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Trade Wars
Consumer Confidence Drops to Lowest Level in 12 Years
The Conference Board said Tuesday that its consumer confidence index tumbled 6.7 points to 81.9 in September, down from 88.6 in August. That’s the lowest reading in the board’s survey since April 2014 and below the lowest level reached during the pandemic. Respondents’ views of their present situation fell by 7.9 points to 109.3. Their short-term outlook also slid, falling 5.9 points to 63.6.
Write-in responses to the board’s survey, collected from September 1-23, were mostly pessimistic this month, with frequent references to the high cost of gas, goods and services. Consumers’ views of the current labor market also worsened in September, but remained in positive territory, the board said. Respondents broadly said they expected their household incomes to rise, but not as much as in previous months.
Read more at The AP
Boeing Wins Navy Next-Gen Fighter F/A-XX Competition
The Navy has chosen Boeing over Northrop Grumman to build its sixth-generation strike fighter, dubbed F/A-XX, two sources told Breaking Defense ahead of the formal announcement. The selection locks Boeing in as the sole supplier of sixth-generation fighters for the US. In March 2025, Boeing won the right to develop and produce the Air Force’s next-gen fighter, dubbed the F-47. Per a Pentagon release the agreement is “valued at more than $20B for the full-scale development phase. The contract procures multiple test aircraft for ground, airworthiness, systems, and weapons integration testing.” The statement added that the F/A-XX will fly “beginning in the 2030s” for the Navy.
Hung Cao, the acting navy secretary, said, “The Sixth-Generation fighter is a generational leap in air superiority and will provide the world’s best aviators with unparalleled capabilities to fight, win, and come home safe. We are excited to partner with Boeing, and for our warfighters to continue to dominate the skies and defeat our nation’s enemies.” Boeing’s defense chief, Steve Parker, called the selection “an honor.”
Read more at Breaking Defense
Ford F-150 Supplier Disruption To Impact Third-Quarter Sales, CEO Says
Ford CEO Jim Farley said a supplier issue that affected F-150 pickup-truck output in recent days has been resolved, but the snag has impacted the company's third-quarter wholesale numbers. Production of Ford's best-selling vehicle was halted last week at a Detroit-area factory because of a supply problem, and had been scheduled to resume on Tuesday, Reuters reported last week, citing an internal memo. Ford's Kansas City F-150 plant also was affected, Reuters reported.
Farley told reporters during an event on Wednesday that the issue with the supplier, which he did not name, has been fixed. "We are back up and running," he said. "The supplier issue, you know, we have ways to address it. It is impacting our third-quarter wholesale. But I'm very optimistic." Farley also said that the company is "fully recovered" from the effects of two factory fires late last year that disrupted production at aluminum supplier Novelis, crimping Ford's truck output for much of the year. The supplier issue that affected Ford's truck output in the past week was unrelated to the aluminum issue, Reuters reported last week.
Read more at Yahoo Finance
Eli Lilly Says Closely Watched Combo Obesity Regimen Boosts Weight Loss In Mid-Stage Trial
Eli Lilly on Wednesday said its experimental combination regimen showed greater weight loss than a high dose of its top-selling drug, tirzepatide, alone in a mid-stage trial on patients with obesity and Type 2 diabetes. The combo therapy met the study’s main goals in a population that typically struggles to lose weight. The results boost hopes that it could serve as an alternative blockbuster treatment option for people who didn’t respond to or see the results they wanted on the current GLP-1 products on the market. Lilly said it plans to start Phase 3 trials on the regimen at the end of the year.
The combination treatment combines Lilly’s experimental drug eloralintide, which targets amylin – a hormone in the pancreas involved in appetite and satiety – with a low dose of tirzepatide, the active ingredient in its obesity injection Zepbound and its diabetes counterpart Mounjaro. Tirzepatide targets two gut hormones, GLP-1 and GIP. Lilly believes that hitting all three pathways, including amylin, can further reduce appetite and improve weight loss – and the combo drug did just that in the 48-week Phase 2 trial.
Read more at CNBC
Micron Beats On Earnings And Issues Strong Guidance As Data Center Revenue Jumps 11-Fold
Micron reported better-than-expected quarterly results on Wednesday as the memory maker continues to benefit from soaring demand for AI infrastructure. The stock rose slightly in extended trading. Earnings per share were $33.42 adjusted vs. $31.61 expected and revenue was $54.23 billion vs. $51.07 billion expected. Revenue almost quadrupled in the fiscal fourth quarter from $11.32 billion a year earlier, according to a statement.
For the fiscal first quarter, Micron said it expects revenue of about $61.5 billion and adjusted earnings per share of $38.15. Analysts polled by LSEG had expected $35.40 in adjusted earnings per share on $57 billion in revenue. Micron is the only U.S.-based maker of high-bandwidth memory, HBM, made up of stacks of general-purpose dynamic random-access memory, or DRAM. Fourth-quarter DRAM revenue increased 343% from a year ago to $39.8 billion, representing 73% of total sales.
Read more at CNBC
Heavy Equipment Maker JCB To Open $1 Billion Texas Factory In October
JCB is stepping up investment in its manufacturing operations in Britain and the US, with a £100m transformation of its Staffordshire headquarters and the opening of a $1bn factory in Texas. The investments come as the British construction equipment manufacturer looks to position itself for its next phase of growth, following a resilient performance in 2025 and the appointment of George Bamford as Joint Chairman alongside his father, Lord Bamford. Alongside its manufacturing expansion, JCB is continuing to invest heavily in alternative powertrain technology. The company has committed £100m to developing hydrogen combustion technology and says it has become the first construction equipment manufacturer to bring a fully approved hydrogen-fuelled combustion engine to market.
JCB is expanding its manufacturing capacity in the US, with its new factory in San Antonio, Texas, due to open next month. The one-million-square-foot facility will be JCB’s largest factory anywhere in the world and represents an investment of $1bn. The site will manufacture Loadall telescopic handlers and access equipment for the North American market, which JCB describes as the world’s largest construction equipment market. The company expects the facility to create 1,500 jobs over the next five years.
Read more at The Manufacturer (UK)
Ford, JPMorgan Chase and Michigan Establish $3B Manufacturing Initiative
Ford Motor Co., JPMorgan Chase and the state of Michigan are establishing a $3 billion program that addresses manufacturing and supply chain challenges by providing companies with financing, workforce support and other resources to scale production. The Michigan Launchpad for Industrial Innovation and Transformation, or Michigan LIFT, creates and facilitates an “open call” system that connects suppliers with industry buyers to tackle needs in robotics and automation, critical minerals, semiconductors and other priority areas, according to a news release. Industry buyers do not have to be in the state to participate.
Ford and JPMorgan Chase have each pledged up to $1 billion to the program to advance workforce development and finance industries dependent on critical minerals, respectively. Michigan Central, Newlab and the state’s economic development group aim to add another $1 billion in commitments from buyers over the next 10 years. The program grew out of the Michigan Resiliency Summit hosted by JPMorgan Chase and the state of Michigan in Detroit in June, where industrial, financial and government leaders identified operational and technological hurdles.
Read more at Manufacturing Dive
L3Harris Secures $6B Contract To Expand THAAD Missile Defense Production
L3Harris Technologies has received a contract worth more than $6 billion over seven years to significantly expand production of propulsion systems for the THAAD missile defense system, with Huntsville among the locations supporting the work. The contract, awarded by Lockheed Martin, will expand L3Harris' THAAD propulsion production in Huntsville, Los Angeles and Camden, according to the company.
THAAD, or Terminal High Altitude Area Defense, is a missile defense system designed to intercept ballistic missile threats inside and outside Earth's atmosphere. L3Harris said THAAD is designed to defend against short-, medium- and intermediate-range ballistic missiles. The company also said THAAD has achieved a 100% intercept success rate in flight tests since production began. “L3Harris is proud to partner with Lockheed Martin to significantly scale production of these vital interceptors, providing warfighters with the reliable, proven capabilities they need to defeat a range of threats,” Bedingfield said.
Read more at Fox 54 (Alabama)
The Data Center Boom Continues Apace, But Projects Face Mounting Obstacles
The U.S. data center boom has entered a new, contradictory phase. On the one hand, both data center construction activity and credible forecasts for near-term capacity additions to the electric grid to serve data centers remain robust. The Electric Power Research Institute, for example, said in February that data centers will represent up to 17% of U.S. electricity demand in 2030 and as much as 20% in 2035.
On the other hand, data center and utility infrastructure projects face a host of challenges. These include both physical constraints, such as equipment and labor shortages, as well as mounting public opposition driven by concerns about large-scale computing facilities’ impact on water supplies, the cost and reliability of power and natural gas supplies, and the quality of life in host communities. The upshot is that even some data center development projects advanced enough to appear in utility load forecasts with a named hyperscaler attached are not certain to move forward.
Read more at Utility Dive
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