Blog Category Results

AR Index     632.92  +7.49  (+1.20%) Stocks of individual interest Toyota  85.19  -0.56 GM        0.80    +0.05 Ford      7.60   +0.19 Dow 9496.28  -13.00   (-0.14%) Like the title says, I don't think there's any rhyme or reason to the relationship between reality and the price of crude oil or gasoline. But the ratio of crude oil price to prices at the pump seems to be settling into about a 25 to 1 relationship. Not sure I'm ready to call it a trend since the commodity markets, especially in oil, don't seem to behave rationally a lot of the time, but there it is.

AR Index     625.43  +6.50  (+1.05%) Stocks of individual interest Toyota  85.75  +2.04 GM        0.75    -0.12 Ford      7.41   +0.04 Dow 9509.28  +373.94   (+4.09%) Things continue to look up for the AR Index (despite dragging along GM) and I thought it would be interesting to use a chart of Ford's stock price for the Apr-Aug  period to show what a difference a year makes. I really hope that Cash for Clunkers doesn't kill this momentum when the cars that would have sold in October don't because they were bought under C4C.

AR Index     618.93  -20.66  (-3.23%) Stocks of individual interest Toyota  83.71  -1.07 GM        0.87    -0.09 Ford      7.37    -0.35 Dow 9135.34  -202.61   (-2.17%) In case you hadn't noticed, we're in the midst of a complete disconnect between reality and prices at the pump. It doesn't matter what actually happens with supply and demand, it makes no difference what direction the price of crude oil is taking, the price at the pump seems to be soley determined by the speculation of the commodities market. I'm getting tired of it, are you?..

AR Index     639.60  -28.05  (-4.20%) Stocks of individual interest Toyota  84.78  -2.41 GM        0.96    +0.43 Ford      7.72     -0.61 Dow 9337.95  +51.39   (+0.55%) The recent runup in Ford & Toyota finally took a little breather and it appears investors actually took profits (imagine that) out of those stocks this past week. There are still a lot of games going on with oil and gas prices since demand is down, supply isn't, yet those prices keep creeping up, all for no reason other than speculation. Still, things seem a lot more stable than they were.

AR Index     667.65  +73.45  (+12.36%) Stocks of individual interest Toyota  87.19  +7.31 GM        0.52    +0.12 Ford      8.33    +1.06 Dow 9286.56  +178.05   (+1.95%) Well at least two of the new Big Three are trending in the right direction. And Ford was the only one to have an increase in sales in July compared to a year ago. Cash for clunkers may have put them over to the plus side, but a 2% increase compared to the 19% decrease at GM speaks volumes for the kind of shape Ford is in, and more importantly, the kind of shape the public thinks they're in...

AR Index     594.20  +58.97  (+11.02%) Stocks of individual interest Toyota  79.88  +3.77 GM        0.41    -.0.10 Ford      7.27    +1.08 Dow 9108.51  +260.36   (+2.94%) There's a concept in math called significant digits or figures which basically deals with rounding. GM is in danger of being rounded right out of significance, at least in the AR Index. When I started the index, I weighted Ford, GM, and Toyota equally...

AR Index     553.23  +16.76  (+3.23%)  Stocks of individual interest Toyota  76.11  +1.52 GM        0.51     -0.64 Ford      6.19    +0.50 Dow 8848.15  +516.47   (+6.20%) The stock market is one place where you generally get a good view about what people really think about things because they're voting with their dollars. Now that we own GM, the stock in our company has only dropped 55%. Yea, I bet we the people are going to come out of this deal smelling like something, but with the way the government seems bent on sticking their noses into the auto business, I'd wager it's not going to be a rose...

AR Index     518.47  +1.42  (+0.27%) Stocks of individual interest Toyota  74.59  -1.02 GM        1.15    +0.45 Ford      5.69    -0.06 Dow 8331.68  +6.81   (+0.08%) The chart for the last three months looks fairly calm and steady. That's quite a switch from a year ago when gas prices had peaked in my area at $4.09/gallon (currently at $2.55 and falling) and crude oil was at $139/bbl (now at $59 and also dropping) I saw that diesel fuel in California is less than half of it was in mid-July of 2008 and that has to please the trucking industry. We still have a disconnect between the realities of supply and demand and prices at the pump, but the commodity market wasn't able to drive prices as high this year for some reason...

AR Index     517.05  -8.23  (-1.57%) Stocks of individual interest Toyota  75.61  +0.12 GM        0.70    -0.44 Ford      5.75    -0.03 Dow 8324.87  -204.51   (-2.40%) Prices at the pump have started to ease a bit, although it seems to have nothing to do with any kind of reality regarding supply and demand, just more of the games in the commodity markets. But it seems that this time around, unlike last year,  the traders haven't been able to force the markets to insane levels. The year-to-date chart of crude oil price divided by gas price at the pump is settling down to a steadier number...

AR Index     525.28  +19.60  (+3.87%)  Stocks of individual interest Toyota  75.49  +0.82 GM        1.14    -0.06 Ford      5.78    +0.40 Dow 8529.38  +190.37   (+2.28%) Maybe the pulse isn't as strong as we'd like, but there still is a pulse in the North American auto market and it has a chance to grow stronger. It also looks like we're not in for a repeat of last year's nonesense with gas and oil price, although the commodity markets have been giving it a try again, making sure that price changes have nothing to do with actual supply and demand. Prices at the pump seem to have backed off their peak a bit, so that may help with the angst level out there...