market is evident in state employment trends. Only 34 states added payrolls from Q2 to Q3 2025, the lowest count since 2020. Putting the pandemic-era aside, the prevalence of state payroll gains hasn’t been this low since the aftermath of the Great Recession in 2010. In Q3, a total of 16 states and the District of Columbia reduced headcounts over the quarter, with notable declines in Florida, California and Washington DC. The District shed payrolls faster than any state, with weakness poised to compound once federal layoffs are counted in Q4.

Not every state is experiencing the same degree of labor market softening. Hiring accelerated in New York and Missouri in Q3, gains primarily driven by substantial increases in local government payrolls. South Carolina also continues to lead the nation in terms of year-over-year payroll growth, a product of robust population inflows and a recent surge in professional and technology-related employment. All told, broadening weakness in state payrolls likely reflects higher cost pressures and reduced labor force growth, each of which appear to be dampening hiring. Meanwhile, state unemployment rates generally continue to drift higher, which reinforces our view that the national labor market has softened.

Read more at Wells Fargo

Middle East

• Iran’s President Says Country Is In ‘Full-Scale War’ With US, Israel, Europe – The Hill
• Trump, Netanyahu To Discuss Next Phase Of Gaza Plan - Reuters
• Operation Hawkeye: US Attack on ISIS in Syria Leaves Open Questions – Military.com
• Mosque Bombing In Syria Leaves 8 Dead And 18 Wounded - AP
• Israel Becomes First Country To Formally Recognize Somaliland As Independent State - CNN
• More Governments Denounce Israel’s Recognition Of Somaliland - Politico
• 2 Killed In Vehicle Ramming And Stabbing In Israel, Officials Say - NYT
• Italy Arrests Nine Over Alleged Hamas Funding Through Charities - Reuters
• Interactive Map- Israel’s Operation In Gaza – Institute For The Study Of War
• Map – Conflicts in the Middle East – Live Universal Awareness Map

Ukraine

• US And Ukraine 'A Lot Closer' On Peace Deal, Trump Says After Meeting With Zelenskiy - WSJ
• Putin Says Russia Will Achieve Its Ukraine Aims By Force If Kyiv Doesn't Want Peace – Reuters
• Europe ‘Getting Ready’ for Russia War Despite Trump Talks—Kremlin - Newsweek
• Canada Announces $1.8B For Ukraine As Zelensky Heads To US To Meet Trump - Newsweek
• Russia Strikes Ukraine's Capital And Kills At Least 1 Person A Day Before Zelenskyy-Trump Meeting - Spectrum
• What To Know About Zelensky’s 20-Point Peace Plan – The Hill
• Lavrov: Europe, EU ‘Main Obstacles To Peace’ In Russia-Ukraine Talks – The Hill
• Interactive Map: Assessed Control Of Terrain In Ukraine – Institute For The Study Of War
• Map – Tracking Russia’s Invasion Of Ukraine – Live Universal Awareness Map

Other Headlines

• U.S. Backed Airstrikes In Nigeria Hit Two ISIS-Linked Camps, Government Says – Reuters
• US Air Strikes In Nigeria Targeted IS Group Fighters Trying To Enter From Sahel, Govt Says – France 24
• China Developing Options to Threaten Taiwan With ‘Brute Force,’ Pentagon Says - WSJ
• PLA Holds Drills Around Taiwan In Warning To ‘Independence Forces - SCMP
• China Plans To Build Six Aircraft Carriers in 10 Years: Pentagon - Newsweek
• Malaysia Court Finds Former PM Najib Razak Guilty In New 1MDB Case – Nikkei Asia
• Thailand-Cambodia Ceasefire Begins After Weeks Of Deadly Clashes - BBC
• Kosovo’s Kurti Promises Swift Formation Of New Government After Election Win - Politico
• U.S. Launched Christmas Day Strike Against ISIS In Nigeria - WSJ
• Russia Plans A Nuclear Power Plant On The Moon Within A Decade - Reuters
• Brigitte Bardot, Icon Of French Cinema, Dies At 91 – France 24

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Deal To Extend ObamaCare Subsidies Faces Uphill Battle – Another Shutdown Looms

A key GOP senator is expressing optimism that Republicans and Democrats will agree to a deal that would extend expiring health care subsidies, but the effort faces an uphill climb in winning the backing of leaders in both parties. Without a deal, health insurance premiums are projected to spike by double digits next month, yet Senate leaders John Thune (R-S.D.) and Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) each have reasons to shy away from backing a bipartisan deal. Failure to pass a bipartisan deal to rein in rising premiums could set the stage for another government shutdown in February if liberals on Capitol Hill demand concessions on health in exchange for funding the government.

“I actually think there’s the outline of a deal there,” said Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee Chair Bill Cassidy (La.), a lead Republican negotiator in the bipartisan health care talks. “The outline of the deal would be to extend the enhanced premium tax credits for a period of time and to put in health savings accounts and give the enrollee the choice of which to take,” he told The Hill. Sen. Angus King (I-Maine), who caucuses with Democrats and helped lead negotiations to end the government shutdown this fall, said he’s working on a potential deal with Cassidy, though he declined to comment on the emerging details. Other senators involved include Senate Finance Committee Chair Mike Crapo (R-Idaho), Senate Appropriations Committee Chair Susan Collins (R-Maine) and centrist Democratic Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (N.H.).

Read more at The Hill

Trump Wants a Weaker Dollar. Some Chinese Say He Has a Point.

One simple step could help make America’s economy great again, according to President Trump. It would make China great too, according to a leading adviser to the Chinese government. The two are talking about a significant weakening of the dollar versus China’s currency. It didn’t happen in 2025, but some forecasters, including Goldman Sachs, say it is a wild card to watch in 2026. Economic logic suggests a lower dollar would be an effective way to diminish the competitiveness of Chinese goods and drive down the U.S. trade deficit, as Trump has long sought. 

“You make a helluva lot more money with a weaker dollar,” the president said in July. When the dollar is strong, “you don’t do any tourism, you can’t sell tractors, you can’t sell trucks, you can’t sell anything.” Chinese leader Xi Jinping has long seen the country’s manufacturing might as the foundation of its great-power status, but some in China are arguing that real greatness means having a powerful currency such as the dollar today or the pound in Britain’s imperial days. Several influential economists have recently argued that a meaningful strengthening of the yuan would turbocharge consumption and get China out of its economic doldrums.

Read more at the WSJ

New York Wins Big Tax Case Against Snowbirds

A recent court case makes clear that people who want to move from a high tax state to a low tax state need to plan very carefully and document their actions. The case involved a couple that resided in New York State for decades. They then bought a home in Florida, and a few years later they claimed to be Florida residents. They said they had to file only part-time resident tax returns in New York and pay taxes to New York only on income derived in the state. New York tax authorities disagreed and said the couple still had to pay taxes as full-time New Yorkers.

The court said the couple engaged in the “formal declarations” of establishing their Florida residence. They moved their voter registrations, vehicle registrations and driver’s licenses to Florida. They filed a declaration of domicile statement in Florida and, in at least some years, spent less than 165 days in New York. But the court said those were secondary factors. The court said its focus was on what it called the primary factors of domicile.The primary factors include home ownership, business activities and social ties. These factors show a person’s true intent regarding domicile. The court said the facts indicated the couple planned to make a permanent home in Florida at some point. But they retained too many real estate, business and social ties with New York to have established a new domicile in Florida.

Read more at Forbes

More Policy and Politics Headlines

• Five Imminent Supreme Court Rulings That Could Change America - Newsweek
• How Trump Transformed Energy, Environmental Policy This Year – The Hill
• Trump To POLITICO: Midterm Elections Will Be About ‘Pricing’ - Politico
• US Congress Moves To Create Pentagon-Led Defense AI Institute – Defense Post
• Hochul Will Deliver 2026 State Of The State Address On Jan. 13 In Albany – NY State Of Politics
• More Than 50 U.S. Lawmakers Are Retiring Next Year. Why? - WSJ
• Judge Green Lights New York’s Driver’s License Law, Rejecting A Trump Administration Challenge - AP
• $285 Million In Federal CHIPS Act Funding Cancelled For Durham-Based Smart USA Institute – Plant Services
• New York Subway Ends Its MetroCard Era And Switches Fully To Tap-And-Go Fares - AP
• HHS Acts to Bar Hospitals from Performing Sex-Rejecting Procedures on Children’ – ABC

Two Words To Avoid When Making Your New Year's Resolution

"New Year, New You" messages are everywhere right now. Adverts for gym and diet plans pop up in your socials and back-to-work chat turns to what everyone is cutting out, taking up or finally getting right in January. Yet most New Year's resolutions don't last. Many of us will have abandoned our goals by mid-January. But this year can be different. We've asked some experts for their tips on how to make - and keep - your New Year's resolutions.

One thing to avoid when writing down your goals is fixed language like "always" or "never", says psychologist Kimberley Wilson. It creates an all-or-nothing approach that is extremely hard to stick to. Promising yourself "I'll always go for a run on a Wednesday" or "I'm never drinking again" just sets you up for a fall. "A classic example is around diet or exercise and people think that if they mess up one day then the whole thing is pointless," she tells BBC's What's Up Doc podcast. She says people can develop tunnel vision, judging a single choice in isolation, when what's needed is a wider perspective that puts one moment into the context of many. Dr Kaye says goals should be written with flexible phrasing such as "I want to experiment with", "I want to create more space for" or "I'm learning what works for me when".

Read more at AOL

Upcoming Council Programs

Events

Manufacturing Champions Award Breakfast - Friday May 8, 2026 -7:45 - 10:00 AM.

Networks

HR Sub Council Meeting Topic TBD, January 14, 2026, 8:15 - 11:00. Selux Corporation, Highland.

Health & Safety Sub Council Meeting Topic TBD, February 12, 2026, 8:30 - 10:30. Location TBD

Insight Exchange On Demand Webinars

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Webinars and Seminars

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Training

LAST CHANCE - CLASSES START NEXT WEEK Certificate in Manufacturing Leadership Program Winter Session, Virtual. Supervisor Training Program for Hudson Valley Manufacturers. 7 Courses (15 half day sessions) January 6 - March 11 Via Zoom.

Lean Six Sigma Green Belt This program combines online coursework, with live Zoom sessions, to deliver a flexible and effective learning experience in Lean Six Sigma methodologies. Most Mondays March 2 - June 8 Via Zoom.

(Special Info session for those who are 'Green Belt curious' February 23rd)

Lean Six Sigma: Yellow Belt - Yellow Belt is an approach to process improvement that merges the complementary concepts and tools from both Six Sigma and Lean approaches. 3 Full days - March 9,10 & 11 - DCC Fishkill.

Trade Wars

• China Passes Revised Foreign Trade Law To Bolster Trade War Capabilities – Reuters
• Chinese State Miner To Buy Ecuadorean Copper Project In $1.2bn Deal – Nikkei Asia
• Calvin Klein Owner PVH Corp. Sees Higher Inventory Costs Due To Tariffs – Supply Chain Dive
• Behind India's Strong US Export Data, Experts See Some Weakness – Nikkei Asia
• Revisiting US-China relations in 2025 -SCMP
• Three Months, 19,687 Nautical Miles: This Lengthy Trade Route Is Peak Globalization - WSJ
• Indonesian, Vietnamese Footwear Makers Feel The Heat Of US Tariffs – Nikkei Asia
• Trump Launched Global Tariff Wars In 2025. Here’s A Recap Of His Trade Actions This Year – AP

Louis Gerstner, Former IBM CEO Who Revitalized 'Big Blue,' Dies At 83

Louis Gerstner, the former CEO and chairman of IBM, died on Saturday, aged 83. IBM chairman and CEO Arvind Krishna announced Gerstner’s death in an email sent Sunday to employees. "Lou arrived at IBM at a moment when the company's future was genuinely uncertain. His leadership during that period reshaped the company. Not by looking backward, but by focusing relentlessly on what our clients would need next", Krishna said in his email. On April Fool’s Day 1993 Gerstner became the first outsider to run Big Blue, as IBM was called.

During the nine years he led the computer giant, he was widely credited with turning around a company that was facing potential bankruptcy, pivoting the company to business services. He radically changed IBM's culture and focus while slashing expenses, selling assets and repurchasing stock. The author of "Who Says Elephants Can't Dance" and co-author of "Reinventing Education: Entrepreneurship in America's Public Schools," Gerstner was on the board of several companies including Bristol-Myers, the New York Times, American Express, AT&T and Caterpillar. Gerstner was passionate about public education in the U.S, launching an initiative at IBM to use company technology in schools.

Read more at Yahoo Finance

China’s Industrial Profits Plunge As Weak Demand And Deflation Bite

China’s industrial profits last month fell at their fastest pace in more than a year, as President Xi Jinping’s economic planners struggled to contain the fallout from industrial overcapacity and lacklustre consumer confidence. Profits at industrial companies with annual revenues of more than Rmb20mn ($2.8mn) fell 13.1 per cent in November compared with a year earlier, data from the National Bureau of Statistics showed on Saturday, down from a 5.5 per cent decline in October. The November slump brought profit growth for the year to date down to 0.1 per cent above the same period in 2024, down from 1.9 per cent growth in the January-to-October period.

China’s economy has struggled to find long-term drivers of strong growth in the wake of the collapse of the debt-fuelled property sector, which is now entering its fifth year of crisis. While China has relied on exports of low-cost goods to boost headline growth, the world’s second-biggest economy has been wracked by deflationary pressures, weak domestic demand and falling investment. The producer price index has been mired in negative territory for three years. On Sunday, China’s finance ministry reiterated a pledge for a more proactive fiscal policy in 2026 but provided few commitments on the scale or scope of expanded expenditure.

Read more at The FT

CoAI Is Well Out Of Experimental Stages And Into Embedded Operational Reality In U.S., U.K., Report Finds

A report out this month from “cyberhardening” technology company RunSafe Security has encouraging news about the penetration of AI into embedded systems (but not the security of those systems when AI intrudes), joining the cacophony of recent reports showing AI’s penetration of manufacturing but its data and cybersecurity limitations and concerns. The message from RunSafe: AI is well-embedded by now but security in these systems is struggling to keep pace. Some highlights from McLean, Virginia-headquartered RunsSafe:

• 80.5% of respondents use AI tools in embedded development.
• 83.5% have deployed AI-generated code into production systems.
• 93.5% expect AI usage to grow in the next two years.
• 53% cite security as their top concern with AI-generated code.
• 73% rate the cybersecurity risk as moderate or higher.

According to the RunSafe Security report, AI-generated code is running in production across medical devices, industrial control systems, automotive platforms, and energy infrastructure. The report also found that AI has moved from experimental curiosity to an operational reality in embedded systems development.

Read more at Smart Industry

Nvidia Buying AI Chip Startup Groq’s Assets For About $20 Billion In Its Largest Deal On Record

Nvidia has agreed to buy assets from Groq, a designer of high-performance artificial intelligence accelerator chips, for $20 billion in cash. Groq said in a blog post Wednesday that it’s “entered into a non-exclusive licensing agreement with Nvidia for Groq’s inference technology,” without disclosing a price. With the deal, Groq founder and CEO Jonathan Ross along with Sunny Madra, the company’s president, and other senior leaders “will join Nvidia to help advance and scale the licensed technology,” the post said. Groq added that it will continue as an “independent company,” led by finance chief Simon Edwards as CEO.

The deal represents by far Nvidia’s largest purchase ever. The chipmaker’s biggest acquisition to date came in 2019, when it bought Israeli chip designer Mellanox for close to $7 billion. At the end of October, Nvidia had $60.6 billion in cash and short-term investments, up from $13.3 billion in early 2023. In an email to employees that was obtained by CNBC, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said the agreement will expand Nvidia’s capabilities.

Read more at CNBC

AI Startup Flock Thinks It Can Eliminate All Crime In America

With more than 80,000 AI-powered cameras across the U.S., Flock Safety has become one of cops’ go-to surveillance tools and a $7.5 billion business. Now CEO Garrett Langley has both police tech giant Axon and Chinese drone maker DJI in his sights on the way to his noble (if Sisyphean) goal: Preventing all crime in the U.S. Langley offers a prediction: In less than 10 years, Flock’s cameras, airborne and fixed, will eradicate almost all crime in the U.S. (He acknowledges that programs to boost youth employment and cut recidivism will help.)

It sounds like a pipe dream from another AI-can-solve- everything tech bro, but Langley, in the face of a wave of opposition from privacy advocates and Flock’s archrival, the $2.1 billion (2024 revenue) police tech giant Axon Enterprise, is a true believer. He’s convinced that America can and should be a place where everyone feels safe. And once it’s draped in a vast net of U.S.-made Flock surveillance tech, it will be.

Read more at Forbes

NDAA Offers Key Exemptions For Nontraditional Firms

The National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal 2026 includes key provisions benefiting nontraditional defense contractors by exempting them from certain requirements, such as maintaining a cost accounting system. The law also broadens acceptance of past performance in the Contractor Performance Assessment Reporting System, allowing contractors to include commercial and non-War Department projects.

A non-traditional defense contractor is, “an entity that is not currently performing and it has not performed for at least the one-year period preceding the solicitation of sources by the Department of Defense or War for the procurement of or any transaction, that they’ve not had any contract or subcontract for the department that is subject to full coverage under the cost accounting standards that are elsewhere in the U.S. Code.” One exemption is they can use their own project management tools and methodologies. They don’t have to use the earned value management system, EVMS. In addition, they can use commercial pricing methodologies, they don’t have to use a formal cost estimating system like traditionals. And they can use commercial inventory management systems.

Read more at The Federal News Network

Boeing Awarded $2 Billion B52 Engine Replacement Order, Pentagon Says

Boeing has secured a contract valued at more than $2 billion to continue modernization work on the US Air Force’s B-52H strategic bomber fleet. The funding supports engine integration activities under a long-running propulsion upgrade program. The Washington D.C. Area remains central to program oversight as the US Air Force advances propulsion, radar, and mission system upgrades designed to keep the B-52 operational for decades beyond its original service life. The initiative has been underway since 2018 and represents a major step toward replacing the bomber’s legacy propulsion system.

The latest contract specifically funds the integration of new engines on two B-52H aircraft, marking a defined milestone within the broader re-engining effort rather than a fleet-wide installation phase. Each B-52H is currently powered by eight TF33 turbofan engines supplied by Pratt & Whitney, mounted in a distinctive dual-pod underwing configuration. These engines have supported operations for decades, but no longer meet long-term efficiency and sustainment objectives. The new propulsion system is intended to improve reliability, reduce maintenance demands, and align the bomber with modern performance standards required for extended service.

Read more at Aviation News

Airplane Lands Itself After In-Flight Emergency, In A First For Garmin’s Autoland System

An airplane has, for the first time, automatically landed itself after an in-flight emergency, according to the system’s manufacturer. Two people emerged unscathed from the Beechcraft Super King Air 200 after it stopped on the runway at Rocky Mountain Metropolitan Airport near Denver, according to video posted by emergency responders. The twin-engine turboprop landed under the control of Garmin’s Autoland system, which the company says is now installed on about 1,700 airplanes.

“This was the first use of Autoland from start-to-finish in an actual emergency,” Garmin said in a statement. “The aircraft experienced a rapid, uncommanded loss of pressurization” and the pilots put on their oxygen masks, said charter company CEO Chris Townsley in a statement. Autoland “automatically engaged exactly as designed when the cabin altitude exceeded the prescribed safe levels” and the pilots “made the decision to leave the system engaged,” Townsley said.

Read more at CNN

Quote of the Day

“Take chances, make mistakes. That's how you grow. Pain nourishes your courage. You have to fail in order to practice being brave.”

Mary Tyler Moore - American Actress and Hudson Valley resident, who was born on this day in 1936.

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