| GM: Still a Long Road to Hoe TheCarConnection.com submits: It's been a busy day for General Motors CEO Fritz Henderson. Not only did he reveal GM's third quarter financials, but he also announced the company's souped-up plan to repay $6.7 billion in loans from the U.S. government. While the financial report was reasonably upbeat (the company ended Q3 $1.2 billion in the red, but that's an improvement on analysts' $2.5 billion loss estimate), the real attention-grabber was GM's aggressive loan repayment plan: the company will now cough up $1 billion at the close of each quarter, beginning in December 2009. At that rate, GM's debt should be fully erased by July 2011 -- far ahead of the 2015 date agreed upon with the U.S. Treasury.Of course, that won't put GM in the clear -- not by a long shot. In total, General Motors took about $50 billion from the feds. Of that sum, $6.7 billion remains on the books as debt; the other $43.3 billion has been converted into the federal government's 61% stake in GM, and the feds hope to recoup that cash via stock sales when the company goes public down the line. (Whether the government's stake will ever be worth $43.3 billion is a matter for debate, although many on the auto industry task force would like to see $19 billion that GM received prior to bankruptcy written off, reducing the recoupable amount to $22.3 billion.)Complete Story » seekingalpha.com |
United Technologies Corp. Q4 2009 Earnings Call Transcript United Technologies Corp. (UTX)Q4 2009 Earnings CallJanuary 27, 2010 8:30 am ETComplete Story » seekingalpha.com |
Ford Motor Company Q1 2010 Earnings Call Transcript Ford Motor Company (F)Q1 2010 Earnings Call TranscriptApril 27, 2010 9:00 am ETComplete Story » seekingalpha.com |
Rail Freight Container Volumes Hit Sixth Highest Level Ever The Pragmatic Capitalist submits: Either rails have become a lagging indicator or there is no recession in rail traffic. This week’s data is VERY strong (via AAR): The Association of American Railroads today reported that rail traffic for the week ending July 3, 2010 topped comparison weeks from both 2008 and 2009. Carloads were up 18.8 percent, at 286,777 cars, from the comparable week in 2009 and up 0.4 percent from the same week in 2008. Comparison weeks in both 2009 and 2008 included the July 4th holiday. 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 231,286 trailers and containers, the highest since week 42 of 2008. Volume was up 36.6 percent from a year ago and 19.1 percent from 2008. Container volume of 197,134 was the sixth highest week ever and the highest since week 39 of 2007. Compared with the same week in 2009, container volume gained 39.8 percent and trailer volume rose 20.9 percent. Compared with the same week in 2008, container volume increased 30.8 percent and trailer volume fell 21.3 percent.Complete Story » seekingalpha.com |
Ryder System: Ample Strength to Ride in the Right Direction Zacks.com submits: Ryder System, Inc.(R) one of the leading transportation and supply chain management companies in the U.S., released its third quarter earnings before the market opened. The company reported earnings of 76 cents per share from continuing operations, which beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate by 11 cents and were 25 cents or 49% above the year-ago quarter. Rise in earnings was mainly driven by the company's Fleet Management Solutions (FMS) division. Furthermore, a lower-than-anticipated tax rate in the third quarter helped EPS to show an improved performance of 4 cents, which were partially offset by higher maintenance costs of aging fleets and customer fleet reductions.Complete Story » seekingalpha.com |