Consumer borrowing inches up 1 percent

Prewar jitters and job worries turned consumers into more cautious borrowers in February. New financing for cars and other big-ticket items dropped by the largest amount in a decade.

The Federal Reserve reported Monday that consumer credit edged up in February from the previous month by just $1.48 billion, or at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1 percent, the slowest pace in two months.

The increase pushed total consumer debt up to $1.74 trillion.

Automakers: Ford, GM seeks ways to eliminate costs

Ford Motor Co. is intensifying efforts to slash its $30 billion budget for costs not directly related to vehicles, and General Motors Corp. is digging deeper to reduce expenses as the world’s two largest automakers adjust to sluggish sales.

GM, the industry’s biggest manufacturer, has asked departments to eliminate costs such as nonessential travel and, in some cases, to trim budgets more than what was expected at the start of the year.

At No. 2 Ford, the automaker is working to reduce its nonproduct expenses by as much as 20 percent during the next two years.

Food: McDonald’s to focus on existing restaurants

Pledging to make McDonald’s Corp. “better, not just bigger,” the burger chain’s new CEO disclosed plans Monday to sharply reduce capital spending and open fewer restaurants this year amid an unprecedented slump.

Jim Cantalupo also unveiled a new marketing effort and said the company would improve its menu but overall “do fewer things and do them better.”

Cantalupo told analysts in New York that his plan relied on improving sales at existing restaurants rather than more rapid expansion for the world’s largest restaurant chain.

Leadership: Sara Lee reports shift due to Royal Ahold case

Sara Lee Corp. said Monday it relieved three employees of their sales duties for responding improperly and inaccurately to requests for information from a division of food distributor Royal Ahold NV, which is embroiled in an accounting scandal.

The employees were shifted to nonsales work within the company, a spokeswoman said, after an internal inquiry Sara Lee conducted in conjunction with a federal investigation into the Dutch supermarket giant’s U.S. Foodservice division.