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General Motors lifted its financial outlook for the year and slightly lowered its expected hit from tariffs, as the automaker awaits expected relief on tariffs in the U.S. while confronting a weakening market for electric vehicles. The company now expects its annual adjusted core profit to be between $12.0 billion to $13.0 billion, compared with its prior estimate of $10.0 billion to $12.5 billion. The Detroit automaker said tariffs would hit its bottom line less than anticipated, lowering its updated impact to a range of $3.5 billion to $4.5 billion, from a previous $4 billion to $5 billion. Shares rose about 8% in premarket trading. GM’s outlook hike lifted crosstown peer Ford and U.S.-listed shares of Stellantis nearly 2% each in premarket trade. EARNINGS TOP WALL ST EXPECTATIONS GMs quarterly adjusted earnings per share dropped to $2.80, beating LSEG analysts expectation of $2.31. The auto giant earlier this month took a $1.6 billion charge from changes to its EV strategy. At the end of September, a $7,500 tax credit on battery-powered models went away, and there has been further loosening of regulations around vehicle emissions. In a letter to shareholders, GM CEO Mary Barra said she expects the company to incur future charges related to EVs. By acting swiftly and decisively to address overcapacity, we expect to reduce EV losses in 2026 and beyond, she said. Revenue for the quarter ended September marginally fell to $48.6 billion from a year earlier. U.S. car sales have stayed strong despite uncertainty around the tariffs, rising 6% in the third quarter. While automakers have largely avoided raising sticker prices to offset their tariff costs, American car shoppers have continued to opt for pricier models and added features. TARIFF RELIEF FOR U.S. AUTO INDUSTRY GM said it plans to mitigate 35% of its anticipated tariff hit. There is relief on the horizon for many U.S. automakers, after U.S. President Donald Trump approved an order to expand credits for U.S. auto and engine production, allowing companies to receive a credit equal to 3.75% of the suggested retail price for U.S. assembled vehicles through 2030 to offset import tariffs on parts. I also want to thank the President and his team for the important tariff updates they made on Friday. The MSRP offset program will help make U.S.-produced vehicles more competitive over the next five years,” Barra said in a letter to shareholders. Global companies have flagged more than $35 billion in costs from U.S. tariffs heading into third-quarter earnings. Investors are still waiting on trade deals to be ironed out with Mexico and Canada, analysts noted, as well as with South Korea, a major exporter of cars for GM. Automakers have been ramping up U.S. investments to offset Trumps levies. GM announced in June that it would invest $4 billion at three U.S. facilities in Michigan, Kansas, and Tennessee. The automaker imports about half of the vehicles it sells in the U.S., mainly from Mexico and South Korea. Stellantis earlier this month said it plans to invest $13 billion in the U.S. over the next four years. GM SCALES BACK EV AMBITIONS Barra in 2021 announced the companys ambition to produce only EVs by 2035, a goal she has since stopped referencing publicly, instead saying customer demand will guide the automakers lineup. Sales of EVs were strong for GM and across the industry in the third quarter, as shoppers raced to take advantage of the tax credit, but they still comprised less than 10% of the companys overall sales. To spur consumer demand, GM planned to offer a program that would have allowed its dealers to continue offering the tax credit on EV leases. It has since backtracked on the initiative following backlash from lawmakers, including Republican Senator Bernie Moreno of Ohio, a former car dealer. Ford also scrapped its program with the same aim. Other automakers, including Hyundai and Stellantis, are offering incentives to slash the prices consumers pay for their EVs. Nora Eckert and Nathan Gomes, Reuters
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E-Commerce
Disney+ and Hulu subscription cancellations rose during the month that ABC briefly cancelled “Jimmy Kimmel Live!,” according to data from subscription analytics company Antenna.Walt Disney Co. owns the streaming platforms and ABC. ABC pulled the show off the air for less than a week in September in the wake of criticism over his comments related the killing of conservative activist Charlie Kirk.Antenna estimates total cancellations in September were 4.1 million for Hulu and 3 million for Disney+. The “churn rate,” or the percentage of customers that cancel their subscriptions in a specific month, jumped from 5% in August to 10% in September for Hulu. That figure jumped 4% in August to 8% in September for Disney+.However, signups were higher in September for both Hulu and Disney+ than the prior five months.Antenna is a subscription analytics company that tracks U.S. consumer data. The data excludes subscribers in bundle deals.In its most recent earnings report for the quarter ended June 28, Disney reported 183 million Disney+ and Hulu subscriptions.Disney declined to comment. Associated Press
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E-Commerce
A major Amazon Web Services outage disrupted scores of online platforms on Monday leaving people around the world unable to access some banks, chatting apps, online food ordering and more.History shows these kinds of system outages can be short-lived, and are often minor inconveniences such as placing a lunch order in person or waiting a few hours for a gaming platform to come back online than long-term problems, but recovery can be a bumpy road. And for people trying to move money, communicate with loved ones or work using impacted services, disruptions are especially stressful.Consumers may not realize how many platforms they use rely on the same back-end technology. AWS is one of only a handful of major cloud service providers that businesses, governments, universities and other organizations rely on. Monday’s outage is an important reminder of that and experts stress it’s important to diversify our online lives where we can, or even have some “old school” alternatives to turn to as a backup plan.“Don’t put all your eggs in one digital basket,” said Lee McKnight, an associate professor at Syracuse University’s School of Information Studies, noting these kinds of outages aren’t going away anytime soon.So what, if anything, can you do to prepare for disruptions? Here are a few tips. Keep your money in more than one place During Monday’s AWS disruptions, users on outage tracker Downdetector reported problems with platforms like Venmo and online broker Robinhood. Banks such as Halifax and Lloyds also said some of their services were temporarily affected, although some customers continued to report lingering issues.Even if short-lived, outages that impact online banking and other financial services can be among the most stressful, particularly if a consumer is waiting on a paycheck, trying to pay rent, checking on investment funds or making purchases. While much of your stress will depend on the scope and length of disruptions, experts say a good rule of thumb is to park your money in multiple places.“I’m a big fan of holding multiple accounts that can give us access, to some degree, of funds at any given time,” said Mark Hamrick, senior economic analyst at Bankrate. This underlines the importance of having an emergency savings account, he explains, or other accounts separate from something like day-to-day checking account, for example.Keeping some cash in a safe place is also a good idea, he adds and emergency preparedness agencies similarly recommend having physical money on hand in case of a natural disaster or power failures. Still, it’s important to keep hoarding in moderation.“We shouldn’t go overboard, because we can lose cash it can be stolen or misplaced,” Hamrick said. And in terms of prudent financial practices overall, he explains, you also don’t want to have lots of money “stored under a mattress” if it could instead be earning interest in a bank.Depending on the scope of the outage, some other options could still be available.If digital banking apps are offline, for example, consumers may still be able to visit a branch in person, or call a representative over the phone although wait times during widespread disruptions are often longer. And if the disruptions are tied to a third-party cloud services provider, as seen with AWS on Monday, it’s not always something a bank or other impacted business can fix on its own. Have backup communication channels Monday’s AWS outage also impacted some communications platforms, including social media site Snapchat and messaging app Signal.In our ever-digitized world, people have become all the more reliant on online channels to call or chat with loved ones, communicate in the workplace and more. And while it can be easy to become accustomed to certain apps or platforms, experts note that outages serve as an important reminder to have backup plans in place.That could take the form of simply making sure you can reach those who you speak to regularly across different apps, again depending on the scope of disruption. If broader internet and cloud services that smartphones rely on are impacted, you may need to turn to more traditional phone calls and SMS text messages.SMS texting relies on “an older telecom infrastructure,” McKnight explains. For that reason, he notes that it’s important to have contacts for SMS texting up to date, “and not just the fancier and more fun services that we use day to day” in case of an emergency.Meanwhile, there can also be outages that specifically impact phone services. For non-cloud service outages in the past, impacted carriers have suggested users try Wi-Fi calling on both iPhones and Android devices.Save your work across multiple platforms and monitor service updatesOverall, McKnight suggests “building out your own personal, multi-cloud strategy.”For online work or projects, that could look like storing documents across multiple platforms such as Google Drive, Dropbox and iCloud, McKnight explains. It’s important to recognize potential security risks and make sure all of your accounts are secure, he adds, but “having some diversity in how you store information” could also reduce headaches when and if certain services are disrupted.Many businesses may also have their own workarounds or contingency plans in case the technology they use goes offline. While a wider recovery from Monday’s outage is still largely reliant on Amazon’s wider mitigation efforts, individual platforms’ social media or online status pages may have updates or details about alternative operations.You can also check outage trackers like Downdetector to see if others are experiencing similar problems.Even after recovery, experts also suggest checking payments, online orders and messages you may have sent during or close to the outage in case something didn’t go through. Is there a tech topic that you think needs explaining? Write to us at onetechtip@ap.org with your suggestions for future editions of One Tech Tip. Wyatte Grantham-Philips, AP Business Writer
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E-Commerce
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