Ford has stellar Q2 with global, truck sales

DEARBORN, Michigan – Ford Motor Co.’s net income jumped 44 percent to $1.9 billion in the second quarter as global sales rose and customers paid more for new trucks and SUVs with premium features.

Ford pulled off a record quarterly profit of $2.6 billion in North America even though dealerships weren’t fully stocked with its best-selling vehicle, the F-150 pickup. The results bode well for the second half of the year, when Ford’s two U.S. truck plants will be in full production and dealers will have more pickups.

Sales, limited supply boost May home prices

WASHINGTON – U.S. home prices rose steadily in May, pushed higher by a healthy increase in sales this year.

The Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller 20-city home price index climbed 4.9 percent in May from 12 months earlier, down slightly from a 5 percent pace in April, according to S&P Dow Jones Indices.

Home sales have jumped in recent months as an improving economy boosts hiring and enables more people to afford a purchase. Yet the higher sales haven’t encouraged more people to sell their homes, leaving supplies tight and driving up prices.

Volkswagen tops Toyota in first-half sales

TOKYO – Volkswagen overtook Toyota in global vehicle sales for January-June, the first time the German automaker has come out top in the intensely competitive tallies.

Japanese automaker Toyota Motor Corp. said Tuesday it sold 5.02 million vehicles in the first six months of this year, down 1.5 percent from last year. Its sales struggled notably in the languishing Japanese market.

Volkswagen AG said earlier this month that it sold 5.04 million vehicles during the same period. Its first-half sales were 0.5 percent down from the same period in 2014.

U.S. to pay millions to farmers for avian flu

DES MOINES, Iowa – The U.S. government expects to spend $191 million to pay chicken and turkey farmers for birds lost to avian flu, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said Tuesday as he called for Congress to consider a disaster program for poultry producers similar to that for other livestock farmers.

That’s just a fraction of the federal government’s $700 million price tag for what is considered by many to be the worst animal disease disaster to hit the nation, Vilsack said. The government has spent $400 million on cleaning up dead birds and disinfecting and is paying to research and stockpile a bird flu vaccine in case the virus returns.