월스트리트저널 THE WALL STREET JOURNAL 구독(2023.9.16)

 

◈ Strike Hamstrings Auto Factories(햄스트링 자동차 공장 파업)

The United Auto Workers strike at three factories rippled across the industry Friday as Detroit automakers set plans to temporarily lay off workers at other plants hobbled by the union’s unconventional tactics.

Some 12,700 workers went on strike across the three plants—in Missouri, Ohio and Michigan—in a strategy that represents a major test for UAW President Shawn Fain. Rather than strike against one company at a time with all of its union workers, he instead is taking on all three at once, but with targeted walkouts.

The strike is an unprecedented one, targeting all three Detroit automakers at once, and comes after nearly two months of bargaining failed to produce a deal at any one company.

 

◈ Struggling to Contain Inflation, Moscow Raises Rates to 13%(인플레이션 억제를 위해 안간힘을 쓰고 있는 모스크바, 금리 인상)

Inflation in the West has passed its peak. But in Russia, price rises have gained a second wind, bedeviled authorities and brought the consequences of Moscow’s war in Ukraine closer to home.

The increase in the cost of food and other basic goods has accelerated. At the start of the school year, parents faced a big jump in the price of uniforms, with some clothes factories reoriented toward the military.

To stifle the rising prices, the Russian central bank Friday lifted its key interest rate to 13% from 12%. It follows a big increase in August to stem a sharp selloff in the ruble. The central bank said it could consider further hikes as “significant proinflationary risks have crystallized” in the economy.

A toxic mix of a sliding currency, booming military spending and an intractable labor shortage has fueled price rises. Russia suffered a bout of high inflation after the West imposed sanctions early last year, but prices cooled temporarily.

The return of inflation is a major worry for the Kremlin, which has sought to shield its citizens from the impact of sanctions. Russia’s economy has defied the gloomiest expectations because of big government spending and the Kremlin’s ability to find new trade partners.

But Moscow is struggling to keep the economy humming without fueling imbalances and inflation, a dilemma that is becoming more urgent as the Kremlin gears up for the March presidential election. Analysts say Russian President Vladimir Putin wants an overwhelming result in his favor to show support for the war in Ukraine.

Speaking at an economic forum on Tuesday, Putin said that if the authorities don’t intervene, “it will lead to uncontrolled inflation growth.”

 

◈ Amazon Searches for Its Next Big Hit(아마존이 다음 히트작을 찾다)

The team atop Amazon. com has been pushing for years to find what they call a “fourth pillar,” an internal shorthand for the company’s next big hit.

It is proving an elusive goal. The tech giant has invested billions of dollars into an array of endeavors across several industries— and stoked Wall Street’s interest along the way. Over the years, when news broke that Amazon was entering a new arena, its stock price would rise and shares of potential competitors would drop, a sign that investors believed Amazon would reshape another corner of the business world.

The first three pillars——each of them massive operations with tens of billions of dollars in annual sales—are its online retail marketplace, its Amazon Prime membership program and its cloud-computing unit, Amazon Web Services. The company’s core online shopping business, Prime and AWS account for almost 90% of the company’s revenue.

With a fourth pillar, “we’re a completely different company,” Chief Executive Officer Andy Jassy said at a conference last year.

But nearly all its big bets in recent years—including forays in healthcare, in-person shopping, entertainment and hardware—so far haven’t turned into thriving, profitable new businesses.

 

◈ TikTok Is Fined $367 Million in Ireland Over Violations of Child-Privacy Laws(틱톡, 아동 개인정보 보호 위바으로 아일랜드에서 3억6700만 달러 벌금 부과)

Irish authorities fined Tik-Tok $367.2 million, saying it breached the country’s data-protection laws, including what it said was the misuse of children’s information.

The Irish Data Protection Commission said the platform violated children’s data protection after finding accounts of child users were set to a default setting that allowed anyone— on or off TikTok—to see their content.

The commission also said it found that TikTok’s “family pairing” feature—which allows adults to pair their accounts with a child user account and provides access to direct messages— didn’t verify parent or guardian status. The commission also cited a lack of transparent information that it said misled users into choosing more privacy-intrusive options when registering or posting videos.

 

◈ Hollywood Writers' Strike Tests Solidarity(할리우드 작가들의 파업, 연대를 시험하다)

The dual Hollywood actor and writers’ strikes are starting to test the entertainment industry’s patience— and solidarity.

Bill Maher and Drew Barrymore are crossing the picket line to put on talk shows without the scribes who pen their monologues and jokes.

Disney, Warner Bros. and others are suspending deals with a growing list of producers, including Gina Rodriguez and J.J. Abrams. Mean-while, some showrunners are putting pressure on the Writers Guild of America to return to the negotiating table.

The Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, the coalition representing the major producers of content including Netflix, Disney and Warner Bros. Discovery, said Thursday the Writers Guild of America reached out to ask for a meeting to move negotiations forward. The group said it is working to schedule a meeting in the coming week.

 

◈ Technology Slump Pushes Major U.S. Indexes Lower(기술 부진으로 미국 주요 지수 하락)

A slump in technology companies’ shares weighed on the S& P 500 Friday, chipping away at the broad-market benchmark’s recent gains and pushing it into negative territory for the week.

The S& P fell 1.2%, while the Nasdaq Composite shed 1.6%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost about 289 points, or 0.8%. The S& P 500 and Nasdaq posted slim declines for the week, while the Dow eked out a small gain.

Stocks opened lower and the losses accelerated midday, with major indexes ending the day near session lows. Tech stocks, the market’s stars this year, were some of the worst performers. The S& P 500’s information technology sector lost almost 2%, dragging the broad stock-market gauge into the red for the week.

Shares of Adobe dropped 4.2% after the company’s earnings Thursday, and were among the biggest market laggards.

 

오늘도 경제신문으로 세상을 봅니다.