Volkswagen Group says 10 million sales within reach
The Volkswagen Group delivered over 9 million vehicles from January to November for the first time ever, and officials said that selling 10 million is within reach for 2014.
If the 10 million mark is reached, that's four years ahead of the company's earlier announced plan of 2018.
The group sold 9.08 million vehicles in the 11 months, up 4.6 percent, with sales higher in China and Europe, according to VW.
But the group delivered fewer vehicles in the United States and South America, the company reported.
"Deliveries by the Volkswagen Group remain on track during the last few weeks of the year. The 1o million mark is within reach in spite of all the uncertainties in the global automotive sector," said Group Board Member for Sales Christian Klingler said in Wolfsburg, Germany.
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Gas, food lower producer prices
Falling gas and food costs pushed down overall U.S. wholesale prices last month, evidence that cheaper oil worldwide is limiting inflation.
The Labor Department said Friday that the producer price index fell 0.2 percent in November, after rising by the same amount in October. In the past 12 months, producer prices have risen just 1.4 percent, the smallest yearly increase since February.
Wholesale gas prices plunged 6.3 percent, the steepest drop in more than two years. Food prices decreased 0.2 percent, led by sharp declines in pork, fresh fruit and dairy product costs.
Excluding the volatile food and energy categories, core producer prices were unchanged last month and have risen 1.8 percent in the past 12 months.
That's below the Federal Reserve's target of 2 percent. The retreat of wholesale costs gives the Fed more leeway to keep interest rates at record lows in an effort to stimulate the economy. Many economists forecast the Fed will start raising rates next June.
"Inflation pressures remain very modest in the U.S. ... which gives policymakers more wiggle room to hold back," said Jennifer Lee, an economist at BMO Capital Markets.
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Chrysler expands air bag recall
Chrysler is bowing to demands from U.S. safety regulators and will add about 179,000 vehicles to a recall for air bags that could explode with too much force.
The latest expansion covers the Ram pickup from the 2003 to 2005 model years, as well as the 2004 and 2005 Dodge Durango, 2005 Chrysler 300 and 2005 Dodge Magnum. It brings Chrysler into compliance with demands from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration for passenger air bags.
It's part of a growing problem worldwide with air bag inflators made by Japanese auto parts supplier Takata Corp.
At first Chrysler agreed to replace passenger air bag inflators in Florida, Hawaii, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. But under pressure from NHTSA, the company late Thursday added more states with high humidity.
The new boundaries are Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Louisiana, Mississippi, Texas and five U.S. territories.
The air bags can explode with too much force and spew shrapnel into the passenger compartment. Takata has said that long exposure to airborne humidity can cause the air bag propellant to burn too quickly. That can blow apart inflator canisters and spew plastic and metal parts into the passenger compartment.
The latest expansion brings the total number of Chrysler vehicles recalled for air bags to about 618,000. So far, 10 automakers have recalled about 11 million vehicles in the U.S. and about 18 million globally for similar problems.
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Fed member leaves in 2016
Narayana Kocherlakota, the president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, said Friday he will step down when his current term ends in early 2016, marking the departure of one of the Fed's leading proponents of easier credit conditions to battle unemployment.
Kocherlakota said that he has informed the regional bank's board of directors that he had decided he would not seek another term once his current term ends on Feb. 29, 2016.
Currently a voting member of the Federal Open Market Committee, Kocherlakota cast the lone dissenting vote at the Fed's last meeting in October. He argued against ending the Fed's bond buying program and urged the central bank to make a commitment to achieving its inflation target before starting to raise interest rates.
Confronted with the massive job loss caused by the Great Recession, Kocherlakota became a leading proponent for keeping short-term interest rates at record lows and buying massive amounts of bonds to hold down long-term rates to boost economic growth and fight high unemployment.
Two other top Fed officials, Philadelphia Fed President Charles Plosser and Dallas Fed President Richard Fisher, have announced they will step down from their posts in the spring of 2015.