Auto Manufacturers – Major
(F) Ford Motor Misses Earnings – Revenues Up 6.5%
Ford Motor Co. (F) posted a 34% fall in profit to $797 million or 20 cents per share (before special items) in the fourth quarter of 2011 from $1.20 billion or 30 cents per share (before special items) in the same quarter of 2010. With this, the automaker has missed the Zacks...
27Jan2012 | vitalstocks | 0 comments | Continued(F) Ford Motor Cuts Lincoln Dealerships
Ford Motor Co. (F) announced that it has reduced dealerships of its Lincoln luxury lineup to 325 from about 500 in the top 130 markets, where demand for luxury products is very strong. With the reduction in dealer count, dealers will compete less with each other and more with...
22Jan2012 | vitalstocks | 0 comments | Continued(F) Ford Recalls Minivans and SUVs
Ford Motor Co. (F) announced that it would recall 539,000 vehicles including Ford Escape SUVs, and Ford Freestar and Mercury Monterey minivans because of safety issues. Most of the recalled vehicles were sold in the U.S. The automaker would recall 286,000 units of Ford Escape...
14Jan2012 | vitalstocks | 0 comments | Continued(F) U.S. Auto Industry Sees Best Year Since 2008
Light vehicle sales in December 2011 rose 9% to seasonally adjusted annual rate (SAAR) of 13.6 million units, driven by low interest rates (below 3%), easier credit standards, decreasing unemployment rate and pent-up demand when the average age of cars on U.S. roads is almost...
14Jan2012 | vitalstocks | 0 comments | Continued(F) Auto Sales to Reach Three-Year High
According to an industry research report by TrueCar.com, light vehicle sales in the U.S. (including cars, trucks and sports utility vehicles/SUVs) during 2011 is likely to reach its three-year high at nearly 12.8 million vehicles, compared with 13.2 million vehicles in 2008,...
3Jan2012 | vitalstocks | 0 comments | Continued(TM) Toyota Motor Trims Earnings Outlook
Toyota Motor Corp. (TM) has sharply cut its earnings outlook for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2012 due to a strong yen and severe flooding in Thailand that disrupted its parts supply chain. The automaker expects to record a profit of ¥180 billion ($2.3 billion) for the year,...
14Dec2011 | vitalstocks | 0 comments | Continued(F) U.S. Auto Industry – Pent-Up Demand or Recovery?
Despite uncertainties in the market, consumers did not step back from the automobile showrooms in November as they felt the ardent need to change their old cars in the garage. Why wouldn’t they be, when the average age of vehicles on U.S. roads is almost 11 years and used cars...
6Dec2011 | vitalstocks | 0 comments | Continued(GM) Auto Industry Stock Outlook and Review – December 2011 – Industry Outlook
The auto industry is highly concentrated. About 10 global automakers account for over 77% of the production worldwide and 13 automakers account for more than 90% of total vehicles sold in the U.S. In the first 10 months of 2011, General Motors Company (GM) led with a 19.8% market...
2Dec2011 | vitalstocks | 0 comments | Continued(TM) Toyota Motor Takes Orders for Prius Plug-In Hybrid Vehicle
Toyota Motor Corp. (TM) has started taking orders for its much awaited plug-in version of Prius hybrid car that comes with an excellent mileage and affordable price. The automaker will start delivering the plug in hybrid vehicle (PHV) from January next year in Japan. A PHV shares...
1Dec2011 | vitalstocks | 0 comments | Continued(GM) Steel Industry Stock Outlook – November 2011 – Industry Outlook
Overview The World Steel industry is rather concentrated in structure, with a few producers accounting for the lion’s share of sales. Steel products are classified into four broad categories: flat steel products, long steel products, scrap and semi-finished products. Flat products...
29Nov2011 | vitalstocks | 0 comments | Continued(F) Ford Motor Plans Layoffs in Europe
Ford Motor Co. (F) plans to layoff 4,000 workers at its Valencia, Spain assembly plant for 39 days between January and October in 2012 in response to weakening demand for cars in Europe on the back of the ongoing Eurozone financial crisis. The plant employs a total of 6,200 workers. The...
28Nov2011 | vitalstocks | 0 comments | Continued(HMC) Honda Motor Company – Bear of the Day
Honda Motor Company’s (HMC) financial results are severely affected by a stronger Yen and the catastrophic disaster in Japan in March. Furthermore, recent floods in Thailand also damaged the company’s operations. As a result, Honda could not provide guidance for the...
18Nov2011 | vitalstocks | 0 comments | Continued(GM) Metals and Mining Stock Outlook – November 2011 – Industry Outlook
Overview The Metals & Mining industry encompasses the extraction (mining) as well as the primary and secondary processing of metals and minerals such as aluminum, gold, precious metals, coal and steel. The industry is oligarchic in structure, with a few producers accounting...
11Nov2011 | vitalstocks | 0 comments | Continued(TM) U.S. Sees Best October Auto Sales
Light vehicle sales in the U.S. rose 7.5% to 1.02 million units during October, the best since October 2007, driven by strong sales of sports utility vehicles (SUVs) and trucks. At seasonally adjusted annualized rate, sales increased 8% to 13.3 million units from 12.3 million...
6Nov2011 | vitalstocks | 0 comments | Continued(F) Ford Motor May Reinstate Dividend
Ford Motor Co. (F) is considering reinstating dividend payments for its shareholders as the company expects to benefit from labor efficiency improvements resulting from the newly ratified 4-year contract with United Auto Workers (UAW). The automaker revealed that the UAW contract...
26Oct2011 | vitalstocks | 0 comments | Continued(F) Ford Motor Workers Ratify UAW Contract
Workers at Ford Motor Co. (F) have ratified the proposed 4-year agreement with United Auto Workers (UAW). The deal covers 41,000 Ford workers in the U.S. Under the ratified deal, most of the Ford workers would not be entitled to annual pay raises. However, they will receive profit-sharing...
20Oct2011 | vitalstocks | 0 comments | Continued(F) Ford Motor and General Motors See 5% Growth in China
Both Ford Motor Co. (F) and General Motors Co. (GM) have predicted that automobile sales in China will grow about 5% in 2011. GM revealed that total vehicle sales would reach 19 million–19.2 million units for the full year. Automobile sales in China were adversely affected...
7Oct2011 | vitalstocks | 0 comments | Continued(GM) Standard & Poor’s Lifts General Motors Ratings
Ratings agency Standard & Poor’s (S&P) raised its corporate credit rating on General Motors Co. (GM) by two notches to BB+ from BB- as its workers recently ratified a 4-year contract with the United Auto Workers (UAW). The agency also lifted its rating outlook on the...
6Oct2011 | vitalstocks | 0 comments | Continued(GM) General Motors Strikes 4-Year Deal with UAW
General Motors Co. (GM) reached a tentative four-year agreement with the United Auto Workers (UAW) that covers 48,500 workers of the automaker. The company reached the agreement after nearly seven weeks of bargaining with UAW. Under the new agreement, GM will hike the entry-level...
20Sep2011 | vitalstocks | 0 comments | Continued(GM) Auto Industry Stock Outlook – August 2011 – Industry Outlook
The auto industry is highly concentrated. About 10 global automakers account for over 77% of the production worldwide and 13 automakers account for more than 90% of total vehicles sold in the U.S. In the first 7 months of 2011, General Motors Company (GM) led with a 20% market...
26Aug2011 | vitalstocks | 0 comments | Continued(GM) U.S. Jobless Claims
The economy remains in the spotlight as the news flow of the last few days has painted a less than flattering picture of the recovery. We now know that the manufacturing and service sectors lost ground as they entered the third quarter. We will have the full picture of the economy...
4Aug2011 | vitalstocks | 0 comments | Continued(F) U.S. Earnings Season and Debt Ceiling in Focus
Stocks may find it hard to stay focused on the day’s earnings parade given the continued stalemate in Washington on the debt ceiling issue. We also have a couple of housing and consumer confidence reports coming out after the markets open. But had Washington not been as...
26Jul2011 | vitalstocks | 0 comments | Continued(TM) Toyota Motor to Upgrade Canada Plants
Toyota Motor Corp. (TM), along with the government of Canada, plans to invest C$545 million ($567.7 million) to upgrade its two assembly plants in Ontario. The Canadian federal government and the Ontario government will each invest C$70.8 million ($73.7 million) in the plants...
8Jul2011 | vitalstocks | 0 comments | Continued(F) How to Better Read Earnings Reports
Earnings season will soon be upon us again. What the market will be looking for are those companies that come in with higher-than-expected earnings to reward, and for those firms that disappoint to punish. However, there will be cases where one company beats by a small amount,...
7Jul2011 | vitalstocks | 0 comments | Continued(GM) U.S. Automakers Report Sluggish Auto Sales in June
Light vehicle sales in the U.S. rose a tad by 2.4% to a seasonally adjusted annualized rate of 11.41 million vehicles in June from 11.14 million vehicles in the same month last year. It came down from the seasonally adjusted annual rate of 11.8 million in May, the slowest since...
6Jul2011 | vitalstocks | 0 comments | Continued(GM) General Motors Recalls Pickup Trucks
General Motors Company (GM) announced two tires of recall of about 10,000 pickup trucks from the model year 2011 due to problems with their automatic transmission and steering shaft. The first set of recall is related to a faulty automotive transmission clip that could slip and...
6Jul2011 | vitalstocks | 0 comments | Continued(GM) Metals & Mining Stock Outlook – July 2011 – Industry Outlook
Overview The Metals & Mining industry encompasses the extraction (mining) as well as the primary and secondary processing of metals and minerals such as aluminum, gold, precious metals, coal and steel. The industry is oligarchic in structure, with a few producers accounting...
1Jul2011 | vitalstocks | 0 comments | Continued(TM) Toyota Motor Now Recalls Its SUVs
Toyota Motor Corp. (TM) announced that it would recall 82,200 units of its sports utility vehicle (SUV) hybrids due to malfunctioning of their computer boards. The recall would involve 45,500 units of Highlander and 36,700 units of Lexus Rx 400h from the 2006 and 2007 model years...
30Jun2011 | vitalstocks | 0 comments | Continued(GM) Company News for June 29, 2011 – Corporate Summary
• Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) unveiled social networking site Google+ which will enable it to compete against Facebook. The application is now in its trial period • Car maker General Motors (NYSE:GM) said it has concluded a deal with natural gas engine maker Westport...
29Jun2011 | vitalstocks | 0 comments | Continued(NSANY) Nissan Pins Hopes on Mexico
Nissan Motor Co. (NSANY) revealed that it anticipates production level to go up by 20% at its Mexican operations in 2011 compared with 2010. In 2010, it produced 506,494 vehicles. The company has considered Mexico as one of its fast-growing markets like Brazil in Latin America....
29Jun2011 | vitalstocks | 0 comments | Continued