Continue reading Closing Bell: A Day Better Than the Market Deserved

Closing Bell: A Day Better Than the Market Deserved originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Thu, 01 Jul 2010 16:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Late Thursday night Congress approved another $2 billion for the "cash for clunkers" program.

On the Democratic side, Senator Debbie Stabenow of Michigan said: "The reality is this is a program that has been working. Consumers believe it's working. People who make steel and aluminum and advertisers -- and everyone who's involved in the larger economic impact of the auto industry -- believe it is working."

On the Republican side, Senator Judd Gregg of New Hampshire said: "What we are doing is creating debt -- The bill to pay for those cars is going to come due on our children and grandchildren."

Continue reading Congress approves $2 billion 'cash for clunkers' renewal

Congress approves $2 billion 'cash for clunkers' renewal originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Fri, 07 Aug 2009 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Shares of General Motors Corporation (NYSE: GM) have fallen more than 30% in trading today on reports that the company's bankruptcy filing will come on June 1st. They're currently trading around 75 cents per share -- their lowest point in more than 75 years.

The interesting thing is that they're trading as high as they are. To the people who purchased the more than 200 million shares that have changed hands today: The market cap of General Motors currently values the company's equity at $470 million when the equity is about to be made worthless with a bankruptcy filing. If this were any company other than GM, investigative reporters would be calling it the most overvalued, over-hyped company on the NYSE.

Continue reading General Motors shares sink below the century mark

General Motors shares sink below the century mark originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Fri, 29 May 2009 16:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Continue reading Detroit dealer cuts: Not deep enough to get Japanese parity

Detroit dealer cuts: Not deep enough to get Japanese parity originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Fri, 15 May 2009 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Continue reading Toyota posts first annual loss in 59 years

Toyota posts first annual loss in 59 years originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Fri, 08 May 2009 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Continue reading It's official, Chrysler files for Chapter 11

It's official, Chrysler files for Chapter 11 originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Thu, 30 Apr 2009 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

If less bad news is good news than Ford Motors Co. (NYSE: F) delivered that today. Early this morning, Ford's earnings report revealed better than expected numbers, albeit another loss. Ford lost $1.4 billion in the first quarter, but it burned through less money.

Analysts expected a loss of $1.23 per share, and were positively surprised when the Detroit automaker said it lost, excluding special items such as gains from the company's debt restructuring, 75 cents per share.

Continue reading Ford is driving a positive message

Ford is driving a positive message originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Fri, 24 Apr 2009 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

	GM, Ford sales nosedive again in February
	Don't panic and withdraw unneeded funds from your 401(k)
	Did Congressional wrangling over tax credit cause plunge in home resales?
	Even Warren Buffett is cutting jobs

DailyFinance today: Even Warren Buffett cutting jobs, don't panic and withdraw from your 401(k), GM, Ford sales nosedive again originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Tue, 03 Mar 2009 18:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Continue reading Ford drives home weak January sales

Ford drives home weak January sales originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Tue, 03 Feb 2009 15:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Toyota (NYSE:TM) is cutting production capacity as fast as it can. The US is not the only place where its sales are down. In its native country the recession is so bad that car sales could hardly get worse.

As Toyota increased the number of places where it could build cars in a push to become the world's largest car company, the quality of its products started to fall. It was much harder to make sure vehicles were "defect free" when manufacturing was done all over the world and not just in Japan. In the US, quality measurements like JD Power's surveys of vehicle defects started to rank some car firms above Toyota after it had been at the top of the list for years.

Getting overextended has cost Toyota in overblown expenses and the first loss in the company's history. Toyota would probably love to have fewer of the production facilities it built.

Just as Toyota is pulling back, the effects of its expansion are hitting it harder. In China, according to Reuters, "Toyota Motor Corp is recalling 121,930 cars in China to fix a problem that could result in loss of steering control."

Toyota now faces two major problems, which may be one of the reasons it is putting in a new president. Expansion that did not foresee the huge drop in vehicle sales is costing the firm money and its most valuable asset -- its reputation.

Douglas A. McIntyre is an editor at 247wallst.com.

Trouble at Toyota (TM) grows originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Fri, 26 Dec 2008 08:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

November auto sales down on economy and bankruptcy concerns: J.D. Power originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Tue, 02 Dec 2008 10:55:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

This is part of a weekly series about the car business. The auto industry plays an important role in the global economy, and record-high oil prices and a global slowdown have contributed to a crisis in the sector. This column will highlight some of the interesting stories that emerge as that crisis plays out.

September car sales reports are due this week, and no one in the auto industry is looking forward to the monthly numbers, especially no one in Detroit.

Expectations are that car sales will be lower once again. According to analysts quoted at Bloomberg, sales at General Motors (NYSE: GM) and Ford (NYSE: F) will be down over 20%, while sales at Chrysler will be down over 30% from last year. Japanese producers also are expected to see lower sales, with the Japanese Big Three Toyota (NYSE:TM), Honda (NYSE: HMC) and Nissan (NASDAQ: NSANY) all down in the 20% range.

The industry is sliding down toward the magic number of one million cars sold in the U.S. for the month. The last time fewer than a million cars were sold in a month was February 1993.

Continue reading Car Biz: Dark days in Detroit and beyond

Car Biz: Dark days in Detroit and beyond originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Tue, 30 Sep 2008 14:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Continue reading General Motors to continue employee pricing

General Motors to continue employee pricing originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Tue, 02 Sep 2008 16:57:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

As most of us struggle with surging gas prices, food costs and the possibility of losing our jobs, it's good to know that one little niche of people are oblivious to the current economic environment, and continue on with business as usual.

Sales of Fiat's Maserati brand are up 16% this year, as the rich continue to buy the $115,000 car. Add on that the Maserati gets a whopping 13 miles per gallon in the city and 19 on the highway.

Maserati's are being sought after by buyers wanting something better than your typical Mercedes-Benz, yet more affordable than Italian competitors Ferrari and Lamborghini. Nice to know that even these buyers are impacted by sticker shock!

According to an article in Bloomberg, Wes Brown who is an automotive analyst commented: "If you've got money, you want people to know you've got money, and people want to find something that not everybody has,'' Brown said. "They are saying, `I don't want a BMW or Mercedes, which you can see on every corner.'"

We all know that problem! Who can afford to buy a Maserati? The company says that the typical buyer is a 54-year-old male with household income of $750,000.

For those of you who decided to leave your car at home and take the bus in order to save a couple of bucks, you'll be glad to know that by freeing up the road, that new Maserati owner will have less traffic to deal with and be able to take the car up to its top speed of 177 miles her hour.

Who cares if gas is over $4 a gallon?

Aaron Katsman is the lead Portfolio Manager and Managing Director of America Israel Investment Associates, LLC. and Senior Editor of IsraelNewsletter.com. DISCLOSURE: Writer's fund has no position in any stock mentioned, as of 7/10/08.

Rich people and Maserati ask, what economic slowdown? originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Thu, 10 Jul 2008 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

GM (NYSE: GM) is about to join Ford (NYSE: F) in a series of job cuts. Rising gas prices and hard economic times are pushing domestic car sales down. According to The Wall Street Journal, the company's CEO, Rick Wagoner, "will announce his new restructuring measures at the annual shareholder meeting on June 3."

The plans raise an important question at both Ford and GM. Have they reached the point where further cuts will ruin their capacity to manage growth in the US market when the downturn is over? If the companies end up with only a skeleton crew of executives and white collar workers that could be an issue.

More troubling is the issue of why the cuts were not made much earlier. If an employee is expendable now, why wasn't he expendable last year? Did GM carry too many people for the last several quarters?

Optimism got the better of GM, and its did not cut as far as it might have. Now, it gets to pay the price for thinking things might get better.

Douglas A. McIntyre is an editor at 247wallst.com and author of the Ten Stocks Under $10 letter.

GM gets to cut next originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Thu, 29 May 2008 04:04:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Continue reading Automakers' Battle: TM vs. GM

Automakers' Battle: TM vs. GM originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Wed, 23 Apr 2008 16:52:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

It looked like Toyota (NYSE: TM) would pass GM (NYSE: GM) for the No. 1 spot in global car sales for 2007, but it is not clear that it happened. GM sales in China and South America may have been good enough for it to keep the lead spot.

Now Toyota has announced ambitious plans to up its sales 5.6% to 9.85 million vehicles in 2008. That would almost certainly put it ahead of GM and break the U.S. car company's all-time record year set 30 years ago.

According to The Wall Street Journal, "Katsuaki Watanabe, Toyota's president, said the company aims to achieve its bold sales targets by expanding in fast-growing emerging markets." That means the Japanese company will have to do well in growing markets like China and hold its own in the U.S.

Continue reading Toyota hopes for top worldwide sales, again

Toyota hopes for top worldwide sales, again originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Wed, 26 Dec 2007 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Volkswagen has continued to do well in its home market and the rest of Europe. It is also the leading seller of cars in China, competing with GM (NYSE: GM) for the top spot. But, since it sold its compact Beetle sedan here in the 1960s, VW has become a nothing brand in the U.S.

Now the management of VW wants to change all of that, and compete with Toyota (NYSE: TM) for U.S. share using high quality, no-frills cars. According to The Wall Street Journal, Volkswagen has said it wants to sell about 1 million cars annually in the U.S. by 2018, compared with about 330,000 last year.

VW plans to add 12 new models over the next several years and keep prices of models like the Jetta and Passat below comparable Toyota models.

And, that will pick up market share in the U.S.? VW, dream on.

VWs don't sell well in the U.S. because no one wants to buy them. It is not as if the company does not have plenty of dealerships. Its luxury model, Audi, does just fine. But how many car buyers say, "I just have to have one of those new VWs"?

The German car maker is also coming up against stronger products from the locals, Ford (NYSE: F) and GM. Selling cars in the U.S. is part of a life-and-death struggle for them to hold sales in their home market.

VW should keep its focus on China.

Douglas A. McIntyre is an editor at 247wallst.com

Volkswagen to challenge Toyota in the U.S. originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Thu, 18 Oct 2007 07:23:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Here is some background for Brian White's liveblogging of Ford's (NYSE: F) second quarter earning results:

Ford surprised the market by announcing black ink for the second quarter of 2007, with net income of $750 million, or $0.31 EPS on $44 billion revenue, which was a 6% increase over 2006 2nd quarter.

Unfortunately the increase in revenue was primarily due to currency exchange, mix and net pricing improvements -- sales volume actually was lower than 2006. The profit was due in part to cost reductions of $600 million, including the elimination of 6,400 jobs.

Backing out special items, mostly the sale of Aston Martin and deferred gains on certain hedges at Jaguar and Land Rover, and profits finished at $258 million, or $0.13 EPS. The paltry earnings won't do much to excite a market convinced that the company has taken only the first few initial steps in their climb back to economic viability.

Continue reading A closer look at Ford's 2nd quarter earnings

A closer look at Ford's 2nd quarter earnings originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Thu, 26 Jul 2007 11:41:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

There were several events during the last week that are almost certainly clues to what is likely to happen in certain industries and the economy in general as Wall Street looks forward to the July through September period. The week was dominated by the launch of Apple's (NASDAQ: AAPL) iPhone and the extended glow for AT&T (NYSE: T), but in the broader picture, the news means very little.

Looking at other news:

Oil closed over $70 for the first time since late last summer. While the news may be good for Exxon (NYSE: XOM) and other big exploration and refinery companies, it will hurt industries from air freight to automotive.

Dell (NASDAQ: DELL) hit a 52-week high, a sign that Wall Street believes the PC industry may have a good second half, especially with Hewlett-Packard (NYSE: HPQ) also trading near its high point.

An unusually broad number of stocks representing several important industries hit 52-week lows. While it would be expected that home builders like Beazer (NYSE: BZH) would struggle in a poor housing market, Blackstone (NYSE: BX), Circuit City (NYSE: CC), and one of the nation's largest banks, Wachovia (NYSE: WB) also touched bottoms.

Continue reading A week of warnings and opportunities for the next quarter

A week of warnings and opportunities for the next quarter originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Sun, 01 Jul 2007 13:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.