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Strategies & Market Trends : Booms, Busts, and Recoveries -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: LLCF who wrote (11116)	11/14/2001 2:47:45 PM
From: LLCF	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 74559

<WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Consumers flocked to new-car showrooms in October, shaking off the shock of the Sept. 11 attacks to snatch cheap financing deals and driving retail sales up at a record pace, the government said on Wednesday. The Commerce Department said total retail sales zoomed ahead by 7.1 percent to a seasonally adjusted $306.83 billion, the strongest surge for any month since records were started in the late 1960s, after shrinking by 2.2 percent in September. Zero-percent financing offered by U.S. automakers and cut-rate deals by some foreign companies fueled the unexpectedly strong retail jump. Auto-dealer sales soared a record 26.4 percent to $87.4 billion after declining 4.5 percent in September. In the wake of the attacks, General Motors Corp. initiated a "Keep America Rolling" program, offering financing without interest on all its cars and trucks. Ford Motor Co. and DaimlerChrysler AG were forced to match that for competitive reasons though analysts say it is costing all three companies dearly to do so. Seemingly bullish on top of the fact that GM has already said it 'expected' to "make a profit" in 2002. I would hope so with such 'good news' out. DAK