The adage "What's good for GM is good for the country" seems to have past. USA had one purpose, to produce and consume automobiles. Imo, GS is the new GM with one slight problemo, What is good for GS is the inverse of what is good for the country.
How's it going in the foreign markets? Watching BBC the other day, there was a short interview with the V.P. here in Europe. He stated that in the European market and S.American market GM is actually doing pretty well. Can anybody confirm/deny this? PS: I can honestly say that here in Italy I don't see many GM cars.
Global auto market may "collapse" in 2009: J.D.Power Thu Oct 9, 2008 11:38am EDT DETROIT (Reuters) - The global auto market may experience an "outright collapse" in 2009 amid growing concerns around credit availability of credit and general economic stress, an influential industry tracking firm said on Thursday. J.D. Power and Associates forecast U.S. light vehicle sales would fall to 13.2 million units in 2009 after likely settling at 13.6 million units this year, adding that a pronounced recovery is more than 18 months away. "While the global automotive industry is clearly experiencing a slowdown in 2008, the global market in 2009 may experience an outright collapse," said Jeff Schuster, executive director of automotive forecasting for J.D. Power. "While mature markets are being impacted more severely than emerging markets, no country or region is completely immune to the turmoil," Schuster said. (Reporting by Soyoung Kim)
Looks like I finally have the answer to the original question GM, in a regulatory filing today, said the global economic and credit turmoil requires the company to find ``additional near-term liquidity support.'' ``Based on our estimated cash requirements through December 31, 2009, we do not expect our operations to generate sufficient cash flow to fund our obligations as they come due, and we do not currently have other traditional sources of liquidity available to fund these obligations,'' GM said. ``We believe any government assistance would likely significantly dilute GM's equity,'' said Chicago-based Barclays analyst Brian Johnson, who reduced GM to ``underweight'' from ``equal weight'' and lowered his price target from $4. ``GM's only salvation is a capital injection from the government,'' said Buckingham analyst Joseph Amaturo in a note today, cutting the automaker's share-price target to $1 from $3. ``The company liquidity position is dwindling rapidly given the automotive cash burn,'' said the New York-based analyst, who rates GM shares ``underperform.'' Nov. 10 (Bloomberg) -- General Motors Corp. plummeted as much as 31 percent and moved toward its lowest level in 62 years after a Deutsche Bank AG analyst downgraded the shares, saying they may be worthless in a year. ``Even if GM succeeds in averting a bankruptcy, we believe that the company's future path is likely to be bankruptcy-like,'' Deutsche Bank's Rod Lache wrote today in a note. The New York analyst recommended selling the shares and cut his 12-month price target to zero. He previously advised holding the stock.