Tuesday, January 4, 2011

Automobile sales record strong gains


December auto sales continued to register impressive gains, rising at a 17% annual rate since hitting bottom early last year; moreover, sales are up at a very impressive 25% annual rate in the past six months. December sales beat estimates by 1.9%. Although the pace of sales is still low from an historical perspective, the recovery to date has been very impressive. This is a strong vote of confidence in an ongoing recovery, and a sign that consumers are in better shape than is commonly thought, given the still-high level of unemployment. The fact that sales have been exceeding expectations for some time now, without the help of government subsidies, means that there will undoubtedly be ripple effects throughout the economy as production targets ramp up to meet unexpectedly strong demand. What's good for General Motors, as they say, is good for the economy. Unquestionably bullish.

7 comments:

  1. where dear sir is the means to buy the car coming from? they are almost exclusively a credit driven product? will you stop your inane chearleading. the rise is almost certainly not a sign of strength across the economy. it is a sign of income maldistributionn increasing

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  2. Septizoniom,

    Why don't you save yourself the agony and quit reading this blog if you find it so troubling? I know you believe otherwise, but some of us do have the ability to buy a car without pledging our first-born to the bank.

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  5. American people also bleed and spend every penny just to take their last cruise to Hawaii, before jumping off the cliff:), take a look at RCL monthly 20 years period chart, good (leading) indicator of consumer demand. It is at previous two cycle peaks levels (1999 and 2006), showing the underlying willingness to spend.

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