Volkswagen will share electric car platform with Ford | Calamatta Cuschieri

Markets summary on Friday with news on VW and Ford alliance

The Maltese market closed in the green on Friday, with MSE Equity Total Return Index ending the session 0.136% higher, to 9,801.204 points. Best performer was Simonds Farsons Cisk plc by adding 4% to close at 10.40. Followed by RS2 Software plc and Bank of Valletta plc with the gain of 1.23% and 0.86% to close at 1.64 and 1.17 respectively. Biggest fall was seen from MaltaPost plc, it slid 12.84% to close at 1.29. Followed by 4.33% loss of Mapfre Middlesea plc which closed at 1.99 and 3.65% loss of Malta Properties Company, which closed at 0.66.

European shares broke a six-day winning streak on Friday as poor German data and a downbeat outlook from Sweden’s Hexagon weighed, and losses deepened after strong U.S. jobs data saw investors trimming bets of an aggressive rate cut by the U.S. Federal Reserve this month. The pan-European STOXX 600 index finished down 0.7% on broad-based losses, capping the week’s gains at 1.4%. The index retreated from more than 12-months highs hit a day earlier, fueled by hopes of easier monetary policy from major central banks.

U.S. stocks closed slightly lower Friday, despite the positive news for the economy that it added a better-than-expected 224,000 jobs in June, reducing the chances of multiple Federal Reserve rate cuts by the end of the year. The Dow Jones Industrial Average shed 0.2%, to finish at 26,922.12, the S&P 500 index declined 0.2%, to close at 2,990.41, while the Nasdaq Composite Index gave up 0.1%, ending at 8,161.79.

Volkswagen and Ford reach outline agreement to share electric, autonomous tech

Ford and Volkswagen is to deepen have reached an outline agreement to share electric and autonomous car technologies, extending their alliance beyond a cooperation on commercial vehicles.

Volkswagen will share its MEB electric vehicle platform with Ford.

Volkswagen’s supervisory board is due to discuss deepening the alliance at a meeting on July 11, 2019. A VW spokesman declined to comment on the details of a potential alliance but said that talks with Ford are progressing well.

At the moment VW is ending its partnership with the startup Aurora, freeing the German automaker to work instead with Ford-backed Argo AI.

 

This article was issued by Nadiia Grech, Junior Trader at Calamatta Cuschieri. For more information visit, www.cc.com.mt. The information, view and opinions provided in this article are being provided solely for educational and informational purposes and should not be construed as investment advice, advice concerning particular investments or investment decisions, or tax or legal advice. Calamatta Cuschieri Investment Services Ltd has not verified and consequently neither warrants the accuracy nor the veracity of any information, views or opinions appearing on this website.