Page 24 - ATD12March2016

A24
BUSINESSSaturday 12 March 2016
Stock market extends rally to a 4th week on energy
BERNARD CONDON
AP Business Writer
NEW YORK (AP) — A jump
in crude oil and a rise in
European markets set off
a rally in U.S. stocks to cap
a four-week winning streak
for major indexes.
Big East Conference Commissioner Val Ackerman, third from left, and Director Scott Tallon of Jeep
Brand, second from right, as ring the New York Stock Exchange opening bell, Friday, March 11,
2016, to highlight sponsorship of the Big East Conference.
Investors bought across in-
dustries from the start of
trading on Friday. Drillers,
refiners and other energy
companies rose sharply as
the price for U.S. crude hit
a high for the year. Devon
Energy jumped 11 percent
and Southwestern Energy
gained 10 percent.
Just a month ago, inves-
tors were dumping shares
amid talk of a possible U.S.
recession. The Standard &
Poor’s 500 index fell to al-
most a two-year low. But
confidence has returned
Ford establishing subsidiary to invest in mobility markers isn’t going to get
DEE-ANN DURBIN
AP Auto Writer
DETROIT (AP) — Ford Motor
Co. said Friday that it is es- in Palo Alto, California, and
tablishing a Silicon Valley-
based subsidiary to build
and invest in new mobility
options like car-sharing and
ride-hailing services.
Ford Smart Mobility LLC will
be chaired by former Steel-
case CEO Jim Hackett,
who has been a member
of Ford’s board since 2013.
Hackett resigned his board
seat Friday to lead the new
company. Ford Smart Mo-
as data has suggested the
U.S. economy is strengthen-
ing.
“While things aren’t great,
they’re not the disaster we
thought,” said Bill Strazzullo, around $30 per barrel, from
chief market strategist at
Bell Curve Trading. “We’ve
rallied after a horrendous
start to the year.”
The S&P 500 is up now near-
ly 11 percent from Feb. 11.
On Friday, the S&P 500
gained 32.62 points, or 1.6
percent, to 2,022.19. The
Dow Jones industrial aver-
age rose 218.18 points, or
1.3 percent, to 17,213.31.
The Nasdaq composite
climbed 86.31 points, or 1.9
percent, to 4,748.47.
U.S. crude gained after
the International Energy
Agency said signs that the
market has “bottomed
bility plans to name a CEO
in the near future.
The company will operate
Ford’s hometown of Dear-
born, Michigan.
Ford CEO Mark Fields said
the company will be “sep-
arate but connected” to
its parent. Fields said Ford
won’t initially include the
company in its financial
reporting, but may do so
once it’s more firmly estab-
lished.
“We wanted to make sure
give it the freedom and the
out” have emerged. Ener- his concerns are a steeper
gy companies have been China slowdown, a U.S.
shutting down rigs and lay- dollar strengthening even
ing off thousands of work- more and hurting U.S. ex-
ers as oil prices plunged to ports, no relief from the cor-
porate profits drop over the
well over $100 per barrel last year and more surprises
just two years ago. in the presidential election.
“Don’t discount the fiscal
policy uncertainty of the
election,” he warned.
Xavier Smith, manager of
the Centre Global Select
(AP Photo/Richard Drew) Equity Fund, said he doesn’t
buy the oil rally, either.
U.S. crude has risen 47 per- “Oil is a proxy for the over-
cent from a 13-year low of all economy, and it’s not
$26.21 a month ago. going on four cylinders
Bank stocks also rose sharp- anywhere,” Smith said. “So
ly. That sector had been why would oil be strong? It
beaten down in recent doesn’t make any sense.”
weeks as investors worried European markets rose
about loans to highly lever- sharply as investors hoped
aged energy companies that the European Central
going bad. Bank’s latest blast of stimu-
The rally has got some in- lus policies would help re-
vestors worried, though. vive the region’s economy.
Chief Equity Strategist Phil Germany’s DAX gained 3.5
Orlando of Federated In- percent, France’s CAC 40
vestors said the “terrific advanced 3.3 percent and
four-week run” makes him Britain’s FTSE 100 rose 1.7
a “little nervous.” Among percent.
The ECB moves included
three interest rate cuts,
loans to banks, and the ex-
pansion of a bond-buying
stimulus program. Shares
in banks, which will be sup-
ported by the ECB loans,
were among the biggest
gainers.
Investors turn their atten-
tion to a meeting of the U.S.
Federal Reserve next week.
Unlike its counterparts in Eu-
rope and Japan, the Fed
is looking to wind down its
economic stimulus, though
most investors do not ex-
pect it to tighten credit
next week. The Fed raised
rates for the first time in nine on the road, Vogt said. “I
years in December.
flexibility to move almost phone.
like tech companies do,” The research and design of
Fields told The Associated autonomous vehicles and
Press. vehicle connectivity will re-
Ford Smart Mobility will main with the parent com-
build, design and invest in pany, Fields said.
services like car-sharing or Fields said Hackett, who
ride-hailing. Ford has al- spent 30 years at office
ready conducted more furniture maker Steelcase,
than 30 global experiments helped transform the indus-
over the last 14 months, try, in part by predicting the
including GoDrive, a car end of traditional cubicles.
sharing program with guar- “Jim is a fantastic strate-
anteed parking in London, gic thinker and has a very
and Bridj, a van service good network in Silicon Val-
in Kansas City that users ley,” Fields said.
can summon with a smart-
GM buys software
company to speed
auto development
DETROIT (AP) — With hopes
of speeding development
of self-driving cars, Gen-
eral Motors has acquired
a small software company
that’s been testing vehi-
cles on the streets of San
Francisco.
The Detroit automaker
says it purchased Cruise
Automation, a 40-person
firm that was founded just
three years ago.
The move, coupled with
GM’s in-house research,
should help the company
in its race with Google and
others to have autono-
mous cars start transport-
ing people on public road-
ways.
GM wouldn’t give a time-
table for rolling out the
technology, but Presi-
dent Dan Ammann said it
would happen as soon as
the company can dem-
onstrate that the cars are
ready.
“It’s our view that driverless
technology will be demon-
strably safer than the hu-
man driver,” Ammann said
in a telephone interview.
Cruise Automation, along
with Google, is among
the few companies with
permits from the state of
California to test the cars,
said Kyle Vogt, the com-
pany founder and CEO.
The company is working to
tackle the biggest obsta-
cles to autonomous cars —
seeing the lane lines in bad
weather and integrating
data from cameras and
other sensors so the cars
make the right decisions
agree that’s a challenge,”
he said. “Looking at lane
you there.”
Cruise reported one crash
to the state Department
of Motor Vehicles in which
an autonomous car rear-
ended a city of San Fran-
cisco parking enforcement
vehicle. Vogt said the car’s
backup human driver had
taken control of the vehi-
cle when it crashed.
GM wouldn’t disclose the
purchase price of deal,
which was announced Fri-
day.