All and all....not a bad report.......those green shoots keep trying to bloom. I really like GM's new car ads......they get your attention. And their cars are looking better.
GM Monthly Sales Increase; Ford Sales Edge Lower
Published: Tuesday, 3 Nov 2009 | 1:54 PM ET Text Size By: CNBC.com with Wires
GM's sales for the month of October rose 4 percent, slightly less than the 4.4 percent increasse that industry-watchers were expecting.
CNBC reports auto sales adjusted for the number of selling days in the most recent month versus the same month a year earlier. Last month had 28 selling days, versus 27 in October of last year.
Ford's monthly auto sales declined 0.6 percent on an adjusted basis in October, compared with Street expectations of a roughly 4.5 percent decline.
Including Volvo, Ford's U.S. sales rose to 136,920 in October from 132,838 a year earlier, the automaker said. Ford said it expects its U.S. retail share to be up for the 12th time in the past 13 months in October.
On Monday, Ford said it expected U.S. auto sales overall to come in at about 10.6 million vehicles in 2009 including medium- and heavy-duty trucks. It has not revisited yet forecasts for 2010 industry sales at 12.5 million and 2011 at 14.5 million.
Ford Motor [F 7.47 -0.11 (-1.45%) ] is coming off its announcement Monday of a nearly $1 billion third quarter profit. The Dearborn, Mich.-based automaker also forecast a "solidly profitable" 2011.
Meanwhile, Ford's "Big Three" rival Chrysler saw a steep decline in auto sales last month, reporting a fall of 32. 3 percent against last year's levels. Wall Street's consensus estimate for the privately held company was a decline of 29.3 percent.
The maker of the Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep and Ram truck brands says it sold 65,803 vehicles last month.
Uptick for GM?
Detroit-based General Motors expects to post its first sales gain since early last year, though that may reflect heavy incentives more than a turnaround at the automaker.
Mike DiGiovanni, GM's executive director of global market and industry analysis, said last week that the payback from the government Clunkers rebates that depressed U.S. auto sales in September should be over.
GM last reported a sales increase over the same month of the previous year in January of 2008, DiGiovanni said. But GM's vehicles sold poorly last October — down 45 percent from October of 2007 — when U.S. financial markets were collapsing. |
