U.S. Auto Sales For November Strongest Since 2008

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Reuters


DETROIT — Detroit automakers sold more cars and trucks in November than analysts expected, as a surging economy and falling fuel prices helped drive sales of big pickups and SUVs.


General Motors Co. on Tuesday said November sales rose 6.5 percent to 225,818, topping the average 217,462 projected by auto analysts.


GM said its average transaction prices were a record $35,600, up $790 per vehicle from October and up $3,100 from a year ago. Sales of GM’s Chevrolet Silverado pickup climed nearly 25 percent.


Chrysler Group sales rose 20.1 percent to 170,839, on strong showings by its Jeep brand and Ram pickup trucks, the unit of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV said Tuesday. Analysts had expected 142,275.


Jeep SUV sales jumped 27 percent, Ram pickup sales were up 21 percent, and Chrysler 200 sedan sales soared 155 percent to 14,317.


Ford Motor Co. reported a slight decline in sales, to 186,334, about what analysts had expected. Sales of the best-selling F-150 pickup were down 10 percent, as the automaker began the changeover to the redesigned 2015 model.


A strong showing on Black Friday last week is seen pushing U.S. auto industry sales in November up 2.3 percent to about 1.27 million vehicles, the highest since the 2008 recession, according to a survey of 11 analysts by Reuters.


A Thomson Reuters survey of 41 industry economists and analysts showed expectations of 16.7 million vehicles sold on an annualized basis, with a high forecast of 17 million vehicles on an annualized basis.


In October, U.S. sales were 16.46 million vehicles on an annualized basis.
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[h=1]Gas Prices Drop Below $2 a Gallon in Texas, Oklahoma[/h]
OKLAHOMA CITY -- Gas has dropped below $2 a gallon at a handful of stations in Oklahoma and Texas this week, a level that a price-watching group said Friday was the lowest in the nation and a bargain that's proven irresistible to some long lines of drivers coming from miles away to fill up.

A station in Oklahoma City started the trend earlier this week at a new location as a way to thank residents who put up with construction. Two nearby stations followed suit, becoming what Patrick DeHaan with [FONT=Georgia, Cambria, Times New Roman, Times, serif]GasBuddy.com[/FONT] said early Friday were the only ones in the United States with sub-$2 gas. A San Antonio, Texas, station also later dropped its price.

"When I first saw it, I thought it was a misprint," said Marcus Hendricks, a student who lives in south Oklahoma City, at the OnCue Express in southeast Oklahoma City, where the price was $1.99 a gallon for gas with a 10 percent blend of ethanol. "There were so many cars it looked they were giving something away for free. They practically are."

The nationwide average for a gallon of gas was $2.71 Friday, nearly $1 below this year's peak of $3.70 in June. Gas hasn't been this cheap since October 2010. The decline has been driven by falling global oil prices as supplies are high. Benchmark U.S. crude oil fell 68 cents to $66.11 a barrel in New York on Friday, after hitting $107 in June.

[FONT=Georgia, Cambria, Times New Roman, Times, serif]Gas prices[/FONT] are expected to keep falling nationwide, perhaps by as much as another 10 cents to 20 cents a gallon by the end of the year, said [FONT=Georgia, Cambria, Times New Roman, Times, serif]AAA Oklahoma[/FONT]spokesman Chuck Mai. The statewide average in Oklahoma was $2.48, tied for third-lowest in the nation behind Missouri's $2.43 average and Mississippi's $2.47. The highest prices were $3.81 in Hawaii, $3.47 in Alaska and nearly $3.12 a gallon in New York, according to AAA.

"The world is swimming in crude oil right now. And this of course is what is driving our pump prices in this country, that and good old-fashioned street corner competition," Mai said. "It may not be a gas war, but it certainly is one upsmanship, or maybe in this case, one downsmanship."

OnCue Express in Oklahoma City first lowered its price to $1.99 earlier this week at the station that has been open about a month.

"We probably inconvenienced the neighbors during construction and we wanted to do something for them, and we came up with this idea," said Jim Griffith, CEO of Stillwater-based OnCue Express. He said OnCue's price will rise "probably soon," but that he's not losing money on the sales.

"I'm not cutting a fat hog, but I am making a small profit at that price," Griffith said.

At the OnCue Express, employees used orange cones and hand signals to direct drivers who were backed up at about a dozen gas pumps in front of the store. Samantha Hitsman, a stay-at-home mom, said she drove about 20 miles from Del City to get gas.

"I've got all kinds of appointment to run, so I thought I'd fill up," she said.

 

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U.S. adds most new jobs in nearly 3 years



Published: Dec 5, 2014 4:02 p.m. ET

Biggest gain since January 2012; unemployment flat at 5.8%​

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — The U.S. added 321,000 new jobs in November to mark the biggest gain in nearly three years, extending the strongest streak of hiring in several decades. Virtually every industry added employees, and many of the new jobs were in fields that pay well.


Hiring was also revised up by a combined 44,000 in the prior two months, offering more evidence that the U.S. economy could be gearing up for its best year of growth in 2015 since the end of the Great Recession.


The nation’s unemployment rate, meanwhile, held steady at a six-year low of 5.8%, the Labor Department reported Friday.
“November’s employment report was a knock out,” said Neil Dutta, head of economics at Renaissance Macro Research.


The bulk of the job gains were concentrated in white-collar professions, retail, health care and manufacturing. Professional services led the way again, creating 86,000 jobs. Retailers also added 50,000 workers to gear up for what’s expected to be the best holiday shopping season since the recession.


Economists polled by MarketWatch had expected a much smaller 235,000 increase in nonfarm jobs. The stellar employment report helped push U.S. stocksSPX, +0.17% to another record high in Friday trading, while yields on U.S. Treasurys10_YEAR, -0.26% spiked higher.


A rapidly improving labor market could be the trigger that forces the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates sooner than Wall Street expects. Before the jobs report most analysts were predicting the Fed would hold off at least until mid-2015 to raise a key short-term rate for the first time since 2006.
Also see: ‘Wow - 321’ and other reactions to the jobs report


The economy has now added at least 200,000 jobs for 10 straight months, the longest such stretch in more than 30 years. Already the U.S. has generated 2.65 million new jobs in 2014, the biggest increase since a 3.2 million gain in 1999.


President Obama lauded the outsized gain in employment in November, noting that the U.S. has added more new jobs in the past four years than Japan and Europe combined. “The United States continues to outpace the rest of the world,” he said.


The acceleration in hiring and plunging unemployment rate, however, have yet to translate broadly into rapidly rising wages for workers, the telltale sign of a full-blown recovery. What might be holding back wage growth is a large pool of some 18.1 million people who want a full-time job but still can’t find one — an elevated level by historical standards even though it’s fallen sharply over the past few years.


In a good sign, though, the average hourly wage of American workers rose a strong 0.4% in November to $24.66 after two weak readings in a row. Still, wages are only up 2.1% in the past 12 months, a rate that’s barely changed since the recovery began in mid-2009.
A sustained increase in hourly earnings are necessary to propel the economy onto a higher plane of growth, analysts say.
Americans are taking home more pay, but mainly because they are working longer hours. The average length of the workweek stood at a postrecession high of 34.6 hours in November.


Yet the longer the economy keeps adding 200,000 jobs or so a month, economists say, the quicker upward pressure on wages should intensify. In October, the U.S. added 243,000 jobs, up from a preliminary estimate of 214,000. September’s gain was raised to 271,000 from 256,000.
So far in 2014 the economy has gained an average of 241,000 jobs a month.
Already some industries such as manufacturing complain about a shortage of skilled job applicants and some say they are offering better pay to keep or attract talented workers.


Also see: Fed’s contacts find some low-wage workers getting raises
As pay rises, consumer spending should also increase and boost the overall economy. Consumer spending accounts for more than two-thirds of the nation’s economic activity.


Surveys of executives also show that most businesses think the economy will gather added momentum in 2015, and plans to hire more workers are the strongest they’ve been in years. Sinking gas prices could also fuel faster growth if they remain at current levels.
One caveat: Bigger companies in particular are paying close attention to the slowdown in growth in Asia and Europe, a bout of weakness that could infect the U.S. economy if it persists. Yet in October U.S. exports rose, so the slowdown overseas hasn’t really hurt the U.S. so far.

 

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Stocks on Wall Street opened lower, with energy shares seeing some of the biggest falls as the oil price slid to a fresh five-year low.
The price of Brent crude fell to $65.24 a barrel - its lowest since September 2009 - before recovering slightly.
The Dow Jones dropped 67.40 points to 17,733.80. Among oil stocks, Chevron fell 1.9% and Exxon Mobil slid 1.5%.
The S&P 500 index dropped 5.92 points to 2,053.90, while the Nasdaq was 14.30 points lower at 4,752.17.
Shares in Yum Brands fell nearly 5% to $71.54 after the KFC owner cut its annual profit forecast for the year, due to slower sales in China.
Yum said its full-year profit growth would be a "mid-single-digit" percentage, down from the 10% it forecast in October. Earlier in the year, the firm had predicted growth of at least 20%.
Costco shares rose 1.9% after its quarterly profits beat expectations. Net income for the quarter to 23 November increased to $496m, up from $425m a year earlier.

 

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[h=1]Iranian president blames oil price fall on political conspiracy[/h]
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has blamed unnamed countries of plotting to bring down crude prices and said the recent slump in oil prices was not based solely on economic factors.
With oil prices down more than 40 percent since June, Rouhani's administration has been scrambling for alternative sources of income. Iran's 2014 budget is based on oil at around $100 a barrel, while Brent crude is currently below $66 per barrel.



Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has blamed unnamed countries of plotting to bring down crude prices and said the recent slump in oil prices was not based solely on economic factors.
With oil prices down more than 40 percent since June, Rouhani's administration has been scrambling for alternative sources of income. Iran's 2014 budget is based on oil at around $100 a barrel, while Brent crude is currently below $66 per barrel.

 

[Dave007inVegas]

This series of posts exemplifies the medias view of the economy. It’s been terrible for so long that they will do cart-wheels over any up tic anywhere.