BUSINESS BRIEFS
Toyota targets industry record
Advertiser Staff and News Services
TOKYO — Toyota plans to sell 10.4 million vehicles globally in 2009, well above the auto industry's current 30-year-old record and another sign of the Japanese automaker's momentum toward displacing industry kingpin General Motors.
But even as he outlined the ambitious plan, Toyota Motor Corp. President Katsuaki Watanabe said the company was going after quality — not quantity. The total would be an 11.3 percent increase from the 9.34 million vehicles Toyota plans to sell this year and would eclipse GM's auto industry record of 9.55 million vehicles sold in 1978. Analysts said Toyota's target was realistic.
SPENDING RISES 0.4% IN JULY
WASHINGTON — Consumers returned to the malls in July after taking a breather in June, although worries about the future could make the rebound short-lived.
The Commerce Department reported yesterday that consumer spending rose by 0.4 percent in July, double the June increase. The spending was supported by a solid 0.5 percent rise in incomes, the best showing in this area in four months.
The gain in spending was right in line with expectations, while the increase in incomes was double what analysts had expected.
WTO PROBING CHINA SUBSIDIES
GENEVA — The World Trade Organization opened a formal investigation yesterday into allegations by the U.S. and Mexico that China is providing illegal subsidies for a range of industries.
The two countries accuse Beijing of using WTO-prohibited tax breaks to encourage Chinese companies to boost exports, while imposing tax and tariff penalties to limit purchases of foreign products in China.
Beijing blocked a separate probe of its rules for protecting intellectual property rights. But the move will probably only delay the creation of a panel until the next meeting of the WTO's dispute body in September.
APPLE, NBC IN PRICING DISPUTE
NEW YORK — Apple Inc. escalated a dispute with NBC Universal over the pricing of television shows by announcing yesterday it would not sell any of NBC's programs for this fall season on iTunes.
Earlier, NBC had told Apple that it would no longer allow its programs to be sold via iTunes at the end of the year. NBC Universal-controlled television programming accounts for an estimated 40 percent of the video downloads on iTunes.
Apple decided to stop before the new fall episodes premiere next month, said Eddy Cue, Apple's vice president of iTunes.
