car sales posts
FeedPosted Jul 1st 2010 4:20PM by Douglas McIntyre (RSS feed)
Filed under: Major Movement, S and P 500, DJIA, NASDAQ, Citigroup, BP, NYSE

Almost every important economic indicator announced today was below expectations, The included June sales for GM and Ford Motor Company (
F), less than robust jobless claims, the Challenger Gray planned layoff numbers, and pending home sales. The only good news was that mortgage rates for most loan durations hit all-time lows. That does not matter much if no one is buying a house.
Todays closing bell numbers:
Dow 9,732.53 -41.49 (-0.42%)
S&P 500 1,027.37 -3.34 (-0.32%)
Nasdaq 2,101.36 -7.88 (-0.37%)
Continue reading Closing Bell: A Day Better Than the Market Deserved
Posted May 8th 2010 10:30AM by Ted Allrich (RSS feed)
Filed under: Ford Motor (F), Toyota Motor Corp. (TM), Comfort Zone Investing
If you believe the economic recovery is just beginning, then the sell-off this week was a welcome opportunity. If you bought any stocks two weeks ago, you were hurting, but if you were looking to buy, opportunity was at the front door. Will the rally that started last July when the DJIA traded at 8058 continue? Or is this the apex, having touched 11,309 (up 40% in less than a year), and the only direction is down? I don't think so. Here's why.
The U.S. economy is recovering. All the data from manufacturing to housing sales, even employment (224,000 non-farm workers were added in April, 290,000 total workers found new jobs), show improvement.
Car sales were up 25% for most automakers in the month of April compared to last year's April. Factory orders rose 1.3% in March, helped by higher demand for machinery, appliances, and primary metals. Analysts thought the number would be negative .1%. Pending home sales rose a seasonally-adjusted 5.3% in March. Again, analysts thought the number would be 4%. Pending home sales for the year to date are now up 21.1% from a year ago.
Continue reading Comfort Zone Investing: If You Believe ...
Posted Sep 5th 2009 10:30AM by Ted Allrich (RSS feed)
Filed under: Comfort Zone Investing
Unlike Commissioner Gordon who can send out the Bat signal to call his helpmate against crime, there is nothing investors can do to summon aid in times of stress. They have to go it alone. But they can be armed with intelligence that helps. Here are few of the most prominent data points that will make a difference for all stocks, a macro perspective that should make navigating the stock market highway a little easier.
However, taken on a one-time basis, these aren't going to solve the mystery that is the market. Rather, data has to show a trend before it can be used. Even then, a trend stops and another begins. So even though the trend can be your friend, it can just as easily turn and become your enemy. As they used to say on Hill Street Blues: Be careful out there.
Continue reading Comfort Zone Investing: Road signs, good and bad, to navigate the market
Posted Aug 7th 2009 8:00AM by Connie Madon (RSS feed)
Filed under: Deals, Consumer Experience, Marketing and Advertising
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
Posted May 29th 2009 4:40PM by Zac Bissonnette (RSS feed)
Filed under: General Motors (GM)
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
Posted May 8th 2009 8:00AM by Michael Fowlkes (RSS feed)
Filed under: Before the Bell, International Markets, Earnings Reports, Forecasts, Bad News, Products and Services, Competitive Strategy, Ford Motor (F), General Motors (GM), Toyota Motor Corp. (TM), Market Matters, Japan, Recession, Financial Crisis
Continue reading Toyota posts first annual loss in 59 years
Posted Apr 24th 2009 9:00AM by Sheldon Liber (RSS feed)
Filed under: Major Movement, Earnings Reports, Good news, Ford Motor (F)
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.
The stock closed yesterday at $4.28 but is moving up over 20%, getting a jump on the market in early trading.
Continue reading Ford is driving a positive message
Posted Feb 3rd 2009 3:30PM by Michael Fowlkes (RSS feed)
Filed under: Bad News, Products and Services, Industry, Ford Motor (F), Recession, Financial Crisis

Struggling auto maker
Ford Motor (NYSE:
F) announced its
January sales figures today, and as you may have guessed, they weren't pretty.
During the month, the Dearborn, MI. auto maker says it sold 93,060 vehicles in the U.S. Compared with the 155,832 vehicles sold during January of 2008, we are talking about a massive 40% year over year decline. Definitely not the way the company would have liked to kick off the new year.
Continue reading Ford drives home weak January sales
Posted Dec 26th 2008 8:30AM by Douglas McIntyre (RSS feed)
Filed under: Toyota Motor Corp. (TM), Japan
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.
Posted Dec 2nd 2008 10:55AM by Brian White (RSS feed)
Filed under: Bad News, Industry, Ford Motor (F), General Motors (GM)

Tom Libby with J.D. Power and Associates indicated Monday that November automobile sales in the U.S. will
probably fall sharply due to the sagging economy and the state of all three U.S. automakers (possible bankruptcies or other maladies). In fact, the
CEOs of the big three are on Capitol Hill today to try again for a $25 billion aid package lest they fail and fall hard.
But the November sales hit won't just be affecting the three U.S.-based automakers. The Japanese automakers are also set to see a sales shortfall due to tighter credit standards and lower consumer confidence in the economy. Libby indicated that sales at all the major automakers would fall at least 10% in November. During December and the end of the model year, expect to see the best bargains yet if you're planning an auto purchase.
Bloomberg News' survey of 26 analysts and economists also indicated that a seasonally adjusted sales rate of just 11 million automobiles were sold in November, down a full 32% from the same month in November when gas prices were much higher but the perception of the U.S. economy was not in the toilet yet. Have you bought a car -- any car -- recently? What kind of deal or incentive did the exasperated dealer give you to move anything out of inventory? Let me know in comments below.
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