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
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
Wall Street Journal (July 17)
“Germany has a patchy record in fighting corporate crime. Volkswagen AG ’s giant emissions-cheating scandal was uncovered by California. The U.S. has imposed more money-laundering fines on troubled German lender Deutsche Bank AG than Germany has. BaFin’s decadelong blind spot for Wirecard now raises questions about the country’s ability to enforce securities rules that protect investors.”
Tags: BaFin, Blind spot, California, Corporate crime, Deutsche Bank, Emissions, Enforce, Fines, Germany, Investors, Money laundering, Patchy record, Scandal, Securities rules, U.S., Volkswagen, Wirecard
The Economist (April 7)
“America’s leading manufacturer of electric vehicles is under pressure. Mr Musk is fighting battles on many fronts and they all exacerbate his main threat: a financial squeeze that could eventually push Tesla over the edge…. Rising interest rates, a wobbly share price and a continued inability to meet its own production goals would all conspire to make it harder for the firm to find capital. It does not help that General Motors, Volkswagen and other big rivals are making massive investments in EVs.”
Tags: Capital, EVs, GM, Interest rates, Manufacturer, Musk, Production goals, Share price, Tesla, U.S., Volkswagen
New York Times (December 7)
“Revelations of the extent of Volkswagen’s efforts to hide the true level of its automobile emissions just keep piling up, yet the company appears incapable of coming clean, responding to each new revelation with denial, feigned ignorance and weak apologies.”
Financial Times (October 18)
“The scandal engulfing” Volkswagen “is by no means the biggest German economic challenge. Demand from China is slowing sharply, a blow to one of the biggest suppliers of machine tools to that country’s vast manufacturing sector.” The broader challenge, however, remains Germany’s overdependence on a “narrow export-oriented model,” which leaves the country “vulnerable to longer-term underperformance.”
Tags: Challenge, China, Demand, Exports, Germany, Machine tools, Manufacturing, Overdependence, Scandal, Volkswagen
Chicago Tribune (October 5)
“Computer software now governs virtually every aspect of our lives, from cars to kitchen appliances…. But computer software can deceive us, and this was the disturbing message from the recent Volkswagen scandal, where the German carmaker fitted millions of cars with software that could outsmart emission-control testing.” This new era demands “a code of ethics, a Hippocratic oath, for our computer engineers and the software they create.”
Tags: Appliances, Cars, Computer engineers, Emissions, Ethics, Scandal, Software, Volkswagen
New York Times (September 23)
“What was Volkswagen thinking?” Clearly it was not about the massive fallout that has ensued since the automaker’s rigged emissions tests, affecting 11 million vehicles, came to light. “For something this deceitful and stupid, a corporate mea culpa is not enough. Volkswagen must explain how something like this could happen, and identify those who came up with the idea and authorized it.”
Tags: Automaker, Deceitful, Emissions, Fallout, Volkswagen
