Stocks tumble as the US jobless rate rises to 9.1%
Moody's sounds alarm on US debt limit, deficits
Mazda to stop manufacturing cars in US
Cramer: Bright spots are hard to find
May auto sales dip as price strategy backfires
It seems as if car companies raised prices in May, assuming folks just had to have new cars and with a limited supply due to the Japanese tsunami, would pay any price. Fail:
Monthly car sales figures are among the first snapshots of consumer demand. The May results joined a string of downbeat economic data in recent days, from weak hiring to shrinking consumer confidence, that has raised concerns that the U.S. recovery is running out of steam.
U.S. auto sales in May fell 3.7 percent from last year to 1.06 million, or an annualized rate of 11.8 million. That falls far short of the 12.6 million expected by a Reuters poll of economists and is the lowest rate since 11.76 million in September 2010.
Until now the light vehicle sales rate has held above 13 million for every month this year except January....
And less unexpectedly, Ford suffered the least, which is to say, almost not at all:
Ford sold 192,102 cars and trucks in May, down 0.1 percent from 192,253 a year earlier.
And if this is the best the media can do to prop up Obama, well, it's going to be a bit harder than he thought:
Could the Dow hit 20,000?
Are bad mortgages good for economy?
As the young girls would say..."Really? C'mon...really?"
What will the Democrats say now? They need more time? They need more money? It's Bush's fault? It's the racists in the Tea Party?
See above the the appropriate response...