* The General Motors Co. strike entered the third week as contract negotiations between the carmaker and United Auto Workers officials over the weekend ended without a resolution. The carmaker could be burning up to $1 billion for every week the strike continues. It has a "maximum threshold" of three weeks before panic caused by growing risk premiums and lost production sets in, analysts from S&P Global Ratings and Fitch Ratings reportedly warned. Company bondholders could dump their notes in an investor panic if the strike lasts three weeks, according to Bloomberg News.
* A U.S. labor judge ruled that Tesla Inc. committed a series of violations against the National Labor Relations Act in 2017 and 2018. Administrative Law Judge Amita Baman Tracy said it was "unlawful" of Tesla to require employees to receive preapproval for engaging in union activities during nonwork times in nonwork areas, according to a filing with the National Labor Relations Board. Tesla's violations also included CEO Elon Musk's tweet from May 2018.
CARMAKERS
* Volkswagen AG is facing the largest collective lawsuit in Germany due to its emissions test cheating scandal, dubbed dieselgate, the Financial Times (London) reported. More than 400,000 car owners have joined the legal claim. Reportedly, this is the first use in Germany of a declaratory model action, a class-action-style consumer claim.
* BMW CEO Oliver Zipse said there will be no forced layoffs and staffing levels will remain stable through the end of 2020, Reuters reported. Zipse added that the company will discuss leaving vacancies in administration and cutting down temporary employment.
* Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV and FCA US LLC agreed to pay $40 million to settle SEC charges alleging that the automaker misled investors with falsified monthly sales reports in press releases, the securities watchdog said. Fiat Chrysler allegedly touted a streak of monthly year-over-year sales growth consecutively between 2012 and 2016.
* Japan's Nissan Motor Co. Ltd. said it will continue operations in South Korea despite consumer boycotts amid worsening Tokyo-Seoul relations. It denied previous reports of plans to exit South Korea, Yonhap News Agency reported. Nissan Korea said that while "it is true that we badly need to reorganize our business portfolios here," South Korea remains a strategically important market. Nissan South Korea will close some of its 20 showrooms and readjust its sales networks, the report said.
* Volkswagen plans to further differentiate its Skoda, Seat and namesake brands. It plans to market Seat as an upmarket model and focus Skoda more on challenging its lower-priced rivals, Automotive News reported, citing VW Group product strategy head Michael Jost.
ELECTRIC VEHICLES
* The U.K. said it will invest up to £1 billion to electrify its car industry and cut down on emissions, the Financial Times (London) reported, citing business secretary Andrea Leadsom. But the industry will have to change its "just-in-time" model after Brexit, Leadsom said.
* United Auto Workers is fighting for a larger role in General Motors' electrification strategy as electric and plug-in vehicles require far fewer workers on-site, The Wall Street Journal reported, citing sources. GM plans to release 20 new electric models, pushing it to close plants and lay off workers to bump up cash flow by $6 billion a year and fund its electrification efforts.
* Research and brokerage firm Sanford C. Bernstein nearly halved its estimate for NIO Inc. to 90 cents from $1.70, Bloomberg News reported. Analysts led by Robin Zhu cut the Chinese EV-maker's price target after it posted an adjusted net loss of 3.2 billion yuan in the fiscal second quarter along with plans to cut about 20% of its workforce in the following quarter.
* Tesla was "a few thousand" vehicles away from delivering a record 100,000 ahead of the final day of the third quarter, Electrek reported, citing sources.
* Chinese battery-maker Contemporary Amperex Technology Co. Ltd. and carmaker BAIC Motor Corp. Ltd. unveiled a cell-to-pack battery. The technology directly integrates battery cells to packs, doubling production efficiency, increasing volume utilization rate by up to 20% and cutting the number of parts needed by about 40%, Gasgoo reported. The companies equipped the cell-to-pack battery in BAIC's EU5 all-electric compact sedan.
AUTONOMOUS AND CONNECTED VEHICLES
* Morgan Stanley cut Waymo LLC's valuation to $105 billion, down from $175 billion as the startup is taking longer than expected to roll out self-driving tech, Bloomberg News reported, citing analyst Brian Nowak. The autonomous vehicle startup, owned by Google-parent Alphabet, runs a ride-hailing service powered by a self-driving fleet but has been unable to expand beyond Phoenix and still requires safety drivers, the report said.
* Chinese ride-hailing giant Didi Chuxing Technology Co. Ltd. received a license to test self-driving vehicles in Suzhou city in the Jiangsu province, Gasgoo reported. Suzhou will be the second city Didi can test autonomous vehicles after Shanghai.
MOBILITY SERVICES
* Hyundai Motor Group joined the air mobility race with the launch of a new urban air mobility division. The South Korean auto giant, which owns Hyundai Motor Co. and Kia Motors Corp., named Jaiwon Shin to head the division. It will develop smart air mobility offerings to help address traffic problems in large cities. Shin most recently led the Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate at NASA, Hyundai said.
* Hyundai Motor Group's proposed $300 million investment in ANI Technologies Pvt. Ltd., the parent of Indian ride-hailing service Ola, has run into a regulatory roadblock, Money Control reported, citing sources.
POLICY, REGULATIONS AND SAFETY
* The U.S. Justice Department will meet with the four carmakers that defied the Trump administration's emissions-freeze plan within the week, The Wall Street Journal reported, citing sources. Ford Motor Co., Bayerische Motoren Werke AG, Volkswagen AG and Honda Motor Co. Ltd. are being investigated for potential violations of federal competition law after signing their own emissions deal with California, which will sue the Trump administration for trying to revoke its right to set its own emissions rules.
* Nine U.S. environmental groups sued the U.S. Transportation Department for trying to revoke California's authority to set its own emissions laws, Reuters reported. The groups include Environment America, Public Citizen, Sierra Club, the Union of Concerned Scientists, Center for Biological Diversity and the Natural Resources Defense Council Separately, U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein reportedly called for a probe into the Environmental Protection Agency's threat to withhold $4 billion in federal transportation funding from California.
* Shanghai plans to phase out about 120,000 lower-end diesel-powered trucks by 2022, Reuters reported, citing a government statement. The diesel-powered trucks account for 30% of the city's nitrogen oxide emissions and 46% of emissions by other particles. They will be banned beginning April 2020, starting from city highways and expanding to outer roads.
* A U.S.-Japan trade deal could help companies avoid a spike in vehicle costs and a potential global economic slowdown, executives from Toyota Motor Corp.'s North American division said.
* Changan Mazda will recall 77,112 vehicles in China over defective fuel pumps, China Daily reported, citing the State Administration for Market Regulation. The joint venture between Mazda Motor Corp. and Chongqing Changan Automobile Co. Ltd. will start the recall of the Mazda CX-5 models from Nov. 22.
* German auto parts-maker Bosch said its venture capital arm invested in Trunk, a Beijing-based startup that provides hardware and software solutions for self-driving trucks. Robert Bosch Venture Capital said the startup is valued at about $19 billion and that its artificial intelligence solutions are "strategically relevant for numerous Bosch products."
* Japan's DENSO Corp. said it will test a refrigerated food delivery service in Indonesia through a partnership with Global Mobility Service Inc. Refrigerated trucks equipped with Denso's small freezer will bring fresh and frozen food to customers.
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The day ahead
Early morning futures indicators pointed to a higher opening for the U.S. market.
In Asia, Hang Seng lost 0.33% to 25,954.81, while the Nikkei 225 dropped 0.77% to 21,878.90.
In Europe, around midday, the FTSE 100 slipped 0.25% to 7,407.99, and the Euronext 100 shed 0.06% to 1,092.48.
On the macro front
The Chicago PMI and the Dallas Fed Manufacturing Survey are due out today.
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