Friday October 16 Housing and Economic stories

TOP STORIES:

Saudi Aramco Cuts Crude Pricing to Asia, U.S. Amid Weak Demand - (www.bloomberg.com) Saudi Arabia cut pricing for November oil sales to Asia and the U.S. as the world’s largest crude exporter seeks to keep its barrels competitive with rival suppliers amid sluggish demand. Saudi Arabian Oil Co. reduced its official selling price for Medium grade crude to Asia next month to a discount of $3.20 a barrel below the regional benchmark, compared with a $1.30 discount for October sales, the company said Sunday in an e-mailed statement. The discount for the Medium grade to Asia, the main market for Saudi crude, widened by the most since the state-owned company made a $2 a barrel cut in February 2012, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Brent crude, a global benchmark, tumbled almost 50 percent last year as Saudi Arabia and other OPEC members chose to protect market share instead of decreasing output to boost prices. Brent fell from more than $100 a barrel in July 2014 to less than half that amount six months later and traded below $50 a barrel on average in September. Contracts for November settlement were 40 cents higher at $48.53 a barrel on Monday at 7:19 a.m. in London.

VW Chief Warns Cheating Scandal May Threaten Company's Existence - (www.bloomberg.com) Volkswagen AG’s designated Chairman Hans Dieter Poetsch warned managers that the diesel-emissions scandal could pose “an existence-threatening crisis for the company,” as it pleaded for public trust with full-page ads in national newspapers. The German carmaker faces a Wednesday deadline to present a plan to fix some 2.8 million vehicles in its home market. Poetsch told managers last week he was certain the Wolfsburg, Germany-based carmaker will overcome the crisis with enough effort, according to Welt am Sonntag newspaper.  Volkswagen and German industry have been rocked by charges, first made by U.S. regulators on Sept. 18, that the carmaker had used software to hoodwink regulators about the true emissions of its diesel cars for years. As owners of 11 million affected cars across the globe, regulators and investors await answers, the crisis has wiped out almost 30 billion euros ($34 billion) of thecompany’s value.

Furious Auto Workers Demand More Than "Hot Dogs And - (www.zerohedge.com) Automobiles flew off dealer lots last month at the fastest pace in 10 years, but the good times are stirring tension between U.S. auto makers and their unionized workers that threatens to undercut the industry’s rebound. United Auto Workers union members at Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV this week rejected for the first time in three decades a tentative agreement as inadequate, and Ford Motor Co. faces a walkout at a big truck factory as soon as Sunday. As buyers flood dealer lots, snapping up pricey pickups and sport-utility vehicles that deliver fat profits to General Motors Co., Ford and Fiat Chrysler, factory workers are demanding an end to the concessions that put the U.S. industry back on its feet after near collapse seven years ago. “We got a catered meal of hot dogs and hamburgers as our thanks while others, I’m sure, got big bonuses,” said Phil Reiter, a 44-year-old union member referring to a recent production milestone at Fiat Chrysler’s Toledo, Ohio, Jeep factory. That plant on Tuesday rejected a UAW supported contract by a more than 4-to-1 ratio.

[Reuters] Germany faces logistical nightmare as refugee inflows hit record – (www.reuters.com)  When Hesham fled Syria in early August with his pregnant wife and baby, he was sure all would be well once he got to Germany. Instead the hope has turned to despair after weeks of waiting to be registered at an overcrowded reception center in Berlin. The 26-year-old former chef is one of the hundreds of migrants who crowd around a small screen at the registration office every day, desperately waiting for their number to come up so they can go inside and get a certificate that is the first step in the asylum process. Some climb on top of barricades to get a better view while others lie out on the grass surrounded by suitcases and plastic bags which hold their few possessions. When volunteers hand out apples and bananas, scuffles break out. "I wish I'd stayed in Syria and not come here," Hesham said through an interpreter. "I dreamed Germany would be better but it's so bad. We've been sleeping in the cold. Now my baby is sick."

Ruble Crash Casts Pall Over Rates as Food Prices Bring No Relief - (www.bloomberg.com)  Elvira Nabiullina just can’t catch a break. The Russian central bank governor, forced last month to pause an easing cycle for the first time in 2015, may need to stall for longer to contain the fallout from ruble depreciation. Data due to be published Monday or Tuesday will show annual inflation remained at 15.8 percent in September, a month when prices usually benefit from a seasonal dip in food costs, according to the median of 16 estimates in a Bloomberg survey. That may delay further interest-rate cuts until next year, said economists at Raiffeisenbank JSC, HSBC Holdings Plc and Alfa Bank. The policy dilemma reflects the strains pulling at the central bank as high borrowing costs continue to choke investment and household finances already reeling from Russia’s first recession since 2009. Price growth is entrenched after the ruble weakened 15 percent in the third quarter, stoking inflation expectations and raising pressure on retailers to pass on the cost increases to shoppers.

OTHER STORIES:

World's Central Banks Lose Bond-Market Credibility as Woes Mount - (www.bloomberg.com)
Asian Stocks Gain as U.S. Payrolls Bolster Case for Dovish Fed - (www.bloomberg.com)
Dealmakers Ignore Stock Market Rout After Busiest Summer for M&A - (www.bloomberg.com)
America's Beaten-Down Factory Worker Is Getting Squeezed Again - (www.bloomberg.com)
Dollar’s Surge Against Other Currencies Weighs Down United States’ Economy - (www.nytimes.com)

Portugal's Ruling Coalition Defeats Socialists in Election - (www.bloomberg.com)
World Bank's Kim to ask members for capital injection: FT - (www.reuters.com)
Ruble Crash Casts Pall Over Rates as Food Prices Bring No Relief - (www.bloomberg.com)