| General Motors Takes OnStar to China TheCarConnection.com submits: In what could be one of General Motors' smartest moves in recent years, the company has announced plans to roll out its popular OnStar system in China. This marks the first time OnStar will be offered outside North America. The service will be available as of December 6 -- first in Cadillacs, then Buicks, and eventually Chevrolet models. Subscription pricing was not included in the announcement.GM's decision isn't surprising. China's economy is growing by leaps and bounds, and by all appearances, the country is recovering faster than others from the global economic crisis. Those factors, along with China's continuing trend toward de-isolation and the growing wealth of its citizens, have helped turn China into the second-largest auto market on Planet Earth. Sales for 2009 are projected to hit 12.6 million vehicles (many of which will bear GM badges). A booming economy, millions of potential customers, and pre-existing market share? We have a hard time seeing the downside.Complete Story » seekingalpha.com |
Spirit AeroSystems Holdings, Inc. 4Q09 Earnings Call Transcript Spirit AeroSystems Holdings, Inc. (SPR)4Q09 Earnings Call TranscriptFebruary 4, 2010 11:00 ETComplete Story » seekingalpha.com |
Get Ready for 'Faith-Based' Upgrades Stephen Castellano submits: "Faith-based" upgrades on "low-quality" stocks from the sell side, like yesterday's upgrade on Harley-Davidson (HOG) by RBC Capital Markets are probably going to get more prevalent in the weeks ahead. These upgrades are based on faith because there is really no hard data at the company-specific level to point to, except an increasing amount of anecdotal evidence. Incidentally, Harley-Davidson is on our "low-quality" short/contrarian long idea list, and has been for some time. Other Consumer Discretionary stocks on that have been on the same list include MGM Mirage (MGM) and Toll Brothers Inc. (TOL).Complete Story » seekingalpha.com |
Is the Baltic Dry Indicator Flashing Yellow? John Nyaradi submits:As the US stock market searches for direction in this ongoing correction, investors around the world are trying to read the tea leaves to determine what will happen next. One esoteric and unusual indicator, The Baltic Dry Index, points to a new downtrend that started in June and could be forecasting economic weakness ahead.Complete Story » seekingalpha.com |
Rail Traffic Continues to Reflect Expansion Cullen Roche submits: Another solid set of numbers out this week from the AAR: The Association of American Railroads (AAR) today reported weekly rail traffic slowed during the Labor Day holiday with U.S. railroads originating 277,530 carloads during the week ending Sept. 11, 2010, up 5.1 percent compared with the same week in 2009, and down 15.5 percent compared to the same week in 2008. The comparison weeks from 2010 and 2009 included the Labor Day holiday while the comparison week from 2008 did not. In order to offer a complete picture of the progress in rail traffic, AAR reports 2010 weekly rail traffic with comparison weeks in both 2009 and 2008.Intermodal traffic totaled 206,850 trailers and containers, up 18.1 percent from the same week in 2009, and down 12.7 percent compared with 2008. Compared with the same week in 2009, container volume increased 20.7 percent and trailer volume rose 4.1 percent. Compared with the same week in 2008, container volume decreased 4.6 percent and trailer volume declined 43 percent.Complete Story » seekingalpha.com |