A tiny, low-priced electric car called the Seagull has American automakers and politicians trembling.

The car, launched last year by Chinese automaker BYD, sells for around $12,000 in China, but drives well and is put together with craftsmanship that rivals U.S. electric vehicles that cost three times as much. A shorter-range version costs under $10,000.

World stocks were mixed on Monday after Wall Street coasted to the close of another winning week.

European markets were little changed. Britain's FTSE 100 rose 0.1% to 8,444.23. Germany's DAX edged down by 2.40 to 18,770.45 and the CAC 40 in Paris lost 0.1% to 8,210.88.

The long-haul carrier Emirates announced Monday it saw record profits of $4.7 billion in 2023 as the airline fully took flight after the turbulent years of the coronavirus pandemic disrupted its operations.

Emirates, owned by Dubai's government, announced revenues of $33 billion, compared to $29.3 billion the year before. Profit the year prior had been $2.9 billion.

The sharp interest rate hikes of the past two years will likely take longer than previously expected to bring down inflation, several Federal Reserve officials have said in recent comments, suggesting there may be few, if any, rate cuts this year.

A major concern expressed by both Fed policymakers and some economists is that higher borrowing costs aren't having as much of an impact as economics textbooks would suggest. Americans as a whole, for example, aren't spending much more of their incomes on interest payments than they were a few years ago, according to government data, despite the Fed's sharp rate increases. That means higher rates may not be doing much to limit many Americans' spending, or cool inflation.