Auto workers threaten to strike again at Ford; Wall Street falls to a rare

The United Auto Workers union is threatening to go on strike next week at Ford Motor Co.’s largest and most profitable factory in a dispute over local contract language.

The union said Friday that nearly 9,000 workers at the Kentucky Truck Plant in Louisville will strike on Feb. 23 if the local contract dispute is not resolved.

If there’s a strike, it would be the second time the union has walked out at the sprawling factory in the past year. In October, UAW workers shut down the plant during national contract negotiations that ended with large raises for employees.

Wall Street falls to a rare losing week

Stocks slipped Friday to send Wall Street to a rare losing week, just its second in the last 16.

The S&P 500 fell 0.5% from its all-time high set a day earlier. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 145 points, or 0.4%, and the Nasdaq composite sank 0.8%.

A report in the morning on inflation at the wholesale level gave the latest reminder that the battle against rising prices still isn’t over. Prices rose more in January than economists expected, and the numbers followed a similar report from earlier in the week that showed living costs for U.S. consumers climbed by more than forecast.

Treasury yields rose immediately after the report’s release, adding pressure onto the stock market.

The data kept the door closed on hopes that the Federal Reserve could begin cutting interest rates in March, as traders had earlier hoped.