European shares fell modestly, Asian equities declined for the first day in three, and US equity futures were unchanged before the December U.S. nonfarm payrolls report. China’s offshore yuan fell the most in a year to pare a record weekly rally, while Mexico’s peso climbed after the central bank sold dollars. Oil was trading lower in early trading.
Unbeknownst to most Americans, the Central Valley of California is an agricultural powerhouse producing nearly 50% of all fruits and vegetables grown in the United States, including over 90% of popular items like almonds, carrots and table grapes. But producing all those fruits and vegetables is extremely labor intensive requiring up to nearly 500,000 laborers each year. The problem is that those jobs are extremely seasonal (see chart below) and extremely difficult requiring hours of back-breaking work in the 100-degree California sun.
Earlier this morning we noted that the Mexican Peso was plunging once again - very close to all-time record lows - as fears spread that Ford's decision yesterday to cancel a $1.6 billion plant may become the norm following president-elect Trump's tweet that "this is just the beginning."
Thank you to Ford for scrapping a new plant in Mexico and creating 700 new jobs in the U.S. This is just the beginning - much more to follow
Mexico "regrets" Ford's decision to scrap the plan to build a plant in the central Mexican state of San Luis Potosi, the Economy Ministry said on Tuesday, adding that it has made sure Ford will reimburse any costs and expenses from the state government to facilitate the now defunct investment.
Update: sure enough, here comes Trump's twitter victory lap:
"@DanScavino: Ford to scrap Mexico plant, invest in Michigan due to Trump policies"https://t.co/137nUo03Gl
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 3, 2017
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