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Strategies & Market Trends : Can you beat 50% per month? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Smiling Bob who wrote (7247)	1/4/2005 7:55:02 AM
From: Smiling Bob	Read Replies (7) \| Respond to of 19256

F- 14.70 Ford don't expect any encouraging numbers, probably much lower than forecasts- particularly light trucks. Another great short today on uptick, with single digs 1st half of 2005 The major auto makers will release their December and year-end sales report throughout the afternoon Tuesday. Economists look for domestically made car sales to creep up to a 5.3 million annual rate from 5.1 million, but for light truck sales to increase to an 8.4 million annual rate from 7.8 million.

To: Smiling Bob who wrote (7247)	3/1/2005 2:51:54 PM
From: Smiling Bob	Respond to of 19256

Ford - f- 12.59 bid Ford's Sales Fall for 9th Month in a Row Tuesday March 1, 1:26 pm ET By Tom Brown DETROIT (Reuters) - Ford Motor Co. (NYSE:F - News) on Tuesday said U.S. sales fell for the ninth straight month in February, forcing it to cut production again to trim bloated inventories of unsold vehicles. ADVERTISEMENT Ford, the second-largest U.S. automaker, said sales dropped 3 percent, as stronger sales for its new car lineup failed to offset double-digit declines for many of its sport utility vehicles and its key F-Series pickup trucks. The results exclude heavy trucks and Ford's foreign brands, which include Volvo, Jaguar and Land Rover. Ford was the first major automaker to report its February results. Overall, analysts said industry-wide sales of new cars and trucks are thought to have fallen moderately during the month, from a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 16.5 million in February last year. Nissan Motor Co. Ltd. (Tokyo:7201.T - News), Japan's second-largest automaker, reported a gain of about 10 percent in its U.S. sales in February, to a total of 82,412 vehicles. DaimlerChrysler AG (NYSE:DCX - News; XETRA:DCXGn.DE - News), the world's fifth-largest automaker, said sales rose 5 percent. "It was a good month, it wasn't a great month," Jed Connelly, Nissan's head of sales and marketing for North America, told Reuters. "(Showroom) traffic was not as consistent in February as it has been," he added. Art Spinella, head of CNW Marketing Research, told Reuters concerns about rising interest rates were one reason for the decline. A growing number of people, seeking to lock in relatively low mortgage or home improvement loans before rates go any higher, are postponing car purchases, Spinella said. Despite heavy consumer incentives, many of Ford's SUVs posted sharply lower sales in February, as high gasoline prices continue to hurt the segment. The F-Series pickup, which accounts for a huge chunk of Ford's automotive profit, posted an 11 percent drop in sales compared with February 2004 while the Ford Explorer SUV saw its sales drop 19 percent. Ford and its cross-town rival, General Motors Corp. (NYSE:GM - News), the world largest automaker, both lost jealously guarded U.S. market share to their top Asian rivals last year. Both have also cut expected first-quarter production in North America by about 9 percent, to reduce inventories and adjust to continuing erosion in their market position. On Tuesday, Ford said it was cutting first-quarter North American production by another 10,000 vehicles, or just under 1 percent. It also said it would produce about 940,000 cars and trucks in North America in the second quarter, down 1.2 percent from the second quarter last year. The lower output is almost certain to hurt Ford's financial results since automakers book profits on vehicles when they are shipped from factories and not when they are sold on dealership lots.