First Trust NASDAQ Global Auto Index Fund

Tesla is significant in terms of technology and finance, with its $26 billion market capitalization. Let’s take a look at Tesla’s competition.

Mexico’s auto production rose 3.2% to 278.2 thousand vehicles in April 2017 as compared to April 2016 but decreased as compared to March 2017.

The U.S. market is dominated by truck sales, with trucks outselling cars at 51% of market share versus cars accounting for 49% of the market.

Retail sales in Malaysia rose 13.9% YoY (year-over-year) in June 2017, compared with its 13.6% gain in May 2017.

Global automobile manufacturers each have their form of globalizing their manufacturing, prompted by changes in the market. For GM and TM, the benefits of these programs will be delayed.

The First Trust NASDAQ Global Auto ETF (CARZ) is the most traded auto-focused ETF. The three-year return for the ETF is 48.32%. YTD, CARZ provided a return of 2.23%.

The strongest growth remains in Asia Pacific, North America, and Latin America. These are the areas where Ford (F), General Motors (GM), Volkwagen AG (VOW), and Toyota (TM) are investing.

Ford Motor (F) is one of the few US publicly traded auto stocks with attractive returns this year. With a 17% year-to-date gain, the stock has outperformed most of its peers.

Continuing with the strategy of enhancing shareholders’ wealth, Ford Motor Company (NYSE:F) declared a dividend for the first quarter of 2020.

Ford is planning to invest over $1.45 billion in its two North American facilities in Michigan, with a focus on autonomous, electric, and big vehicles.

The Monthly Wholesale Trade Survey gives you nationwide estimates of monthly sales, end-of-month inventories, and inventories-to-sales ratios by businesses for wholesale firms.

The automobile industry is one of the most highly concentrated industries in the world. The market continues to be dominated by a few major companies.

Ford (F) uses a high amount of financial leverage. Its debt-to-capital ratio is 81.1%. This is significantly above the industry average of 53.1%.

The auto industry has lower margins primarily because of intense competition. It makes it difficult for companies to pass on increases in raw material prices to the customer.

General Motors Company (GM) designs, builds, and sells automobiles worldwide. It’s the largest U.S.-based automobile manufacturer and the second largest automobile manufacturer globally.

Tesla, to most readers, is a beautiful, fast car. To most investors, it’s been an incredible stock. Let’s take a deeper look at this company that’s gained so much attention.

Tesla is selling luxury and battery power. Logically, as Tesla’s market share increases, it’ll take share out of the luxury automobile market.

In this series, first, we’ll look at Honda’s strategy. Then, we’ll dig into the company’s revenue and earnings to see how Honda compares to other industry players.

Toyota Motor Corporation (TM) designs, builds, and sells automobiles worldwide. It’s the largest automobile manufacturer in the world based on units sold in 2013.

Tesla states in the annual filing that it wants to maintain ownership of distributions and repairs to differentiate itself from the market, keeping greater control over local sales and services.

The bottom line on the income statement is that Tesla remains a start-up or newer business that’s not generating earnings from its sales.

The global automobile industry is small relative to GDP, estimated to be in the mid-to-low single digits. It represents 3.5% of GDP, according to the Center for Automotive Research.

The US job additions in July reached only 157,000, lower than the expectations of 190,000 job additions.

The consumer confidence index has increased to 128.0 in May as compared to a downward revised April reading of 125.6.

Canada, the European Union, South Korea, Mexico, and Brazil are the largest exporters of steel and aluminum to the United States.

The recently proposed import tariffs on steel and aluminum imports by US President Donald Trump are an effort to protect the interests of US manufacturers.

The US Bureau of Economic Analysis (or BEA) has released its second 4Q17 GDP estimate, projecting that the US economy increased at an annual rate of 2.5%.

The advance estimates for US retail (XRT) and food services in January 2018 were $492 billion—a decrease of 0.3% from December.

The Fed’s December industrial production report was released on January 17. The report indicated that industrial production continued to improve throughout 2017.

Retail sales (RTH) have posted impressive growth in 2017. However, the growth is still below the long-term average.

In this part of our focus on the top 18 cheap S&P 500 stocks, we’ll discuss another six stocks: General Motors (GM), Ford Motor (F), Owens-Illinois (OI), The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company (GT), Navient (NAVI), and Brighthouse Financial (BHF).

The United States Census Bureau’s latest retail (XRT) sales report was released on December 14, 2017. It reported that retail sales for November have risen 0.8%.

Comparing the economic performance with economic expectations and the previous cycles gives investors an idea of whether the economy is expanding or contracting.

The Conference Board Consumer Confidence Index for November came in at 129.5, up from 126.2 in October.

At the November meeting, the FOMC staff review indicated that US labor market conditions continued to strengthen and that the US economy continued to expand at a solid pace.

Core sales—excluding energy (XLE), building materials, and auto sales—also rose 0.4% in October, which is a positive sign for the economy.

The University of Michigan Preliminary Consumer Sentiment for November was reported at 97.8, which was 2.9 lower than the final October reading of 100.7.

The latest report was released on November 3 and indicated that the goods and services deficit was $43.5 billion in September, or $0.7 billion higher than in August.

Manufacturing activity in July 2017 South Korean (EWY) manufacturing activity dropped in the July 2017, with a sharp reduction in output. The Nikkei South Korea (EEM) manufacturing PMI decreased to 49.1 from 50.1 in June, according to an IHS Markit report. Manufacturing activity in South Korea returned to contraction, with reduced orders for its key export markets, […]

Despite the strong growth in employment numbers, the Fed’s latest monetary policy report had some comments about slow wage growth.

In this series, we’ll explore the trends in consumer spending in recent months and try to shed some light on the retail sales data that will be released on July 14.

The Fed’s decision had a limited impact on the S&P 500 (SPY), which closed last week at 2,433.2, a gain of 0.06% for the week.

Mexico recorded a modest trade deficit in March 2017, as compared to its trade surplus in the previous month.

The automotive industry is geographically concentrated. The top 15 countries produce 88% of the world’s vehicles. Almost all of the G20 nations have a manufacturing unit.

There’s a direct correlation between the size of a country’s GDP and its automotive industry. The auto industry has been expanding at a fast pace over the past several years.

There are higher maintenance and repair costs as a car gets older. This supports the option of leasing a vehicle.

The automotive industry is one of the biggest spenders when it comes to advertising. General Motors (GM) paid out $928 million during the first half of 2014.

The automotive sector plays a crucial role in job creation. Car manufacturing activity has an employment multiplier value of five.

German automakers lead the luxury space in the US. Daimler AG had an 18.4% share. It was followed by BMW. It had a 16.8% share.

The domestic giants have a significant US presence in trucks. These automakers show their muscle in the midsize SUV segment.

Over this series, we’ve seen that Honda’s heritage is rooted in innovative engineering and customer satisfaction. It has been a daring company in the past.

We’ll take a brief look at industry sales to assess Toyota Motor Company’s (TM) position in the global industry. First, we’ll look at industry sales, and second, we’ll assess Toyota’s ability to capture its share of the market.

General Motor’s (GM) stated vision is to design, build, and sell the world’s best vehicles. In reality, it’s seeking to sell the most cars and gain economies of scale across its global footprint.

Relative measures become significant when you look at the dollar amount differences between Toyota and GM in terms of the scale of the two businesses.

Global market share is dominated by the top ten original equipment manufacturers (or OEM), which account for 81% of the global automotive industry’s annual sales.

The global automobile market is impacted by global GDP, consumer confidence, employment, the availability of credit, the price of fuel, and consumer confidence.

Light vehicle auto sales for March will be released on Tuesday, April 1. The light vehicle annualized selling pace came in at 15.3 million in February.