Business Briefs – December 18, 2018

Clouds Over German Economy After Stocks Hit Bear Market

BERLIN (AP) — Worries are growing about the strength of the German economy, Europe’s largest, after data suggested fears about trade wars and Brexit are hitting business activity and after the country’s main stocks index slid into a bear market.

The Ifo Institute said Tuesday its business confidence index dropped to 101.0 points for December from 102.0 points in November as managers’ view of both their current circumstances and their prospects for the next six months fell.

That’s the fourth drop in a row and the lowest reading in 27 months for the index, which is based on some 9,000 firms.

Elon Musk to Unveil Underground Tunnel, Transport Cars

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Tech entrepreneur Elon Musk is set to unveil an underground transportation tunnel on Tuesday.

Musk also plans to show off the autonomous cars that will carry people through the test tunnel, about 2 miles (3.2 kilometers) under the streets of Hawthorne, Cal., Musk’s SpaceX headquarters. He’s also planning to unveil elevators to bring cars from street level to the tunnel.

The reveal comes almost two years to the day since Musk announced that “traffic is driving me nuts” and he was “going to build a tunnel boring machine and just start digging.”