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Politics : President Barack Obama -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: ChinuSFO who wrote (100503)	9/1/2011 1:19:09 PM
From: tejek	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 149317

We continue to see improvement in the economy albeit at a very slow pace. Detroit trio’s U.S. car sales jump in August By Shawn Langlois, MarketWatch SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) — General Motors Co., Ford Motor Co. and Chrysler Group LLC all managed to shrug off an ornery Mother Nature, some wild stock-market fluctuations and a stubborn economy to report Thursday double-digit percentage gains in U.S. sales for August. GM /quotes/zigman/1466682/quotes/nls/gm GM -3.37% said it sold 218,479 cars and trucks in August, an 18% improvement from a year ago. The retail side gained 22% while less-profitable sales to fleet customers like rental car companies rose 8%. The improvements were steady across the product lineup, with cars and trucks up 18% each and crossovers ahead 17%. “The ‘new GM’ is making the strides it promised,” said Edmunds.com analyst Michelle Krebs. “About the only negative signs on GM’s spreadsheet of August sales were for models being discontinued or soon to be replaced.” Still, GM shares continue to be stuck in a rut well below their IPO price. At last check, the stock was down another 2.5% to $23.44 and is down 36% since the beginning of the year. Ford /quotes/zigman/264304/quotes/nls/f F -0.28% didn’t fare quite as well, but it still reported an 11% increase in August U.S. sales to 175,220 cars and trucks. Ford brand sales rose 16%, while Lincoln sales surged 25%. Ford also said it plans to build 645,000 vehicles in the fourth quarter, up 9% from a year ago. The car maker didn’ot change its third-quarter production forecast of 630,000 vehicles. Ford’s shares eased fractionally to $11.10 in midday trading. Leading the way, Chrysler, controlled by Italy’s Fiat SpA /quotes/zigman/213459 IT:F -0.79% , reported a 31% jump to 130,119 cars and trucks. The results mark the car maker’s best August since 2007 and also the 17th consecutive month of year-over-year improvements. Retail sales surged 42%. “In spite of a volatile market, Chrysler managed to significantly outperform the industry again in August,” said Reid Bigland, head of Chrysler’s U.S. sales. Chrysler Group assembly workers at the Jefferson North auto plant in Detroit. Looking ahead, GM reiterated its full-year, seasonally adjusted rate of sales in a range of 13 million to 13.5 million vehicles. “We’re carrying good momentum and we’re cautiously optimistic that we’ll see U.S. economic growth improve in the months ahead,” said Don Johnson, vice president of GM’s U.S. sales division. Elsewhere, Nissan Motor Co. /quotes/zigman/202910 NSANY +0.27% also showed gains, with a 19.2% rise to 91,541 cars and trucks. The car maker said it expects to have taken market share away from competitors during the month due to better vehicle availability. The rest of the industry totals will trickle in throughout the day, with the other two leading Japanese manufacturers likely to show further declines. Overall, TrueCar.com is looking for the industry to show an 8% improvement from a year ago, with the strides from GM and Chrysler helping to make up for double-digit drops for Toyota Motor Corp. /quotes/zigman/199376/quotes/nls/tm TM -0.36% and Honda Motor Co. /quotes/zigman/193599/quotes/nls/hmc HMC +1.22% . http://www.marketwatch.com/story/gm-posts-18-rise-in-august-us-sales-2011-09-01?siteid=bnbh