Yesterday, China's Zheijang Geely Holding Group purchased Volvo cars from Ford (F) for $1.8 billion. The Wall Street Journal, among others, is touting this acquisition as proof that China's economic rise is "reshaping large swaths of global business, as its huge market and increasingly powerful companies play a growing role in industries from cars to natural resources to telecommunications equipment."

Geely is the first Chinese company that will be in charge of a global auto brand. That said, I think we need to give some praise to Ford CEO Alan Mulally.

IronPlanet, which operates an online marketplace for used construction and agricultural equipment, has been growing nicely over the past year. Revenues spiked 56% to $54.7 million and profits went from $1.9 million to $12.9 million.

Now, IronPlanet is taking things to the next level -- that is, filing for an IPO. The company expects to raise $92 million.

Analyst Upgrades

• Deutsche Bank upgraded Southern Copper (SCCO) to buy from hold to reflect valuation and positive near-term catalysts. The firm raised its target for shares to $38 from $35.
• JMP Securities upgraded Ultimate Software (ULTI) to outperform from market perform. The firm cites the company's expanding employee base for the upgrade. The firm has a $40 target on the stock.
• Piper Jaffray upgraded Aeropostale (ARO) to neutral from underweight following the company's Q4 results and raised its target for shares to $31 from $24.
• Kennametal (KMT) was upgraded to sell from conviction sell at Goldman.
• Lifetime Brands (LCUT) was upgraded to outperform from market perform at Barrington.
• Volvo (VOLVY) was upgraded to overweight from underweight at JPMorgan.

Ford is near a deal to sell its Volvo cars to Chinese automaker Geely for $2 billion dollars. A definitive sale agreement could be signed in the first quarter of 2010.

Geely is one of China's largest privately owned automakers. The Geely takeover would leapfrog China's present small car production. Geely would be able to use Swedish technology and adapt it to their present production.

Ford Motor Co. (NYSE: F) has been looking to sell its beleaguered Volvo unit since last December and reportedly hopes to narrow the field of bidders this month.

One of the leading contenders is the Crown group, which is led by former Ford director Michael Dingman and former Ford labor executive Shamel Rushwin. Crown entered the talks about two months ago, and it hopes to attract former Volvo executives such as one-time CEO Roger Holtback as equity partners.

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.

Ford (NYSE: F) may finally have some good news for investors. So far this year, all the company has been able to say is that it will probably not need government funds to stay afloat but that the US car market faces another big drop in vehicle sales. That has pushed Ford's stock down to $2.

Ford has been talking about dumping businesses to raise money. One of these units is Volvo. Most analysts assumed that there would be no buyers. Credit to finance such a deal would be too hard to come by.

Ford (NYSE: F) obviously needs to raise money. Even the company admits that it will run low on cash later next year. A bailout from Washington may help that, but no one knows if the funding from Congress will be adequate to offset losses.

So, Ford is considering selling its Volvo unit to its Chinese partner Changan Automobile. According to Reuters, "Changan president Xu Liuping held discussions with Ford and Volvo during last month's auto show in the Chinese city of Guangzhou."

If a deal is pending it says much about the future of the U.S. car companies and their relationships overseas. China's car market growth has slowed somewhat, but it is still the most promising nation in the world for finding increased sales. By selling Volvo, Ford would give up the chance of making money on the brand in China in exchange for what is likely to be $1 billion or $2 billion based on what Rover and Jaguar sold for.

It is also surprising that the Swedish government would not want to aggressively support local interests in buying Volvo -- a flagship of the country's industry.

But panic makes strange bedfellows.

Douglas A. McIntyre is an editor at 24/7 Wall St.

Just in case the US Congress will not bailout Ford (NYSE:F) and GM (NYSE: GM), the car companies are turning to the Swedish government to help their Volvo and Saab units. The government there does not want to see a lot of lost jobs, so it might just put up some money to help out the US firms.

According to the FT, "Stephen Odell, Volvo's chief executive, and Saab's managing director Jan-Ake Jonsson have separately spoken to Maud Olofsson, Sweden's industry minister, and other officials about securing funds." The American firms have decided to sell the businesses, so Sweden may need to keep them on life support until that happens.

The move shows how desperate the US car companies are. While they may not be able to get the US government to provide them aid, they can appeal to Sweden on the basis that Saab and Volvo are huge employers in the country. Real trouble for the division could raise unemployment in the Scandinavian country causing it to pour unemployment and other social services capital into its economy,

Americans begging in Sweden. Nice picture.

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

Ford (NYSE: F) does not have much too much left to sell now that Jaguar and Range Rover are gone. Selling the Lincoln division might be a good idea. Nice luxury brand. But, it shares too many engines and parts with Ford brands.

All Ford has left that could be pushed out the door for cash is Volvo. Ford has said it will never sell the division, but desperate times call for desperate measures.

Word comes today from The Times, that Volvo may go to BMW to help the Ford balance sheet. The paper reports that "Ford may sell Volvo, the Swedish car-maker, to BMW as part of a drive to raise cash, say senior car-industry sources."

Ford might get over $2 billion for Volvo, which is about what it got for Jaguar and Range Rover. But, that amount would probably cover less that four month's cash burn.

The fact of the matter is that if Ford cannot get direct aid from the government in the next quarter, the entire company will have to be sold off in parts or in whole. The only two companies large enough to make a transaction of that size are Toyota (NYSE: TM) and Volkswagen. Toyota may not want to risk the U.S. government challenging it having 30% of the American car market if it made the acquisition.

No doubt Volvo ends up at VW.

Douglas A. McIntyre is an editor at 24/7 Wall St.

Ford Motor Corporation (NYSE: F) will see its Volvo Car division shed 3,300 jobs as the American automaker continues dealing with a huge slowdown in sales in the U.S. as well as other global markets. The auto industry is not in a death spiral at the moment (although it's been described that way), but expect the largest restructuring of one of the largest industries ever in the last 50 years. Ford will help lead the way, unfortunately.

Volvo announced that 2,700 of the positions will be eliminated in its home country of Sweden while 700 additional positions will be cut globally. The company said in a statement this week that "to meet the rapidly deteriorating market situation in the global car industry, the management team at Volvo Car Corporation has decided to initiate further structural changes in all parts of the business." That is light language for "the sky is falling."

The Swedish company will also get rid of contracts with 700 consultants. As it makes these cuts, they can't be the last, I'd expect more announcements in 2009 from Volvo as well. Consumers continue flocking to vehicles with smaller prices, smaller engines and larger MPG figures. Volvo, which makes great cars, just doesn't have the product mix to fit that description. That is the price for inflexibility not only in the U.S. market, but for all global consumer markets that are under extreme duress at the moment. Everyone hopes it gets better soon, but your guess is as good as mine.

USA Today reported Tuesday that "more carmakers are adding digital tuners in their bid to woo audiophiles and add electronics." The report comes on the heels of South Korean based Hyundai Motor Company offering digital -- or HD -- radio in new Genesis model sedans up for sale this month. Germany-based BMW already offers HD radio tuners as a stand-alone option, and Ford Motor Company (NYSE: F) owned Volvo Cars will begin offering HD Radio as a standard feature in 2009 for most of the company's models.

HD radio has picked up significantly since 2002, when only 11 stations (AM and FM) offered a digital signal in addition to traditional analog signals. Now, more than 1,700 stations offer HD radio as well as second and third signals of specialized shows because digital signals use less bandwidth than analog signals. USA Today reports that carmakers moving in this direction is a major positive move for HD radio since the car is a major venue for radio. The newspaper also speculates that HD radio might prove a major threat for XM Satellite Radio Holdings (NASDAQ: XMSR) and Sirius Satellite Radio Inc. (NASDAQ: SIRI) subscriptions as well as any merger those companies make.

Unfortunately, many insiders point to many consumers unfamiliarity with and not knowing about HD radio as a problem for the product's success. It seems likely that with carmakers picking it up as a standard feature, more consumers will become aware and adopt HD radio as a venue, if at most because it will be a standard feature. Regardless, HD radio much like HD television is another development that gives consumers better quality and offers technology that audiophiles can enjoy and embraces new developments that are occurring concurrently with music industry and digital tracks.

Ford Motor Co. (NYSE: F) is cutting production at its Volvo unit, according to The Wall Street Journal. The move, which could affect one-third of workers -- some 700 -- is seen as an attempt to cut the costs and losses at the upscale Swedish brand.

The question everyone is asking is whether this move is done in preparation for a sale. According to "people familiar with the matter" who discussed such things with the Journal, CEO Alan Mulally is interested in putting Volvo, whose sales have been declining, on the block. Of course, to analysts, Mulally sang a different tune last month, saying the priority is improve the Swedish auto maker operations "dramatically."

As Kirk Kerkorian's Tracinda Corp. continues to build its stake int he company, he may also have a thing or two to say on the matter.

For now, Volvo is cutting where it makes larger, less popular vehicles, and it plans to make fewer cars overall. But can this make Volvo more profitable for Ford, or at least more attractive to buyers? There are costs associated with producing a smaller number of vehicles, but with Volvo reporting 22,000 fewer vehicles sold during the first quarter, cutting production makes sense. Another matter Ford has to consider is the massive losses it suffered lately just from the kronor-dollar exchange rate.

MAJOR PAPERS:

• The Wall Street Journal reported that Ford Motor Company (NYSE: F) CEO Alan Mulally isn't done cost-cutting. According to people close to the situation, Mulally is considering more job cuts, selling its Volvo brand and closing the troubled Mercury brand.
• BHP Billiton Limited (NYSE: BHP) CEO Marius Kloppers strongly criticized Rio Tinto Plc (NYSE: RTP) and its CEO yesterday, the Financial Times reported. BHP Billiton has outperformed Rio Tinto in several areas, including share price appreciation and EPS growth, said Kloppers, adding, "On every metric I can envisage they [Rio] have been beaten."

OTHER PAPERS:

• According to the Economic Times, AT&T Inc (NYSE: T) is reportedly in preliminary talks with Malaysia's Maxis Communications about buying its 74% stake in Indian cellular phone company Aircel, sources said.
• The United Auto Workers union has rejected several "generous" benefit and wage proposals, according to American Axle & Manufacturing Holdings Inc (NYSE: AXL). In a statement yesterday, the Detroit News reported that American Axle said while tentative agreements had been reached on several issues, the UAW "repeatedly rejected" other proposals that were "considerably higher than the market rate."

The Ford Motor Company (NYSE: F) recently announced that it has decided to keep Volvo, despite Ford's current plan to focus on its core American brands. Ford's other two foreign brands, Land Rover and Jaguar, will be sold and should be out of Ford's hands by early 2008.

An analyst quoted in The New York Times stated that Ford's plan to keep Volvo was not a positive development. Brian Johnson, of Lehman Brothers, speculated that Ford was unable to find a buyer for Volvo, or at least one who would pay a good price. Ford has owned Volvo for eight years, paying $6.45 billion for it in 1999. Although Ford does not provide detailed financial reports for Volvo, it did state that Volvo lost money in the last quarter.