Tesla Shareholders Approve Elon Musk’s $1 Trillion Pay Package

SPEAKER_1 (0:00)

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Alex Ossola (0:34)

Why Schwab is the latest Wall Street firm to let its customers invest in private companies. Plus, Ford is considering scrapping the EV truck it once described as the modern Model T. And this longtime lawmaker is retiring from Congress.

Nancy Pelosi (0:49)

I'm grateful to my colleagues for their commitment to equality, which is both our heritage and our hope, giving me the historic honor of being the first woman speaker of the House of America.

Alex Ossola (1:04)

It's Thursday, November 6th. I'm Alex Ossola for the Wall Street Journal. This is the PM Edition of What's News, the top headlines and business stories that move the world today.

Employers are reporting more than a million job cuts so far this year, a 65% increase from last year. That data is from consulting firm Challenger Gray and Christmas, which tracks job losses each month and released its latest update this morning. I'm joined now by WSJ Economics correspondent Harriet Torry to talk about the state of the US jobs market. Harriet, headlines over the past few weeks alone have shown that companies from General Motors to IBM to UPS and Amazon are cutting thousands of jobs. What does the stream of layoff announcements tell us about the job market at the moment?

Harriet Torry (1:53)

The main takeaway is that demand for labor is slowing. Companies cite different reasons for this. Some are saying that they're cutting costs. Others are saying that this is due to AI. Some have even said this is because of federal government layoffs that are filtering down to contractors and so on.

Alex Ossola (2:07)

This report comes out a day after payroll processor ADP said that the US added 42,000 private sector jobs in October.

Harriet Torry (2:15)

Well, ADP only looks at the private sector, so it doesn't take into account the impact of government layoffs. These numbers from alternative data sources do come out every month, but they're getting special scrutiny now because we just are not getting the usual stream of government economic data during the shutdown. And that is really leaving economists and financial market analysts scrambling to try and find clues on how the economy is doing. So putting all of these pieces together from different private data sources, we are just seeing this picture of continued slowing in the labor market. One thing that was reassuring is that things don't seem to be getting dramatically worse. Economists that I have been talking to today have said, I'm not panicking. You know, this is not a dramatic deceleration. It's more of a gradual cooling. When we have seen recessions in the past, things do tend to change very quickly. So I think everybody is keeping a very close eye on what's happening right now.

Alex Ossola (3:06)

That was WSJ reporter Harriet Torry. Thanks so much, Harriet.

Harriet Torry (3:09)

Thank you.

Alex Ossola (3:13)

We're exclusively reporting that Ford executives are discussing whether to scrap the electric version of the company's F-150 pickup, the Lightning. That's according to people familiar with the matter. Ford once described this vehicle as a modern Model T because of its importance to the company. And if the automaker decides to scrap it, the truck would be America's first major EV casualty. Sharon Terlep, who covers the automotive industry for the journal, says the Lightning was a hot seller, at least at first. But the trucks are expensive and buyers had concerns.

Sharon Terlep (3:45)

The reality was with the Lightning and also generally with these vehicles, when they're in really cold weather, when they're towing or carrying heavy loads, that battery range, it's reduced. And also if you think about where there are chargers, those are plentiful in urban areas. But when you get out to the country and even more into some of the suburbs in the middle of the country, it's just not as easy to find a charger for your vehicle.

Alex Ossola (4:11)

The truck is a money loser for Ford as demand for EVs cools overall, and government incentives and clean air mandates fall away. The auto industry is reckoning with that changed environment.

Sharon Terlep (4:22)

I don't think there's anyone saying EVs are just going away and nobody's going to drive them. What we're hearing a lot of is EV growth is going to be much slower. So it's going to be more of a creep as opposed to this explosive growth, and that the EVs people buy are not at least in the near term going to be these very big trucks. It's going to be smaller, more affordable cars that aren't these massive investments.