By Keith Naughton and David Welch, Bloomberg

Automakers just paid the price for dialing back on discounts for the first time in 55 months.

Almost all major manufacturers reported declining U.S. deliveries for July, led by a 15 percent plunge at Nissan Motor Co. The industry tempered spending on incentives, snapping a streak of monthly consecutive increases that began 4 1/2 years ago, according to J.D. Power.

The sales reports cap a rough month for the auto industry, with each of Detroit’s carmakers reining in their earnings forecasts and Ford Motor Co. saying it would restructure for as long as five years. The results reinforce fear that U.S. demand has peaked and that, without ever-higher sales incentives to keep consumers interested, deliveries will keep dwindling.

“The incentives we’re seeing are more targeted,” in part because inventories are lean, said Michelle Krebs, executive analyst for Autotrader. “They’re not just slathered on.”

General Motors’s sales fell 3.3 percent last month, according to two people familiar with the matter. Lauren Langille, a spokeswoman for the company, which switched to reporting results only on a quarterly basis earlier this year, declined to comment.

Fiat Chrysler Automobiles was a rare bright spot in July, with a surge in Jeep sport utility vehicle sales fueling the Italian-American company’s 5.9 percent jump.

Both of the automakers could have used some positive headlines. GM lowered its profit expectations last week largely because of rising commodity prices, which have jumped since President Donald Trump put tariffs on steel and aluminum. Jeep’s surprisingly weak performance in China was a major reason Fiat Chrysler dropped its forecasts for the year.

Carmakers may have done their discounting early this summer and decided that enough was enough. The July results indicate some payback for promotions that fueled a better-than-expected close to the first half. Underwhelming numbers from Nissan, Ford and Honda suggest the annualized industry sales rate probably trailed analysts’ average estimate for 16.7 million cars and light trucks. The rate, which is adjusted for seasonal trends, was 16.8 million a year earlier and 17.5 million in June.

An incentive pullback is rare for this time of year, said Mark LaNeve, the head of U.S. sales for Ford, which was kneecapped by steep drops for the Escape crossover and Fusion sedan. The automaker also was running short of inventory for its highly popular F-Series pickups after a supplier fire disrupted production back in May.

“I don’t ever remember a de-escalation from June to July, as you go into the traditional summer sell-down season,” LaNeve said on a call with analysts. “June received much more benefit than July in terms of the Fourth of July business.”

One reason for the pullback is that it’s getting more expensive to offer incentives that are tied to loans. The Federal Reserve hiked interest rates three times last year, once this year and has signaled it will bump them up two more times in 2018. That makes subsidized interest rates more expensive to offer.

“The summer is usually a time for manufacturers to roll out the deals and clear out the inventory,” said Edmunds analyst Jeremy Acevedo. “But interest rates are peaking right now. It’s getting more expensive to offer these deals.”

Ford shares dropped as much as 2.2 percent as of 3:25 p.m. in New York. Fiat Chrysler declined as much as 3.2 percent, and GM fell as much as 2.7 percent.

Another issue, said Charlie Chesbrough, senior economist for Cox Automotive, is that while automakers are pulling back on new-vehicle incentives, there are great deals on used-car lots. Returns of vehicles that have been leased are on the rise, and that added supply gives consumers more choice of lower-priced alternatives to new models.

“There is such tremendous competition from the used-car market,” Chesbrough said in a phone interview. “We have so many off-lease vehicles coming back to market and they are cheaper than new cars.”

Manny Pacquiao had just finished an impressive decision over Brandon Rios, late in 2014. The corridor outside his locker room at the Venetian Hotel in Macau was thick.

One bystander was Mikey Garcia. “That’s who I want,” he said, pointing at the Pac-Man’s door.

Pacquiao was a welterweight. Garcia at the time was a super-featherweight (130 pounds), just beginning to create his wavelength.

Now Garcia is 39-0 with 30 knockouts. He owned the marquee Saturday night at Staples Center, just as he owned IBF lightweight champion Robert Easter.

Brother Robert and father Eduardo train him and they think it’s the right time for Garcia to fight the 39-year-old Pacquiao, with the roles reversed and the cruel hands of time doing their damage.

But Mikey wants Errol Spence, the most skilled welterweight maybe since Floyd Mayweather.

Climb every mountain, they say.

Spence is a natural, maybe supernatural, welterweight whose pro debut came at 149 pounds, two above the limit. Garcia has won titles at lightweight (135) and super-lightweight (140). Spence’s left-handedness would be a problem. So would be his power, activity and sheer size.

“Spence will come in the ring at 160, at least,” Shane Mosley said on Tuesday. “But it’s not just the size. He’s physically strong.

“I’m glad to see that Mikey is like a throwback fighter. He doesn’t care about his undefeated record. But I don’t know if this is the right person. This would be like me trying to jump up and fight Bernard Hopkins or Roy Jones.”

“@mikeygarcia’s going to try and dethrone me and it’s not going to happen.” – @ErrolSpenceJr #GarciaEaster pic.twitter.com/MdmJYYORKV

— SHOWTIME Boxing (@ShowtimeBoxing) July 29, 2018

But then the smart guys told Ray Leonard to leave Marvin Hagler alone. Pacquiao had no business challenging Oscar De La Hoya. Hands wrung anxiously when Muhammad Ali took on Sonny Liston and George Foreman.

Mosley will become a member of the prestigious Nevada Boxing Hall of Fame in August. He was bold, too. He was the only man to beat De La Hoya twice and did so at 147 and 154.

The difference, he says, is that he and De La Hoya grew in weight simultaneously, more or less.

“Mikey would be going up two weight classes and Spence is not just some tall, wiry guy,” Mosley said. “And, as a southpaw, it adds a little difficulty to the task.”

Garcia was incessantly promoting a Spence fight even before he blunted Easter’s 8-inch reach advantage. He would give up four inches of wingspan to Spence.

There is a more sensible and just as challenging fight available at 135. Vasyl Lomachenko is the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world in the eyes of most fan bases outside Terence Crawford’s.

Lomachenko vs. Garcia would satisfy Garcia’s craving to headline a shimmery Las Vegas card, maybe even a pay-per-view. It’s an itch that Garcia deserves to scratch after 39 consecutive victories.

The promotional difficulties are erasable, too. Garcia sued Top Rank’s Bob Arum to escape his contract, and Lomachenko is a Top Rank fighter, but Arum said recently that he could draw up Lomachenko-Garcia if need be, although he added that Lomachenko would “rip up” his former client.

For his part, Robert Garcia told Boxing Scene that “many people” within Top Rank have told him the fight won’t happen because they don’t think Lomachenko would beat Garcia. That’s probably a lot of step-across-this-line posturing, but Lomachenko makes  more sense than Spence.

Pacquiao would provide Garcia a big check, lots of sizzle and probably an easy win, although he did look decent when he beat the long-gone Lucas Matthysse. Again, Garcia is going for gold.

“He reminds me of the guys like us who wanted to fight everybody,” Mosley said.

Mosley is not kidding. Over a 10-year period Mosley fought De La Hoya, Vernon Forrest, Fernando Vargas and Winky Wright twice each and Pacquiao, Mayweather, Canelo Alvarez, Antonio Margarito and Miguel Cotto. When he took apart Margarito in 2009, he was 46-5.

De La Hoya did much the same thing. He actually did challenge Hopkins at light-heavyweight.

Mosley was brilliant in 2000 when he beat De La Hoya at Staples, a little less so when he repeated it in Las Vegas three years later. Strangely the first win was a split decision, the second unanimous.

“At Staples when they called out the scores and said it was a split, I said, oh, no, they’re going to give it to Oscar,” Mosley said. “I wasn’t as sure in the second one, so when they said it was unanimous, I figured Oscar would get it. You can see my expression in the ring when they called my name.”

Shane and Oscar didn’t win them all, but they shouldered the responsibility for their sport. Garcia is their spiritual heir, which is fine, as long as he understands the risk of a heavyweight heart.

Click your heels together three times, because the 54th OzCon International will be held on the Cal Poly Pomona campus on Aug. 10-12.

The event will celebrate the 100th anniversary of L. Frank Baum’s “The Tin Woodman of Oz,” the 12th book in the classic series, as well as the 1939 film “The Wizard of Oz” and author Rachel Cosgrove Payes.

There will be panels, displays, an auction, vendors, opportunities for attendees to swap their collectibles, a costume contest and more.

Special guests for OzCon will include writer Andy Mangels, who produced the bonus features for the film, “Journey Back to Oz,” and Christianna Rickard, the niece of Ray Bolger and author of the book, “A Legend in Straw.”

If you want to go to the 54th annual OzCon International

When: Aug. 10-12.

Where: Kellogg West Conference Center and Hotel, Cal Poly Pomona, 3801 W. Temple Ave., Pomona.

Tickets: $35-$35 adults, $15 children 3-11 and free for children under 3 per day or $135 adults, $50 children 3-11 and free for children under 3 all three days.

Information: www.ozconinternational.com.

By Martin Crutsinger, The Associated Press

The Federal Reserve on Wednesday left its benchmark interest rate unchanged while signaling further gradual rate hikes in the months ahead as long as the economy stays healthy.

The Fed’s widely expected decision kept the central bank’s key short-term rate at 1.75 percent to 2 percent — the level hit in June when the Fed boosted the rate for a second time this year.

The Fed projected in June four rate hikes this year, up from three in 2017. Private economists expect the next hike to occur at the September meeting with a fourth rate hike expected in December.

The Fed’s statement was upbeat on the economy, pointing to a strengthening labor market, economic activity growing at “a strong rate,” and inflation that’s reached the central bank’s target of 2 percent annual gains.

Analysts saw all the comments about economic strength as a clear signal that the Fed remains on track to raise rates two more times this year.

“All signs still point to a September rate hike,” said Greg McBride, chief financial analyst at Bankrate.com. He said consumers should continue to pay down their home equity, credit card and other loans with variable rates that will rise further as the Fed keeps hiking rates.

“Refinance adjustable rate debt into fixed rates to insulate yourself from further rate hikes,” McBride recommended.

There was no mention in the statement of what many economists see as one of the biggest risks at the moment: rising tariffs on billions of dollars of U.S. exports and imports that have been imposed as a result of President Donald Trump’s new get-tough approach on trade.

The Fed statement also made no reference to criticism Trump has lodged recently against the Fed’s continued rate hikes.

The Fed’s decision was approved on a unanimous 8-0 vote. The action was not surprising, given that this meeting followed a June session where the Fed took a number of steps including raising rates by another quarter-point and changing its projection for hikes this year from three to four.

The March and June rate hikes followed three hikes in 2017 and one each in 2015 and 2016. The Fed’s key policy rate is still at a relatively low level. But it’s up from the record low near zero where it remained for seven years as the central bank worked to use ultra-low interest rates to lift the economy out of the Great Recession.

The string of quarter-point rate hikes is intended to prevent the economy from overheating and pushing inflation from climbing too high. But higher rates make borrowing costlier for consumers and businesses and can weigh down stock prices. Trump has made clear he has little patience for the Fed’s efforts to restrain the economy to control inflation.

“Tightening now hurts all that we have done,” Trump tweeted last month, a day after he said in a television interview that he was “not happy” with the Fed’s rate increases.

Over the past quarter-century, presidents have maintained silence in public about Fed actions, believing that lodging complaints would be counter-productive. That’s because it could produce even faster rate hikes if the central bank feels the need to convince financial markets that it will not yield to political pressure and allow inflation to rise to worrisome levels.

At the moment, economic growth is strong, rising at an annual rate of 4.1 percent in the April-June quarter, the best showing in nearly four years. Unemployment is at a low 4 percent, and some analysts believe it will fall further when the government releases the July figures on Friday.

But there are worries as well, led by fears of what a Trump-led trade war might do to growth in the United States and around the world.

Many analysts believe that the possible harm from rising tariffs was a key discussion topic this week. While trade was not mentioned in the statement, it likely will show up in the minutes of the Fed’s discussion which will be released in three weeks.

Delivering the Fed’s semi-annual report to Congress last month, Fed Chairman Jerome Powell refrained from criticizing the Trump administration’s effort to use the threat of tariffs to try to lower trade barriers. But Powell noted that the Fed was hearing a “rising chorus of concern” from business contacts about the harm a trade war could cause.

Powell hasn’t publicly addressed Trump’s criticism of Fed rate hikes. But the chairman had previously said in a radio interview that the central bank has long operated independently in making interest-rate decisions based on what was best for the economy and not in response to political pressure.

SERIOUSLY LOOPY: As far as brand mascots go, “Toucan Sam” is a pretty colorful character, with a tricolored bill inspired by Froot Loops’ original colors. But Kellogg’s is taking a more kaleidoscopic route for its upcoming Froot Loops-inspired apparel collection.
The fruit-flavored breakfast cereal has joined forces with AwaytoMars for the “Whatever Froots Your Loops” initiative. The capsule collection of what is described as “wardrobe essentials” is being created with the help of consumers. The project is meant to encourage people to show their true colors, to “find inspiration and show the world ‘Whatever Froots Your Loops.’”
Earlier this year, Kellogg’s put out the word online that design ideas were welcome. Aiming to gather input from 10,000 people around the world, the Froot Loops/AwaytoMars collection will consist of jackets, coats, hats, beanies, tops, shirts, dresses and shoes. Froot Loops, AwaytoMars and online critics are choosing the two most popular cocreators for each category. Early entrants included a colorful dress from Paris-based designer Emmanuelle Julliard that is meant to be “a wink to the dresses of the Sixties from Paco Rabanne.” Her A-line dress is made in a kind of chain mail of fabric with padded rings in the Froot Loops color palette

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THAT’S A BARGAIN: Half of all global luxury shoppers said they only buy when the items they want are discounted.
That’s according to a YouGov Affluent Perspective report on Global Luxury Retail. The report found that there was no significant difference demographically between those who opt to buy at discount from those who elect to pay full price, except that the former is slightly older.
The report also found that of those who bought at discount, only 28 percent grew up in an affluent household, compared with 47 percent of those who bought at full price. One reason is that those in the former group are just starting to build their wealth, and are not yet “secure with the money they have accumulated.” Further, those with a less affluent upbringing said they wished they had more money, while those who grew up in a more affluent household wished they had more time.
Both those who bought at discount and those who didn’t agreed that luxury is different from non-luxury items based on high standards of quality, exceptional design and precision in construction, as well as a high level of service and retention of value. How the two consumer groups differed was more evident in

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Retail technology start-up Your Style Unzipped is getting ready to beta-test its shopping discovery platform in September, while it starts its next round of fund-raising.
Susan Bruch, founder and chief executive officer, said, “We raised $500,000, a funding round to get us prelaunched. We are now raising the next round, and are hoping to raise $1.5 million.”
Bruch said the raise will be an extension of the seed round. She’s not talking yet to venture capitalists, but is connecting instead with individuals referred to in the start-up community as angel investors.
Her start-up, which includes mobile app ZipShop, enables users to browse inventory and see what’s available in a store on the platform by zip code or location. The user has the option of going to the store to try on a selection before deciding to purchase. The platform also allows one to place an item “on hold,” purchase online for in-store pickup, and in some cases arrange for delivery. Content on the platform includes branded videos and editorial content showcasing the items that can be purchased and retrieved on-demand.
Essentially it’s meant as a time-saver so consumers can check a store’s inventory before going to the retailer, and if one store doesn’t have

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JUNGLE FEVER: U.K. drum and bass duo Chase & Status has partnered with Reebok and Selfridges on an installation that spotlights jungle music’s rave culture, and to mark the duo’s 15th anniversary. The installation will be erected on Aug. 9 and sit on the third floor in the Women’s Designer Studio.
Tilted “Super Sharp Reloaded,” the installation draws inspiration from jungle music and its influence on fashion, which rose to its pinnacle in the mid- to late Nineties. According to Saul Milton of Chase & Status, “the queue [to get into the raves] served as the runway,” and the installation will highlight the fashion that originated from the rave scene.
To accompany the installation, a special soundtrack influenced by the Nineties sound will be playing in the background.
The installation comes on the heels of Chase & Status’ “Super Sharp” exhibition from last February. Presented in collaboration with London College of Fashion, the exhibition examined jungle music’s obsession with — and reappropriation of — Italian luxury garments.
“The Nineties designer label trend was all about wearing your wealth, showing other people how much money you had. In times of economic insecurity, the wearing of flashy designer labels is a rebellious statement,” said Tory Turk, who

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EASTERN ADVANTAGES: Seven cities in Asia dominated GlobalData’s 2017 “Tapping Into the Luxury Travel Market” report highlighting the cities with the most international tourists.
For the third consecutive year, Bangkok remained the leading international tourist destination globally with 20.8 million visitors last year. In addition to Bangkok, Singapore, Tokyo, Hong Kong, Seoul, Kuala Lumpur and Shenzhen were also among the most popular destinations. Tourists from Europe and China helped to make that happen. The depreciation of some Asian currencies — excluding the Chinese yuan — was a key factor in the appeal of Asian cities, according to GlobalData’s analysis.
London locked up the second-place slot with 20.4 million international visitors, some of whom were motivated to make the trip due to the British Pound’s weakened state spurred by the Brexit referendum. Singapore with 17.4 million international visitors, Dubai with 15.8 million and Hong Kong with 14 million ranked third through fifth, respectively. Tokyo with 13.8 million, New York with 13.1 million, Seoul with 13.07 million, Kuala Lumpur with 12.1 million and Shenzhen with 12.07 million rounded out the second-half of the list. People in Indonesia, Turkey, Singapore, Mexico and India are saving up the most for vacations, according to GlobalData.
Thailand’s appeal was

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Project Neptune brings the carmaker’s style and technical breakthroughs to the ocean depths.