If you tally up U.S. car sales, the rate would be “blistering” according to the reports that came out throughout the day. February sales did have that extra day, but all in all this is where the recovery is meeting a system wide car fleet that is the oldest in modern history. February sales of new cars and light trucks were up to a rate of 15.1 million cars on an annualized basis as the fastest rate going back to February of 2008. What is more interesting is that there were some surprise winners here.
There should have been a surprise winner, but the market treated it as though it was fully valued. Sirius XM Radio Inc. (NASDAQ: SIRI) closed down 1.3% at $2.23 on the day.
General Motors Company (NYSE: GM) was up 1.7% at $27.47 after news that GM sales were up by over 1% to 209,306 vehicles. GM was expected to be flat or slightly negative in its sales figures. Ford Motor Co. (NYSE: F) shares closed up 2.2% at $12.66 after reporting that its February sales were up 14% to 179,119 cars and trucks. Even Chrysler said that sales rose 40% in February to 133,521 vehicles.
We would have given SIRIUS XM the vote for a surprise winner if it was under $2.00, but perhaps the real surprise is really Pandora Media, Inc. (NYSE: P) as its shares rose by 4% to $13.59 on the day.
Gentex Corporation (NASDAQ: GNTX) took back some of its huge losses from teh day before with a gain of 2.75% on the strong numbers. The company makes specialty rear view mirror systems and the video rear view systems. The drop on Wednesday was due to a delay of a ruling that new cars will have include back-up cameras.
JON C. OGG
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