A limited number of GTs with the special livery will be available this year alone.
The all-new 2017 Ford GT will be available in a limited-edition Heritage theme commemorating the GT40 Mark II driven to victory by Bruce McLaren and Chris Amon at the French Le Mans race 50 years ago, the automaker said today. The car has a shadow black exterior in either gloss or matte finish with silver stripes and exposed carbon fiber package.
Limited quantities will be available for the 2017 model year only, the company said. It didn’t disclose its suggested retail price, however
Kindred’s headquarters at 4th and Broadway; its shares got hit today.
The 10 big louisville employers tracked by Boulevard took it on the chin again, tumbling for a second consecutive day in the aftermath of Britain’s surprise vote to leave the European Union. Only one — Qingdao Haier, new owner of GE Appliances — gained ground, as major stock market indices fell hard. The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed at 17,140, down 1.5%; the broader S&P 500 index ended the day at 2001, off 1.8%, and the Nasdaq slipped below 4,600, or 2.4%.
Some of the losses didn’t make sense. Hospital and nursing home giant Kindred, with no discernible exposure to overseas turmoil, dove another 7%, to $10.49 a share — even steeper than its 3.9% drop on Friday. Volume was light: 767,818 shares vs. the average 837,761, suggesting little conviction among pessimistic investors; 1.1 million shares traded Friday. Still, Kindred was easily the worst performer of the 10 today:
Papa John’s, on the other hand, fell just 1%, to $65.82, after also declining 1% Friday. That’s despite the fact its biggest foreign market is the U.K., where it has 384 company-owned and franchised stores — 26% of all 1,505 outside the U.S., according to its annual report. In total, Papa John’s had 4,893 stores at the end of last year. The company’s top 10 foreign markets . . .
Today’s action came after Friday, the first day Wall Street could react to Brexit. The Dow plunged 3.4% to close at 17,400; the S&P fell 3.6% to 2,037, and the Nasdaq fell the most, 4.1% to 4,708. Here’s the latest news about Brexit, finance, and business.
In non-Brexit news, Papa John’s will donate 250 pizzas a day through Thursday to victims of recent devastating floods in the Elkview and Clendenin areas of West Virginia (WSAZ). At least 25 people are dead and several more missing after the disaster caused by heavy rains Thursday. Latest flood news.
Meanwhile, visits to fast-food restaurants — which had been growing at a quarterly clip of 2% since September 2015 — stalled in March, April and May, according to as-yet-unpublished data from market research firm NPD Group (The Wall Street Journal).
Anxious traders at the New York Stock Exchange today (New York Times).
The Dow Jones Industrial Average cratered 3.3% this afternoon, tumbling 589 points and wiping out its year-to-date gains as fears gripped markets with Britain’s stunning vote to leave the E.U. The broader S&P 500 tumbled 3% and the Nasdaq slumped 3.8%. Latest news.
All 10 big-employer stocks tracked by Boulevard fell sharply:
To fully appreciate the magnitude of the losses, consider Kentucky’s richest family, the Browns of Brown-Forman. They saw $201 million of their more than $6 billion in paper wealth evaporate in a matter of hours.
This morning’s paper.
The impact of last night’s stunning Brexit news for Louisville employers will be greatest for those with extensive overseas footprints and currency exposure.
They include Brown-Forman, which sells 15 brands such as Jack Daniel’s in 160 countries worldwide. The U.K. is the company’s second-biggest market, accounting for 10% of fiscal 2016 sales, according to Brown-Forman’s annual report. Europe, excluding the U.K., was 21%. The U.S. is No. 1, with 46%. The company says foreign markets are increasingly important: “In fiscal 2016, we generated 54% of our net sales outside the United States compared to 41% 10 years ago.”
Other companies likely taking post-Brexit hits include Papa John’s, which operates in 39 countries; Yum in 130 countries and now reshaping overseas operations with a planned China spinoff in October; Ford, which is already reworking its European sales strategy, and Amazon, a relative newcomer abroad.
Boulevard’s Stock Portfolio companies routinely warn investors about risks of doing business outside the U.S. Papa John’s, for one, noted in its annual report that “international operations could be negatively impacted by changes in international economic, political, security or health conditions in the countries in which the company or our franchisees operate.”
Yum’s 14,600-unit KFC Division bears the biggest overseas exposure; it’s in 120 countries, with more than a third — 5,003 restaurants — in China.
Britain’s Guardian.
“Our business,” Yum says in its annual report, “is increasingly exposed to risks inherent in international operations. These risks, which can vary substantially by country, include political instability, corruption, social and ethnic unrest, changes in economic conditions . . . as well as changes in the laws and policies that govern foreign investment in countries where our restaurants are operated.”
Also, Yum warns, “results of operations and the value of our foreign assets are affected by fluctuations in currency exchange rates, which may adversely affect reported earnings.”
Boulevard’s Big 10 companies employ 63,000 workers in the Louisville area, and nearly 2 million worldwide.
HUMANA: A group of high-profile U.S. Senate Democrats yesterday urged the Justice Department to block the proposed Aetna-Humana and Anthem-Cigna mergers, which would shrink the number of national health insurers to three from five. In a letter, they argued the pending tie-ups would threaten jobs, raise premiums, and reduce the quality of care. The letter was signed by Al Franken of Minnesota, Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, Sherrod Brown of Ohio, Edward J. Markey of Massachusetts, Dianne Feinstein of California, Mazie K. Hirono of Hawaii — and Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, in whose state both Aetna and Cigna are headquartered (Business Insurance). Aetna officials have said they expect the $37 billion merger with Humana will close in this year’s second half.
AMAZON: The FAA has proposed fining Amazon another $130,000 for twice shipping hazardous packages in 2014 without warning labels or emergency response information. In one, the retailer offered UPS a box with a 19-ounce container of Simple Air EZ Green HVAC Cleaner. The flammable gas was discovered by UPS workers in Kentucky; the second incident involved FedEx. The proposed penalty comes two weeks after the FAA fined Amazon $350,000 over a similar incident that caused injuries to several UPS workers (CIO). Also, a San Francisco Bay area woman learned the hard way that Amazon can, indeed, ban you for good if you return too many orders — although she eventually got a reprieve (NBC). Amazon employs 6,000 at two distribution centers near Louisville.
PAPA JOHN’S: Researcher Nomura yesterday downgraded Papa John’s stock to neutral from buy, partly because of concerns traffic accidents involving delivery drivers could push up insurance costs. Among the examples cited: A jury in DeKalb County, Ga., awarded $11 million to a woman who suffered long-term brain damage after an incident involving a Papa John’s driver. “While this award likely will be appealed (if it hasn’t already),” Nomura told clients, “it does highlight what appears to us to be the growing risks.” The firm also downgraded Domino’s shares for the same reason (MarketWatch). Wall Street was unfazed: Papa John’s shares closed today at $67.79, up 2.3%.
BROWN-FORMAN is launching a global scavenger hunt to celebrate the 150th anniversary of its flagship Jack Daniel’s Distillery. Starting July 1 through September, the distiller will provide clues via its Facebook page to 150 hidden whiskey barrels around the world and give fans the opportunity to find and win prizes. The barrels will be hidden at airports in Amsterdam, Frankfurt, Heathrow, Milan, Paris, Singapore, Los Angeles and Sydney, plus cultural and historic sites (Frontier Magazine and Travel Retail Business).
FORD and the other two big U.S. automakers collectively outperformed import brands for just the second time in 30 years in this year’s closely watched J.D. Power Initial Quality Study. Still, Ford finished No. 11; Kia was No. 1 (Detroit Free Press). The automaker employs nearly 10,000 workers at its auto and truck factories in Louisville.
UPS: A Idaho woman is praising a UPS driver after he likely saved her and her sons from what could have been a deadly house fire last month (East Idaho News). UPS is Louisville’s single-biggest employer, with about 22,000 workers its Worldport hub at Louisville International Airport, the biggest fully automated package handling facility in the world.
TACO BELL: A viral video of a teenager’s arrest for allegedly brandishing a knife at a Taco Bell employee in Wisconsin has sparked protests and an internal police inquiry (The Root).
In other news, Texas Roadhouse shares closed at $46.55, up 3% — another record closing high — after setting an earlier intraday high of $46.60. And Churchill Downs shares closed at $127.60 up 63 cents as nearly two million shares changed hands — 10 times average volume. Standard & Poor’s announced the Louisville company would replace Fortune Brands Home & Security in the S&P MidCap 400 after the close of trading today (RTT News).
AMAZON: A Chinese company has reportedly beaten Amazon in the race to deliver online goods by unmanned drone, carrying loads of up to 33 lbs. with a top speed of 34 miles per hour. E-commerce giant Jingling has been deploying them in rural areas, with smaller populations and less demand for goods that would strain the fledgling service. Amazon is planning to introduce a similar service called Prime Air, but not until 2017 or 2018 (Mirror). At a minimum, Amazon says it must win regulatory approval from the FAA. In the meantime, it’s released an amusing video, top, about Prime Air (Amazon). The FAA on June 3 released an FAQ on the process for getting permission. Six myths about Prime Air.
FORD‘s No. 68 GT won the GTE Pro class at Le Mans today, beating long-time rival Ferrari in Ford’s first victory at the French endurance race since 1980. The No. 69 Ford GT finished third, and the No. 66 GT finished fourth (Detroit News and Motor Trend). The winning car is based on the $400,000 2017 GT supercar the company unveiled in January. Ford has received more than 7,000 applications from fans hoping to buy one, with just 500 planned for production. It’s been more than a decade since Ford last launched such a pricey vehicle. In Louisville, the automaker employs nearly 10,000 at its auto and truck factories.
TACO BELL: No injuries were reported when a pickup crashed into the front doors of a Taco Bell restaurant in Marion, Ind., yesterday afternoon; employees and several patrons reportedly were inside (Marion Star).
FORD‘s auto and truck factories in Louisville will shut down for only one week this summer vs. the usual two, because of unexpectedly strong demand for SUVs, and the need to gear up for launching the new 2017 Super Duty F-series truck later this year.
The company says it will crank out an extra 22,000 SUVs at the Louisville Assembly Plant and at two other sites in Chicago and Oakville, Ontario. Through May, SUVs sales totaled 325,475, a 9% increase from a year ago, including Escape, Edge, Explorer, Flex and Expedition. The 4,700-employee Assembly Plant closing will be the week of July 4. Ford had disclosed the SUV production increase to investors in its second-quarter production guidance April 28.
This is the fourth consecutive year the automaker has trimmed its summer shutdowns (press release).
The Kentucky Truck Plant employs 5,100, but that figure is growing substantially. In December, Ford said it would add 2,000 jobs and invest $1.3 billion there to produce the new F-series; it originally opened in 1969. The factory already produces F-250 and F-550 Super Duty pickups, plus Ford Expedition and Lincoln Navigator trucks. More about Ford’s history and operations in Louisville.
PAPA JOHN’S: Researcher Nomura yesterday downgraded Papa John’s stock to neutral from buy, partly because of concerns traffic accidents involving delivery drivers could push up insurance costs. Among the examples cited: A jury in DeKalb County, Ga., awarded $11 million to a woman who suffered long-term brain damage after an incident involving a Papa John’s driver. “While this award likely will be appealed (if it hasn’t already),” Nomura told clients, “it does highlight what appears to us to be the growing risks.” The firm also downgraded Domino’s shares for the same reason (
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