GM and Ford: Still Easy Shorts

This article has 16 comments:

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  hoffman23

  Jun 22 09:35 AM
  Putting Ford and GM in the same category is insane !!! They are two totally seperate situations. GM has become a faster moving, far more adaptive company then in the past. It is making billions in the BRIC countries and is working quickly on a NA turnaround. Ford, on the other hand, has hocked everything to the banks, including the blue Ford oval. Ford 's problems are similar to Chrysler, not GM.Their cash till is starting to run dry. Do better homework.
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  wendling_r

  Jun 22 09:53 AM

  My Website
  As far as shorting both of these issues the editor is one hundred percent right on target. He however failed to mention the largest short sale manager in both issues and that is the specialists who run them. The have the ability to sell the issue short and since they have unilateral control of the stocks price both up and down and total control of buy and sell orders they manipulate the stocks prices up or down every day to maximize their profits at the expense of the average investor, (IE) you and I.
  
  For those individual investors interested in my opinions on where these stocks prices are headed in the short and long term and what information I use to base those opinions on go to the following website bearfactsspecialistrep.... Click on the top of the Home page where it says, “Free Stock Reports” and you will be taken to the reports page. There you can read the reports on this issue and others. It will cost you nothing except the amount of time it takes you to read the report and any other pertinent information that you find interesting on how the “Specialist System” works and how it defrauds the average investor out of his and her hard earned money’s. The choice is yours, learn how to invest properly and make money in the market and this stock or continue to invest as you have in the past and continue to accumulate losses in the market.
  
  Thank you for your time,
  
  Richard
  
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  Bear Stocks
  Report

  Jun 22 10:51 AM

  My Website
  Here are some more potential shorts : SNCR, PPC, NCMI, CHDX, CTX, CQB, CLMT, TSO, FMCN, KBH
  
  
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  Lou Grinzo

  Jun 22 11:15 AM

  My Website
  My only quibble with this article is referring to trucks and SUVs as "a fairly poor gameplan for the foreseeable future". I think you're being too kind; I would have used the expression "train wreck".
  
  As Mulally pointed out in an interview recently, Ford's internal projection is for US gasoline prices to remain in the range of $3.75 to $4.25 through the end of 2009. Once American consumers are further squeezed by energy and food inflation for another 18 months, how bad will all light truck (pickups, minivans, SUVs) sales be? I think we're just starting to see the US automarket reshape itself in response to the end of cheap oil, and the only question is how well will the Big Three react to that fundamental change.
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  notsosmart

  Jun 22 11:25 AM

  My Website
  its not only cars & trucks. our whole economy has to reshape itself since it was based on cheap oil.so unless a good substitute for oil is created our way of life will downgrade slowly as the some others upgrade.thats globalization & for the benefit of the large international corps.
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  moose60061

  Jun 22 11:51 AM
  I tried to short GM in my Schwab account Friday but they have none avalable!!
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  Gearhead

  Jun 22 12:02 PM

  My Website
  Frankly I liked "gamelan" better than "gameplan" anyway (grin).
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  raja

  Jun 22 12:44 PM
  Mulally is another moron who was recently (about 3-4 months back) telling us that the turnaround is going fine. These morons (CEOs and Ex- CEOs like Bill Ford, Alan Mullay, Rick Wagnor) will be walking away with millions even if they lose their jobs. They are all over Wallstreet, the CEOs of MER, CITI, LEH, etc etc. telling us every Qtr. that the worst is over and everything is fine. Try dodging these bullets - Housing, Subprime, Inflation, Recession, Credit Crunch, Oil, Never ending Middle East crisis, Job losses etc. etc. Every week, at least a couple of them hit you
  
  
  
  They keep postponing the inevitable - every heard of painful slow death due to a 1,000 cuts and bruises ??
  
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  paulk8756

  Jun 22 03:08 PM
  Wow, Raja, that was some list. Ouch!
  
  The author failed to mention a couple of things about shorting the auto companies. S & P is now looking at downgrading their debt, but institutions and bondholders are already buried so deep they will have to wait it out in hopes of a turnaround someday. As for me, I believe they could rally from here as the market is oversold, and on their new technological product introductions in coming months. In any event, I wouldn't touch them right now one way or the other with a ten foot pole. (...And good for him, he made a great call!)
  
  
  
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  paulk8756

  Jun 22 03:23 PM
  Andy,
  
  You did neglect to say that only two out of the four BRIC's have a need to import any energy at all. And the other two are not only already energy independent, but on their way to becoming major energy exporters themselves, as well,
  
  As regards the two present importers, China and India, they are both probably smarter than we are, and will figure out a way to become energy self-sufficient before we do. Of course, that doesn't portend well for the future of U.S. automakers, either.
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  leh

  Jun 22 03:31 PM
  Yes, nice call indeed, especially when Barron's & company were calling Ford a compelling value play--not! Ford can't even supply the market the one model in heavy demand, namely the Escape Hybrid. Why? Battery pack shortages. Seems only Toyota was smart enough to more or less become their own battery supplier when they partnered in PansonicEV--and even they are having trouble keeping up with the demand for their hybrids--then again, they probably sell 10x as many as Ford, if not more.
  
  And GM's $30 billion of debt is looking like a tough sled to pull in this economy; think I read today they're burning through $3 billion a MONTH right now.
  Their PHEV Volt may well be a big hit, but it's still 2-3 years off. And their mild hybrids like the Saturn Vue are garbage--virtually all of last years models were recalled in December for leaky battery packs made by Cobasy, another fine US company run by former Detroit incompetents.
  
  My only question is will ANY of the big three US automakers survive this recession?
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  paulk8756

  Jun 22 04:45 PM
  Don't laugh, it's safe to say the future viability of our auto, airline and trucking industries among others are all open to question now. Not to belabor the point, but this plays right into the hands of the D's in Congress. Assuming they're re-elected and can get their man in the White House, nationalizing a good part of American industry is just the kind of thing they'd relish anyway.
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  Greg Weston

  Jun 22 04:50 PM

  My Website
  What you are missing is the strong chance that there will be big subsidies to F and GM from the US Gov to the form of hybrid factory startups and national health care.
  
  Both companies can and do produce a variety of good small cars, just not so far for the US market. GM is bringing over more and more of its Opels, rebadged as Saturns, and Ford has a number of good small cars in Europe and Latin America it will be bringing to the US in the coming years.
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  jackh

  Jun 22 06:53 PM
  They already have national health care... they just have to open the new plants in Canada.... or go to Mexico where it's every man for himself.....
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  Wez

  Jun 23 12:08 PM
  Silly me, with Kirkorian offering $8.50 a share for Ford, I thought it may actually try and stay at around that level.
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  FrankNJ

  Jun 24 05:05 PM
  What about Toyota stock, as of today, it is down 35% from the start of the year! This problem is so severe, that all automakers are being affected. In Toyota's case, the short-sightedness of building a new truck plant in texas (for the giant gass-guzzling Tundra) for hundreds of millions of dollars is backfiring. Again, no one in the industry is immune.