Barron’s (July 19)
“This market risk is a slow-motion wreck waiting to happen.” And yet the U.S. market remains sanguine, largely tuning “out the past week’s tariff drama.” Freya Beamish, Chief Economist at TS Lombard, is “cautioning investors against complacency because multiple ‘low-grade shocks’ can take their toll like that of a frog in boiling water.” The impact of tariffs, deportations and “the series of low-grade shocks the market is struggling to digest” will eventually appear and “investors may be underestimating their impact on inflation.”
Tags: $4 to $5 billion, Carmaker, Demand, Fell, GM, Quarterly results, S&P 500, Stock, Tariff costs, Worries
Wall Street Journal (May 13)
“Economist Burton Malkiel might have called the stock market ‘a random walk,’ but investors could at least use earnings guidance by companies as road signs. Now they are largely walking blind.” With on-again, off-again tariffs, “nobody knows what the economy will look like in a few months’ time.” Some companies are leaning heavily on assumptions. “Others, such as General Motors, PepsiCo and Procter & Gamble, have lowered targets, while Volkswagen excluded tariffs from its outlook. United Airlines, creatively, offered one scenario for a stable environment and another for a recession.” Other companies have simply thrown in the towel. “Ford, Jeep-owner Stellantis, Delta Air Lines, and UPS took another route, scrapping their 2025 guidance altogether.”
Tags: Assumptions, Blind, Delta Air Lines, Earnings guidance, Economist, Economy, Ford, GM, Investors, Malkiel, Outlook, PepsiCo, Procter & Gamble, Random walk, Recession, Scenario, Stable, Stellantis, Stock market, Targets, Tariffs, United Airlines, Volkswagen
Wall Street Journal (January 10)
“Excess capacity among carmakers in China is driving the world’s largest auto market into a shakeout phase.” According to one estimate, domestic carmakers are using just half of their capacity. “Among the early losers are foreign brands. General Motors, Volkswagen and Toyota have been bleeding market share to homegrown rivals.” That said, it seems evident that as the shakeout phase continues, “local brands face a reckoning too.”
Tags: Auto market, Bleeding, Capacity, Carmakers, China, Domestic, Excess capacity, GM, Market share, Reckoning, Rivals, Shakeout phase, Toyota, Volkswagen
Wall Street Journal (August 17)
“Volkswagen, GM and other big brands are losing their grip on a once-lucrative market as Chinese consumers embrace homegrown electric vehicles.” The issue is broad ranging. “Manufacturers from China’s Asian neighbors aren’t faring better… Toyota’s Chinese JV income fell 73% in the quarter through June compared with the same period of 2023, while Honda’s equity income was all but wiped out.” China is turning into “a money pit for foreign automakers.”
Tags: Big brands, China, Consumers, Equity, EVs, GM, Homegrown, Honda, Income, JV, Manufacturers, Market, Money pit, Once-lucrative, Toyota, Volkswagen
Fortune (December 31)
“Tesla Inc. shares have fallen so far, so fast that some individual investors are piling in.” but the company still faces “mounting challenges” and remains expensive. “Even after this year’s record 65% drop, the electric-car maker’s meteoric surge during 2020 and 2021 has left it with stock-market value of $389 billion, more than Toyota Motor Corp., General Motors Co., Stellantis NV and Ford Motor Co. combined.”
Tags: $389 billion, Electric car, Expensive, Ford, GM, Individual investors, Market value, Mounting challenges, Stellantis, Stock, Surge, Tesla, Toyota
Wall Street Journal (September 19)
“A few years ago, auto executives weren’t sure there would be enough buyers for plug-in electric models. Now, they worry they can’t build them fast enough, while they intensify a multibillion-dollar rush to accelerate timelines and bring factories online.” In July, EVs and PHEVs accounted for “five of the six fastest-selling vehicles in the U.S,” where EVs have tripled in vehicle share over the past two years as “sales of other types of vehicles have declined.” Waiting lists now exceed a year for new electric models at GM and Ford.
Tags: Accelerate, Auto executives, Buyers, EVs, Factories, Fast enough, Fastest-selling, GM, PHEVs, Rush, Share, Timelines, U.S., Vehicles, Waiting lists
Institutional Investor (March 25)
“Activist approaches may gain ground as investors get pragmatic about fossil fuel companies. Asset managers like Engine No. 1 argue that holding companies accountable for net-zero goals is a better route to change than divesting.” Its new ETF will target companies with “plans and products in place to handle the changing climate and the dwindling supply of natural resources. This also means that the portfolio will end up invested in some of the most polluting companies, including General Motors, Ford, Canadian Pacific Railway, and Deere.”
Tags: Accountable, Activist, Asset managers, Canadian Pacific, Changing climate, Deere, Divesting, Dwindling supply, Engine No 1, Ford, Fossil fuel, GM, Investors, Natural resources, Net zero, Portfolio
New York Times (January 5)
“Toyota Motor unseated General Motors as the top-selling automaker in the United States last year, becoming the first manufacturer based outside the country to achieve that feat in the industry’s nearly 120-year history.” Coming amidst a “tumultuous” year shaken by supply chain and manufacturing issues, the milestone also “underlines the changes shaking automakers… as they move into electric vehicles.”
Tags: 120 years, Automaker, EVs, GM, Issues, Manufacturing, Milestone, Supply chain, Top-selling, Toyota, Tumultuous, U.S.
Financial Times (November 25)
“Tesla’s market value has surged to $500bn after a fresh wave of buying ahead of the electric-car maker’s debut on the blue-chip S&P 500 stock index next month.” Up over 600% this year, shares yesterday rose to $540. “Tesla’s market cap now exceeds “Toyota, Volkswagen, Hyundai, General Motors and Ford combined.”
Tags: Blue-chip, Buying, Debut, Electric car, GM, Hyundai, Market-cap, S&P 500, Surged, Tesla, Toyota, Value, Volkswagen
MarketWatch (November 27)
The plan to close plants and slash workforce “is good for GM—and it could shake up things at Tesla and Ford too.” Despite coming under political fire, GM’s “newly announced cost-cutting plan has drawn praise on Wall Street, with analysts applauding the car maker for sharpening its focus on higher-growth areas such as driverless and electric vehicles and forestalling a slowdown in its business.”
Tags: Analysts, Cost cutting, Driverless, EVs, Ford, GM, Plants, Slowdown, Tesla, Wall Street, Workforce
