Ford could report 3rd-quarter profit

Source: Detroit Free Press

Ford Motor Co. could report a surprise third-quarter profit when it reveals its earnings next week, as well as an operating profit in its long-struggling North American division, JP Morgan analysts said Monday during a presentation to investors.

"This would be the first time North America is not in the red in recent memory," JP Morgan analyst Himanshu Patel said.

Throughout the year, Ford has gained respect from consumers because it's the only domestic automaker that passed on emergency federal loans. Through September, Ford gained a full point of U.S. market share, even though it has cut incentive spending, according to Autodata Corp.

On Monday, two JP Morgan analysts said those and several other factors would likely help Ford achieve a profit of 16 cents per share for the three months ending Sept. 30 when the company reports earnings at the end of this month. That estimate, which would translate into about $515 million, excludes special onetime charges.


Read more: http://freep.com/article/20091020/BUSINESS06/910200320/1322/Ford-could-report-3rd-quarter-profit

I know Michigan has plenty of unemployed auto workers that could use the work of building it. It's odd that they build the Focus in Michigan but the Fusion in Mexico. I would've thought it would be the other way around.

GM has had some good news too:

"According to the number-crunchers over at Edmunds.com, things are looking up for General Motors in the month of October. If preliminary figures hold up, The General's market share should come in at 22.4 percent, a notable gain from the 19.1 percent share the automaker averaged throughout the third quarter of 2009."

http://www.autoblog.com/2009/10/17/edmunds-gm-market-share-will-grow-in-october/

It's nice to finally start hearing some good news from the US automakers :)

Hybrid or otherwise. (Hybrids are only good for city driving anyway; the Focus on highway gets 46MPG of course, get into the city and that goes down a wee bit, LOL)