America’s trade gap has hit a five-month high, in another sign that global economic growth may be weakening.

US imports rose by 1.2% in August, fuelled by a 3% increased in purchases from China.

But exports shrank by 2%, to their lowest point since October 2012. That indicates weakness in key markets such as emerging nations and Europe. It could also reflect the impact of the stronger US dollar, which has gained against other currencies.

This drove the US Trade Deficit up to $48.33bn in August, up from $41.81bn a year ago.

The VW scandal hasn’t hurt the UK auto industry yet – car sales hit an all-time high in September, according to new data today.

Petrol-powered cars saw the strongest demand; suggesting some consumers might be more wary about diesel now.

Our Katie Allen confirms that Britain’s directors do not march on an empty stomach, or an environmentally friendly one….

Update: IoD delegates have now plonked themselves outside in the sun — making a nice photo for visiting tourists.

Delegates at the Institute of Directors’ conference are tucking into their legendary lunchboxes — a chance to refuel after a morning discussing weighty topics like Europe and migration.

There’s an astonishing amount of packaging on display too — here’s a photo of just one box:

Perhaps Britain’s new tax on plastic bags should be extended? £10 per plastic lid might cover it….

Here’s a couple of photos of Volkswagen staff arriving in Wolfsburg, where they were briefed on the emissions crisis today:

Brewing firm SABMiller has turned down an ‘informal offer’ from rival Anheuser-Busch InBev, according to a Bloomberg newsflash.

That’s sent SAB’s shares down 3%, to the bottom of the FTSE 100 (budge up, Glencore!).

This come three weeks after AB INBev, which brews Stella Artois and Budweiser, approached SAB, whose brands including Grolsch and Peroni.

Any deal would be huge, creating a new company worth perhaps $250bn (£160bn).

AB InBev has just a week to make a firm bid or walk away, so it’s not Last Orders in this story, yet.

The works council boss at Volkswagen, Bernd Osterloh, has told staff that the company will have to review all its investments following the emissions crisis.

He also predicted that their pay packets will suffer too.

Osterloh gave the warning at today’s staff meeting in Wolfsburg (see earlier post)

Reuters has the story:

All investments at Volkswagen will be placed under review, the carmaker’s top labour representative said on Tuesday, as the embattled German group grapples with the fallout of its diesel emissions scandal.

“We will need to call into question with great resolve everything that is not economical,” Bernd Osterloh, head of VW’s works council told more than 20,000 workers at a staff gathering in Wolfsburg, Germany.

The scandal is not yet having consequences for jobs at VW, which employs 60,000 people at its main factory, but will impact earnings at the core autos division as well as bonus payments to workers, Osterloh said.

Looks like Lord Lawson got the last blow in:

They’re still arguing…

Mining shares are leading the fallers in London this morning.

The 1.8% drop in German factory orders in August isn’t helping the mood.

Investors are concerned that falling demand from emerging markets could increase the raw materials glut, which has already driven commodity price down to multi-year lows.

The Institute of Directors’ chief is also rebuking UK politicians for playing the migrants card:

Back in the UK, house prices dipped by 0.9% last month, according to mortgage lender Halifax.

But that’s little relief to those hoping to get a house (or buy a bigger one. Prices are up around 8.9% year-on-year. On a quarter-on-quarter basis, they’ve been gaining since the start of 2013.

Interesting…. Jonathan Portes, one of the UK’s better known economists, has left his post as director of the National Institute of Economic and Social Research thinktank.

There doesn’t appear to be an official announcement, but NIESR has updated its website to show that Dame Frances Cairncross is now ‘interim director’.

Portes (who’s staying at NIESR as a research fellow until April) is known for using his statistical nous to fact-checking erroneous claims in the papers, especially over the impact of fiscal policy on poorer households.

But he also raised hackles among right wingers for his comments on austerity; they claimed loudly that Portes (once PM Gordon Brown’s chief economist) was too partisan for an independent thinktank:

Those spats culminated in an epic row with historian Niall Ferguson over an article in the Financial Times, which spawned an 16-page adjudication – and no clear winner (although the FT cleared itself of any failings, of course)

Over in Wolfsburg, thousands of Volkswagen employees are meeting at company HQ to hear from their new CEO.

Matthias Müller will brief staff on the ongoing emissions scandal, as Volkswagen strives to find a solution after selling millions of vehicles containing ‘defeat devices’ to fool emissions tests.

Müller was appointed as CEO less than two weeks ago, after Martin Winterkorn stepped down following the revelations that VW engines contained illicit software to hide how much noxious gases they produced.

It emerged last night that the probe into the VW scandal centres on two top engineers. Ulrich Hackenberg, Audi’s chief engineer, and Wolfgang Hatz, developer of Porsche’s Formula One and Le Mans racing engines, were among the engineers suspended last week, according to the WSJ.

European stock markets are being dragged down by the news that German factory orders slid in August.

The main indices are all in the red in early trading, with Germany’s DAX shedding almost 0.5%.

Investors may also be anxious about the eurozone, after Brussels warned Spain last night that i’s 2016 budget isn’t good enough, and needs more spending cuts.

Conner Campbell of SpreadEx explains:

A huge miss in German factory orders (complete with a downward revision for last month’s figure) seems to have taken the edge off of the Eurozone, following a Eurogroup meeting yesterday that hinted at more trouble for the currency union going forwards.

European Commissioner Pierre Moscovici warned that Spain will miss its headline targets in 2015 and 2016, providing yet another bearish note from the country that already includes a 21 month low manufacturing figure, a 9 month low services PMI, a separatist victory in Catalonia AND an impending general election in September.

This chart confirms that German industrial orders have tailed off in the last couple of months, after a decent start to the year.

The red line shows the total (or Insgesamt), while the blue line shows domestic orders (Inland) and the yellow line shows overseas orders (Ausland).