UPI NewsTrack Business July 4, 2008

GM mini-car may come to United States

DETROIT, July 4 (UPI) -- A mini-car designed by the General Motors Corp. for Asia and Latin America may soon be available in U.S. showrooms, a company spokesman says.

GM spokesman Dee Allen said the automobile giant was reviewing its current sales plan in the United States following new demands in the domestic auto market because of soaring gasoline prices, The Detroit News said Friday.

"Everything is under review," Allen said. "Obviously, the market has been changing rather rapidly."

General Motors already used a 2007 New York auto show to unveil its new two-door hatchback, the 11 and a half feet long Chevrolet Beat.

The company's new focus on smaller cars comes as $4-a-gallon gas drives auto buyers away from larger vehicles like light trucks and SUVs, the News reported.

The newspaper said the U.S. automaker's share price fell once again Wednesday to $10 a share, the lowest General Motors shares have been in more than 50 years.

The drop in share price comes as the company's sales have decreased 16.3 percent in 2008, the News said.

Disposable income in Britain falls

LONDON, July 4 (UPI) -- Disposable income for British families has fallen to its lowest point in five years as taxes and energy costs soar, a report indicates.

An Ernst & Young report said rising household costs have outpaced wages, leaving an average British family with $300 less in discretionary funds to spend at the end of each month, The Daily Mail reported Friday.

After paying essential bills, a family with two children has just shy of $1,500 to pay for food and beverages; clothing, vacations and any school fees, the study said.

Monthly disposable income fell from roughly $1,630 in 2007 and from slightly more than $1,800 five years ago, the report said.

If the study had factored in food costs, the drop in discretionary spending would have been greater, the accountancy firm told the newspaper.

Even though average family income increased 3.7 percent to $7,500 a month, it hasn't kept pace with the 9.6 percent jump in costs such as mortgages, vehicle repairs, pension contributions and council taxes, said Jason Gordon, Ernst & Young's retail director.

If predictions of 40 percent fuel hikes come true, Gordon said,"consumers and consumer-facing businesses will face even bleaker times."

U.S. subprime crisis hurting Swiss banker

ZURICH, Switzerland, July 4 (UPI) -- The subprime mortgage crisis in the United States has caused UBS to face numerous credit losses, the Swiss banking group said Friday.

The global financial services company confirmed that its losses from the economic troubles in the United States were growing in the form of additional write-downs. Analysts told the Financial Times such losses could total as much as $7.2 billion.

The banking group said while its losses in investment banking have renewed, it enjoyed profits in wealth and asset management.

Yet the write-downs have in part caused the company's share price to decline by two-thirds during the last year, the Financial Times reported.

UBS officials have assured investors the Swiss banking group did not need to raise additional capital after raising $29 billion in the past few months.

UBS also confirmed its outflows were highest in April due in part to the problems with subprime lending in the United States, but added such losses declined in May and June.

U.S. ground beef recall expands

WASHINGTON, July 4 (UPI) -- A recall of tainted ground beef is expanded to include all products used to make approximately 5.3 million pounds of ground beef, U.S. federal officials said.

The E. coli-contaminated ground beef was manufactured between May 16 and June 26 by Nebraska Beef Limited in Omaha, the Agriculture Department's Food Safety and Inspection Service said in a release.

The June 30 recall was expanded based on epidemiological and trace-back investigations of the food-borne illness outbreak, the agency said.

FSIS concluded production practices used by Nebraska Beef, Ltd. did not effectively control E. coli in beef products intended for grinding, and unsanitary conditions may have resulted.

The components were distributed for reprocessing or wholesaling in Colorado, Texas, Illinois, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and New York. The products subject to recall likely won't have the "EST 19336" establishment number on items sold directly to consumers, the FSIS said.

Consumers with questions can contact the company at 402-733-0456. A complete listing of the recalled products is available at http://www.fsis.usda.gov/News_&_Events/Recall_022_2008_Release/index.asp.

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