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Strategies & Market Trends : Three Amigos Stock Thread -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Cary C who wrote (2773)	4/6/1998 11:04:00 PM
From: Sergio H	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 29382

Cary, excellent post. Interesting, I put the same target on APCO. Maybe that's why we're Amigos. I need a second (and a third)....si o no to add AIRM to Amigofolio at opening. AIRM needs no intro on this thread. We played it once before. Target is 4 3/4. Current price is 3 1/2. Sergio

To: Cary C who wrote (2773)	4/7/1998 1:07:00 PM
From: Sal D	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 29382

Cary for what its worth heres an AP article Friday April 3erd. Growing import numbers keep lid on U.S. car prices THE ASSOCIATED PRESS DETROIT --- New car prices this spring are flat or even declining, providing unexpected deals for consumers, thanks in part to cheaper imports from Asia. Automakers who set their 1998 prices low in hopes of eliminating rebates are now offering up to $1,000 in incentives to compete with the imports. The total value of rebates, low-interest loans and other incentives was up 9 percent in the first three weeks of March compared to the same month a year ago, said Art Spinella of CNW Research. "For buyers, it's great news," he said. New vehicle prices as measured by the Consumer Price Index fell 0.1 percent in February. In that same month, incentives were about 50 percent higher than in February 1997, said Bill Seltenheim of Autodata Corp. "It's definitely a consumer's market," Seltenheim said, adding that incentives are pushing some model prices lower than last year. "There's a deal out there somewhere." Just ask Lloyd Banks, 62, a retired Ford plastic plant worker who shopped for a Ford Expedition sport utility vehicle on Tuesday. He said he may put no money down on a lease -- a bargain that Conyers Riverside Ford in Detroit also offered to non-Ford employees. "There's some nice deals out here, there's no doubt about it," the Detroit man said. The increased bargaining clout for carbuyers is evidence of what economists say is the deflationary fallout from the Asian economic crisis. In addition to the absence of inflation for carbuyers, prices have fallen for computers,gasoline and other energy products. Financial turmoil in Asia is slowing down the economies of Thailand. Indonesia,South Korea and others. Sharp currency devaluations mean those countries will be hard pressed to buy U.S. goods. Their own goods will sell more cheaply when purchased with strong dollars. That, in turn, puts pressure on U.S. manufacturers to cut prices or lose sales. Analysts credit the weak Japanese yen, which has been trading at about 130 to the dollar, for the greater number of deals available on cars in the United States.It allows the Japanese to produce vehicles cheaply at home and hold down prices after they are shipped to the United States. The yen-dollar mismatch translates to an extra $5,000 per average-priced vehicle from Japan, said Andrew Card, president of the American Automobile Manufacturers Association. That money can be used for marketing, discounts or taken as profit, he said. "It presents a challenge for domestic manufacturers," Card said. Imports from Japan have been increasing - up 16 percent last year and up an additional 5.5 percent so far this year, said Bill Duncan, general director of the Japan Automobile Manufacturers Association. Prior to last year, Japanese exports had not risen since 1986,he said. General Motors partly blamed the currency imbalance for its poor sales last month, when its share of the U.S. market was near its lowest in decades. GM added incentives on several models in response. Still, the Japanese are hardly flooding the U.S. market. Two of every three vehicles the Japanese sell in the United States are made in the United States. Japanese automakers have been sharply increasing their U.S. production to prevent trade friction and to prevent the yen's swings from having an even greater impact on their costs, said David Cole, director for the 0ffice for the Study of Automotive Transportation at the University of Michigan. "The ability of the imports to have an impact is less than 20 years ago."Cole said. Toyota Motor Corp. announced Tuesday it would invest $500 million to expand its Princeton, Ind. plant. The automaker has made a conscious effort not to exploit the currency imbalance, company spokesman Peter Casey said. "Toyota's commitment to the U.S. market is a strong one," he said. Duncan said the increase in Japanese exports to the United States is mostly due to demand for products made in Japan, such as the Honda CR-V and Toyota 4Runners sport utility vehicles. Joe