Strong Gains for Sept. Auto Sales, Especially Trucks
U.S. car sales of 13.1 million units in September (on a seasonally adjusted annual rate, SAAR) were the highest monthly total since last April and showed strong gains of 8.1% from August and 10.8% compared to a year-ago, according to sales data released yesterday by Motor Intelligence. On a year-to-date basis, total light vehicle sales through September are up by 10.4% compared to last year, with especially strong gains of 12.2% for light trucks and 48.7% for midsize SUVs (source). For the month of September, light truck sales exceeded 7 million units (SAAR) for the first time in at least several years.
Scott Grannis reports on the booming September auto sales and concludes that "Auto sales do not conform at all to the current narrative about the economy being on the ropes." Larry Kudlow is not convinced, and says "We’re on the front end of a recession."
5 Comments:
The stock and bond markets are predicting that the economy will slow down. While the Fed may try short term injections of liquidity to try to prevent a further contraction its options are limited. To start a true and sustainable recovery we need to purge the system of bad investments. From what I can see, that is not going to be allowed to happen in an election year. This means that we have a another huge injection of liquidity and a number of make-work projects or a total collapse that takes out the good with the bad.
Pent-up demand, lower prices, and lower interest rates facilitate auto sales.
However, U.S. auto sales are expected to be less than 13 million this year.
From 2000-07, U.S. auto sales averaged 16.8 million per year.
another way to look at it is that sales are flat with early 2011 and down over 20% from 2006.
http://cr4re.com/charts/charts.html?Retail#category=Retail&chart=VehicleSalesShortSep2011.jpg
Didn't I read somewhere that autos are booked as "sold" when they leave the factory, not the dealers' lots?
Ford to add 12,000 new jobs in U.S. as a result of a new agreement with the UAW. These are union jobs but other new jobs could also be added also.
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