Bloomberg As automakers seal their first annual US sales decline since 2009, expectations for more interest-rate hikes are bolstering the nearly unanimous view that car demand will shrink again in 2018. Few analysts anticipate sales this year will reach 17 million vehicles, which was just achieved for a third-straight year and only the fifth time in history. The Federal Reserve ...

Bloomberg An English spa town and two coastal areas saw the biggest house-price increases in the UK in 2017, outstripping gains in London’s hotspots. Cheltenham in southwest England saw a 13 percent jump in prices in 2017, almost five times the national increase of 2.7 percent, Bank of Scotland Plc’s Halifax division said. The average house in the town, famous ...

Bloomberg UK manufacturing growth slowed more than forecast in December, retreating from a four-year high. IHS Markit’s Purchasing Managers Index for the industry slid to 56.3, below the median estimate of economists for a reading of 57.9. Still, that pace of expansion left the quarterly average at the highest since 2014. “Expansion remained comfortably above long-term trend rates,” said Rob ...