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Asian auto makers sharply lifted their USA market share last month due to a trend towards smaller vehicles under the cash-for-clunkers scheme and consumers’ continuing concern about the health of General Motors and Chrysler. Toyota reported a 6.4% sales increase from a year earlier, bringing it within 21,000 vehicles of GM, which has held the # 1 spot for decades. The cash-for-clunkers scheme pushed GM’s sales up by 30% from July, but they remained a 5th lower than August 2008. Among other Asian auto makers, Honda’s sales reached an August record, while Hyundai reported a 47% surge and Subaru posted its best month ever. Read more

Popularity: unranked [?]

New home sales in the USA rose last month at the fastest rate since 2005, the US Commerce Department said yesterday in a report, highlighting the case that the hammered US residential real estate market is staging a recovery. Separately, official figures showed that new orders for durable goods tallied up their biggest jump in 2 years in July, as aircraft purchases soared and the US Cash-for-Clunkers program fueled a big rise in demand for automobiles. Sales of new homes jumped by 9.6% to an adjusted annual rate of 433,000 in July. The 4th consecutive monthly rise beat even the most bullish forecasts of Wall Street analysts and exceeded the revised June jump of 9.1%. New home sales are still off by 13.4% compared with the same month a year ago. Buyers are responding to low prices and the popular 1st time home buyer tax credit which has succeeded in luring people back to the market. The median price of a new home slipped a bit to US$210,100 in July and is off by 11.5% year-on-year.

Popularity: unranked [?]

US President Barack Obama has Rock Star appeal among the investing class, except in the USA. The Quarterly Bloomberg Global Poll of financial investors and analysts finds attitudes about the new president in Asia and Europe are overwhelmingly positive. In the US, by contrast, they are slightly negative. In Europe and Asia, 87% of respondents say they view Obama positively, compared with just 49% in the US. His standing among American investors is even lower on economic matters: only a quarter of US poll respondents rate his economic policies as “good” or “excellent,” compared with more than half in Europe and Asia. President Obama’s “stratospheric favorability ratings” outside the US after five months in office are related to attitudes about his predecessor, former President George W. Bush. “It speaks as much to the visceral distaste for George Bush outside of the US,” she says. In Europe and Asia, more than four of five poll respondents choose Obama over Bush as the president offering better economic leadership. In the US, investors pick Bush, 43% to 41%.

Popularity: 2% [?]

Insurers in the USA, Germany and Switzerland say a pledge announced last week at a meeting of the world’s biggest polluters to limit global temperatures is essential to controlling the cost of protecting property. Munich Re, the biggest reinsurer, and Zurich Financial Services AG back the target set by the European Union, the USA and 15 more nations to hold the planet to within 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 Fahrenheit) of pre-industrial times.

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Popularity: 2% [?]

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. said last week that its US customers are spending more on discretionary items, as payroll taxes come down and gasoline prices fall. The world’s largest retailer is seeing customers treat themselves to items such as sporting goods and bedding, using the money they have, now that those costs have retreated, Wal-Mart U.S. CEO Eduardo Castro-Wright said. Wal-Mart USA also reported that it had a strong Easter, an important season for the US chain. The recent US economic stimulus package included lower withholding taxes for many Americans. At the same time, gasoline prices are more than 30 percent lower this year than last year, he said. Wal-Mart has attracted more customers in the recession as people look to save money on everyday items such as food and diapers.

Popularity: 3% [?]

Crude Oil prices rose more than US$2bbl last Friday, to hit a four week high on support from improved US Consumer confidence and evidence of record levels of compliance by OPEC with its agreed output cuts. US Crude Oil futures jumped US$2.08 to settle at US$53.20bbl, after hitting US$53.65, the highest since April 3. Brent Crude settled up US$2.05 at US$52.85.The gains came after a survey showed consumers in the USA, the world’s top energy user, felt more confident about the economy in April than at any time since September 2008. “This should push this market higher,” said Nauman Barakat, senior vice president at Macquarie Futures USA. Equity markets also gained, continuing a strong trend in recent weeks of commodity markets riding in tandem with Wall Street and other global shares.

Popularity: 5% [?]