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Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.Unemployment in the eurozone fell back to a record low of 6.4 per cent in November, defying recent economic gloom after the number of jobless people fell almost 100,000 from a month earlier. The continued strength of Europe’s labour market will add to caution among European Central Bank policymakers about the timing of a potential cut in interest rates as they worry that rapid wage growth could keep price pressures elevated. The region’s job market is proving more resilient than expected by economists, who had forecast an unchanged unemployment rate for November of 6.5 per cent in a recent Reuters poll. “Real economic weakness is not yet feeding through to the labour market,” said Tomasz Wieladek, economist at investor T Rowe Price. “As a result, the near-term weakening in inflation will not comfort the ECB since risks of elevated wage pressures and hence above target medium-term inflation remain high.”The ECB, which was due to meet to discuss monetary policy on January 25, pushed back against investor expectations of imminent rate cuts last month, saying it wanted to see signs of wage pressures cooling to be sure inflation was on track to hit its 2 per cent target.Eurostat, the EU’s statistical agency, said on Tuesday the number of jobless people in the eurozone fell to 10.97mn, down 99,000 from the previous month and 282,000 from a year earlier. The biggest recent improvement was in Italy, where the ranks of unemployed people declined by 66,000 to just over 1.9mn in November. Economists expected the eurozone unemployment rate to rise this year as a result of sluggish growth, weak demand, rising wages and growing numbers of companies signalling plans to dismiss workers. “Looking ahead, surveys suggest that hiring intentions are coming down and some firms, predominantly in manufacturing, are looking to shed workers as the outlook for their sector remains bleak,” said Melanie Debono, an economist at consultants Pantheon Macroeconomics.The bloc’s unemployment rate has almost halved since peaking at 12 per cent in 2013 when millions of people lost their jobs in the region’s debt crisis. It rose briefly in 2020 when pandemic lockdowns paralysed the economy, but furlough schemes cushioned the blow and the jobless rate has kept falling despite a slowdown in activity over the past year.Many companies have been hoarding labour, retaining more staff than they need in the hope that demand will rebound and they will be able to operate at increased capacity. But Wieladek said this was unsustainable. “After all, if real wages continue to rise, it will become unaffordable to keep so many workers on while productivity growth is so low,” he said.Economists expected the eurozone economy to remain weak in the fourth quarter of last year and recent data painted a mixed picture. Exports from the bloc rose 3.7 per cent in November from the previous month, while manufacturing orders in Germany were up 0.3 per cent. However, German factory output fell 0.7 per cent in November, its sixth monthly decline in a row. There were few signs of a rebound in December after a 3.5 per cent drop in truck traffic on German motorways — which is usually a strong indicator of a further drop in industrial activity in the bloc’s largest economy.Consumers also reined in their spending in the run-up to Christmas with retail sales in the eurozone falling 0.3 per cent in November from a month earlier, confounding economists’ expectations for a rebound. More

PARIS (Reuters) -French President Emmanuel Macron appointed 34-year-old Education Minister Gabriel Attal as his new prime minister on Tuesday, seeking to breathe new life into his second mandate ahead of European parliament elections.The move will not necessarily lead to any major political shift, but signals a desire for Macron to try to move beyond last year’s unpopular pension and immigration reforms and improve his centrist party’s chances in the June EU ballot. Opinion polls show Macron’s camp trailing far-right leader Marine Le Pen’s party by around eight to ten percentage points.Attal, a close Macron ally who became a household name as government spokesman during the COVID pandemic, will replace outgoing Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne.One of the country’s most popular politicians in recent opinion polls, Attal has made a name for himself as a savvy minister, at ease on radio shows and in parliament. “Dear @GabrielAttal, I know I can count on your energy and your commitment to implement the project of revitalisation and regeneration that I announced,” said Macron, who at the end of last year said he would announce new political initiatives.Attal will be France’s youngest prime minister and the first to be openly gay. He and Macron have a combined age just below that of Joe Biden, who is running for a second mandate in this year’s U.S. presidential election.Macron has struggled to deal with a more turbulent parliament since losing his absolute majority shortly after being reelected in 2022.”By appointing Gabriel Attal … Emmanuel Macron wants to cling to his popularity in opinion polls to alleviate the pain of an interminable end to his reign,” said Jordan Bardella, the 28-year old leader of Le Pen’s National Rally party.”Instead, he risks taking the short-lived Education Minister with him in his fall.” Other opposition leaders were quick to say they did not expect much from the change in prime minister, with Macron himself taking on much of the decision-making.”Elisabeth Borne, Gabriel Attal or someone else, I don’t care, it will just be the same policies,” Socialist Party leader Olivier Faure told France Inter radio.But MP Patrick Vignal, who belongs to Macron’s Renaissance party, said Attal is “a bit like the Macron of 2017”, referring to the point at which the President first took office as the youngest leader in modern French history, at the time a popular figure among voters.Attal “is clear, he has authority”, Vignal said. More

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The world’s biggest auto market also became the top auto exporter for the first time in 2023, with the CPCA announcing at a press conference that exports of cars jumped 62% to a record 3.83 million vehicles. Japanese customs data showed passenger car exports at 3.5 million for the first 11 months of the year, excluding second-hand vehicles.China’s total auto exports were estimated to hit 5.26 million units for the whole of last year valued at about $102 billion, while Japan’s full-year exports were forecast at about 4.3 million units, according to the association.The numbers offer the latest indication of the global auto exports powerhouse that China has now become, riding largely on the strength of its nimble electric vehicle automakers. BYD overtook Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) Inc as the world’s top seller of EVs in the fourth quarter, though based mostly on China sales.The increasing Chinese clout overseas has caused consternation in some governments, who are fearful of the repercussions of that trend on their domestic automakers.In September, the European Commission launched a probe into Chinese-made electric vehicles over subsidies they may have received, which was branded by Beijing as “protectionist”. The Biden administration in the United States is discussing raising tariffs on some Chinese goods including EVs, the Wall Street Journal reported last month.Chinese customs are due to publish trade numbers for December on Friday.Tesla, which exported 344,078 China-made electric vehicles, also contributed to the export boom.DOMESTIC MARKET China’s domestic auto market, the world’s biggest, chugged along in 2023, with vehicle sales rising 5.3% to 21.93 million for its third consecutive year of growth amid a bruising price war as car makers sought to woo consumers unnerved by a faltering economic recovery. Sales of pure battery-powered vehicles in China climbed 20.8% last year after a 74.2% jump in 2022. Sales of plug-in hybrids, more economically affordable than pure electrics, grew 82.5% last year after a 160.5% surge a year earlier.Domestic brands in China’s total sales are expected to further increase to 63% in 2024 from 56% last year, bolstered by strengthening brand recognition in the EV segment and a rapid electrification of the industry, UBS auto analyst Paul Gong told a roundtable on Tuesday. BYD, which is 7.98% owned by Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE:BRKa), has expanded aggressively in Southeast Asia and Europe, although most of its deliveries are in China, where it has spurred sales with hefty incentives to dealers.Tesla, however, operates with more efficiency in China, selling far more cars per store than BYD.French auto brands lost the most ground this year in China with sales down 41%, according to data for the first 11 months of the year. Sales of Japanese cars skidded 10.7% while U.S. brands saw sales decline 1.4%. In contrast, German vehicle sales were up 2.5% while those for Chinese cars jumped 15.7%. Competition is only expected to heat up further.Popular Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi (OTC:XIACF) took the wraps off its first electric vehicle last month and promptly announced it was aiming to become one of the world’s top five automakers. More

The shift from a net cash position to net debt for MJ Gleeson has been attributed to increased investments within the company. Despite these challenging market conditions and rising costs, there is a glimmer of hope with a forward order book that includes 586 plots.MJ Gleeson is gearing up for what is typically a robust selling period, setting sights on a recovery in demand for their affordable housing offerings. This comes at a time when the company’s shares have seen a notable decrease, trading at 489.0p today.This article was generated with the support of AI and reviewed by an editor. For more information see our T&C. More

1. Futures edge lowerU.S. stock futures dipped into the red on Tuesday, pointing a negative start to the trading day following a surge on Wall Street to begin the week.By 04:59 ET (09:59 GMT), the Dow futures contract had shed 112 points or 0.3%, S&P 500 futures had lost 13 points or 0.3%, and Nasdaq 100 futures had dropped by 63 points or 0.4%.The main averages jumped in the prior session, with the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite in particular climbing to its best day since mid-November. Helping drive the gains was strength in chip designer and artificial intelligence darling Nvidia, which surged by 6.4% (see below).Even a slump in Boeing shares following a fresh incident involving the planemaker’s 737 Max jet was not enough to derail a 0.6% increase in the 30-stock Dow Jones Industrial Average. The benchmark S&P 500 added 1.4% for the day.Traders are keeping an eye as well on key U.S. inflation due later in the week that could impact how Federal Reserve policymakers approach potential interest rate cuts in 2024.2. Nvidia touches new record highShares in Nvidia closed at a fresh record high of $522.53 on Monday, in a sign of investor excitement over the unveiling of new desktop graphics processors from the chipmaking giant.Nvidia announced its new GeForce RTX 40 SUPER Series of graphics processors ahead of a closely-watched consumer electronics conference in Las Vegas. In a statement, the U.S.-based group said the chips, along with a string of other products, will “supercharge gaming and creating.”The company, chiefly known as a designer of computer chips that power artificial intelligence, has become a by-word for recently soaring enthusiasm over the nascent technology. The hype fueled a more than tripling in the shares last year that has pushed its market value up to almost $1.3 trillion.Nvidia’s stock was the most traded on Wall Street in yesterday’s session, with traders exchanging over $32 billion worth of shares, Reuters reported, citing LSEG data.3. Samsung estimates operating profit slideSamsung Electronics (KS:005930) said on Tuesday that its fourth-quarter operating profit likely fell by about 35%, as a sluggish recovery in demand for the firm’s key memory and smartphone chips hit revenue.Samsung’s operating profit in the three months to Dec. 31 likely fell to 2.8 trillion won ($2.1 billion) from 3.7 trillion won a year ago. The firm has not reported an income increase on a year-on-year basis since the second quarter of 2022. Revenue also decreased to 67.40 trillion won from 70.46 trillion won a year ago, and missed Investing.com estimates of 70.1 trillion won.The figures seemed to indicate that Samsung is still grappling with a slowdown in chip demand over the past two years. Rising interest rates and high inflation have persuaded many consumers to drastically scale back discretionary spending, denting demand for pricier items like electronics and creating a glut of supply.But analysts are expecting a turnaround in the sector to materalize this year thanks to growing demand for high-tech AI chips. “Supply and demand dynamics are a tailwind now,” analysts at Morgan Stanley said in a note to clients.Seoul-listed shares in the South Korean conglomerate, which will release a full earnings report on Jan. 31, dipped by 2.4%.4. Boeing’s latest 737 Max crisis deepensLoose parts on some grounded models of Boeing’s 737 Max 9 jet have reportedly been discovered by United Airlines and Alaska Airlines, as the crisis around the planemaker deepens following last week’s dangerous mid-air fuselage blowout.According to a United statement quoted by industry publication The Air Current, preliminary inspections into its 737 Max 9s found that the aircraft had “instances that appear to relate to installation issues in the door plug.” These problems included bolts on several panels that “needed additional tightening,” the carrier noted.Alaska Airlines also said on Monday that initial reports from its technicians found some “loose hardware” on some of its 737 Max 9s.Concerns over the Max 9 — a version of Boeing’s single-aisle plane that has about 10 more seats than the popular Max 8 — have been heightened since a panel on an Alaska Airlines-operated flight blew out en route from Portland, Oregon to Ontario, California last Friday. The pilots were able to turn the jet around and land it safely.5. Crude inches higherOil prices edged up on Tuesday, rebounding from sharp lossees in the previous session, as traders digested concerns over sluggish demand as well as Middle East tensions.By 04:59 ET, the U.S. crude futures traded 1.8% higher at $72.04 a barrel, while the Brent contract climbed 1.8% to $77.47 per barrel.Both crude benchmarks had fallen over 3% on Monday as sharp price cuts by top exporter Saudi Arabia had raised worries about slowing crude demand, particularly from major Asian consumers.However, the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, and fears that this could evolve into a regional crisis that may disrupt Middle Eastern oil supplies, remains an underlying support for the crude market. More