"GM keeps US title as sales drop" by Associated Press | July 2, 2008
DETROIT - General Motors Corp. soundly beat Toyota Motor Corp. in June to retain its traditional US sales lead, but GM sales still dropped 18.2 percent during a dismal month for large automakers.
Toyota's US sales fell 21.4 percent, while Ford Motor Co. said it sales tumbled 27.9 percent. Chrysler LLC took a huge hit for the month with sales down 35.9 percent.
GM's shares bounced more than 2 percent higher yesterday.... the low sales figures reflect a contracting market, especially for pickups and SUVs, and continued reductions in fleet sales.
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"Factory index gains, as do prices of manufactured goods" by Bloomberg News | July 2, 2008
WASHINGTON - US manufacturing grew in June and a measure of prices jumped to a 29-year high, underscoring the Federal Reserve's concern that economic growth will be accompanied by faster inflation.
Stocks and the dollar pared losses after the report, which indicates that federal tax rebates are helping companies weather the housing slump. Economists at Morgan Stanley raised their estimate for second-quarter economic growth to 1.8 percent from 1.6 percent after a separate report yesterday showed construction spending fell less than anticipated.
Figures from the Commerce Department yesterday showed construction spending fell 0.4 percent in May, less than forecast, as work on hotels, power plants, and public hospitals helped cushion the slowdown in homebuilding.
Is it any wonder I don't believe what the GOVERNMENT says?
"The US manufacturing sector is split between the haves and have-nots, with autos in the have-nots, building materials in the have-nots, exports in the haves," said Roger Kubarych, chief US economist at Unicredit Global Research in New York.
Which means THIS ECONOMY HERE is shitting the bed!!!!
A shrinking trade deficit has helped some companies withstand slower US sales. General Electric Co., the world's biggest maker of locomotives and power-plant turbines, said last month that sales of such equipment may rise 15 to 20 percent this year as Asia's emerging nations increase investment in infrastructure.
And the U.S.' FALLS APART!!!!
Demand "will be significant for decades," vice chairman John Rice, who runs the GE Infrastructure unit, said on June 23. Growth in Asia will be at the top end of that forecast, he said.
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Well, if there is anything that is resilient in AmeriKa it is the coffee houses, so....
ATLANTA -- Starbucks Corp. will close 600 US coffee shops and eliminate up to 12,000 jobs, the most in its history, as chief executive Howard Schultz slows the chain's expansion after it doubled in size in four years.
I just put in a job application! Pffffft!
Starbucks gained up to 7.2 percent in late Nasdaq trading after saying the reductions amount to 7 percent of its workforce worldwide. The cuts include full- and part-time employees and will come over the next nine months, the Seattle company said yesterday in a regulatory filing.
Seventy percent of the stores to be shut are less than three years old, the company said. The details for the locations are still being finalized, the company said.
Schultz, the 54-year-old former chief executive who regained the post in January, is coming to grips with Starbucks' declining earnings and the "overgrowth" of the past four years, said Matthew DiFrisco, an analyst at Oppenheimer & Co. in New York.
"It shows Schultz is willing to do the tough things that are necessary," James Walsh, an analyst at Coldstream Capital Management Inc. in Bellevue, Wash. said yesterday in an interview. Coldstream has $1.1 billion under management, including Starbucks shares.
Starbucks chief financial officer Peter Bocian estimated the stores were taking 25 percent to 30 percent of sales from nearby locations. The closings will hurt long-term revenue projections while helping the company achieve its profit goals, Bocian said on a conference call, without elaborating.
Yeah, it is not like any of these companies are LOSING MONEY!!!
But the MSM sure LEAVES YOU WITH THAT IMPRESSION, no?
Starbucks' sales and earnings have declined as cash-strapped consumers facing record gasoline prices pull back on gourmet coffee and other luxuries. The company still plans to open 200 other company-owned stores through September 2009.
They are EXPANDING as they are CONTRACTING?
WTF is this SHELL GAME SHIT?
Most of the closings, which include 100 disclosed previously, will be completed by next March, Starbucks said."
But, but, but... WHAT am I going to do for COFFEE?
