Has Asia Dethroned Detroit as the Auto Sector Leader?

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View This Message on the Web November 6 Has Asia Dethroned Detroit as the Auto Sector Leader? By Martin Hutchinson Contributing Editor Money Morning Back in May I recommended that readers should buy shares in Ford Motor Co. (NYSE: F) on the grounds that the U.S. carmaker would gain market share from the bankrupt General Motors Corp. (OTC: MTLQQ) and Chrysler Group LLC. Ford’s third-quarter profit and healthy October sales growth show I called that one right. One doesn’t like to blow one’s own trumpet excessively, but if you’d followed my advice in May, you would today be sitting on a profit of nearly 50%. However, while I admire Ford for its brilliant strategic decision not to cave in and accept government-sponsored bankruptcy, and wish it well in its future battles with GM and Chrysler, I’m not sure the company that Henry founded represents the future for the global automobile industry. Read Full Article » The Smartest Gold Investment You Can Make Today It takes as little as 5 minutes and $10…and you can do it from the comfort of your home. But this one move has the potential to double your money in the next 6-9 months - automatically. One of the country’s leading gold analysts will show you exactly how to make use of this fast emerging opportunity - for free. Click here for all the details. Sponsored content Is the Government Rehabilitating the Economy or Delaying the Inevitable? By Peter D. Schiff Guest Columnist Money Morning While all the talk at present is about economic corners turned and markets charging ahead, no one is paying much notice to an American economy that’s deteriorating right before our eyes. These myopic commentators seem to be simply moving past the now almost-universally held conclusion that, before the crash of 2008, our economy was on an unsustainable course. If these imbalances had been corrected, then perhaps I, too, would be joining in the euphoria. But evidence abounds that we have not veered at all from that dangerous path. Read Full Article » Investment News Briefs With our investment news briefs, Money Morning provides investors with a quick overview of the most important investing news stories from all around the world. Retail Sales Slump; U.K. Government Fines UBS $13.3 Million; Exxon and Shell Sign Iraq Oil Contract; BOE Expands Quantitative Easing; FBI Arrests 14 in Galleon Probe; Petrobras Finds Gas in Peru; Shares of Ancestry.com Soar on IPO; Mortgage Rates Drop Below 5% More than half of U.S. retail chains posted October sales that fell short of Wall Street's heightened expectations in an ominous sign for the upcoming holiday season, Reuters reported. "October results are not going to give investors the overall warm and fuzzy that we're on track for a strong Christmas," said Brean Murray, Carret & Co analyst Eric Beder, "It looks like we're on track for kind of a mediocre season right now based upon October." Department store chains and teen retailers were especially hard hit by consumer reluctance. Swiss bank UBS AG (NYSE: UBS) yesterday (Thursday) received a $13.3 million (8 million pound) fine from the British government for management failures that allowed employees to make unauthorized trades with customers' accounts, The Associated Press reported. Four employees and at least 39 accounts in UBS' wealth management business were involved in the unauthorized transactions, which took place in 2006 and 2007. UBS has paid more than $42 million compensation to the wealthy customers who were affected. Exxon Mobil Corp. (NYSE: XOM) and Royal Dutch Shell PLC(NYSE ADR: RDS.A, RDS.B) yesterday (Thursday) won the right to develop Iraq’s giant West Qurna oilfield. The agreement is the third such deal this year and marks the first time a U.S.-led consortium will re-enter Iraq’s oil industry in more than 30 years, The Financial Times reported. The Bank of England (BOE) yesterday (Thursday) said it would expand its policy of quantitative easing, by $41.5 billion (25 billion pounds). The increase brings the central bank's total asset-buying program to $332 billion (200 billion pounds), the equivalent of more than 14% of Great Britain’s gross domestic product (GDP).  U.S. prosecutors expanded the massive insider trading case against Galleon Group when the FBI charged 14 more people, including hedge fund managers and an ex-employee of Galleon, with securities violations.  Zvi Goffer, a former Galleon employee, and Craig Drimal, who worked at the Manhattan firm’s offices, were arrested yesterday (Thursday) the FBI said. Goffer, the alleged ringleader of the scheme and founder of Incremental Capital LLC, paid his tipsters for information on mergers and acquisitions, and gave them pre-paid mobile phones to avoid detection, as part of a probe of an alleged insider trading scheme totaling $40 million the government said. Five of those charged pleaded guilty, Bloomberg News reported. Peruvian President Alan Garcia indicated Brazil's Petrobras SA (ADR NYSE: PBR) has about 1 trillion cubic feet of natural gas in Peru's Amazon jungle and the discovery of could turn out to be much larger, Reuters reported. The new discovery might calm a controversy that has nagged Garcia. His critics say plans to export liquefied natural gas might crimp domestic supplies in the future. "They are talking about 1 trillion and a half cubic feet in the first well which some experts at Perupetro say could reach more than 5 tcf," Garcia said on RPP radio. Perupetro is Peru's agency that sells oil and gas concessions. Shares of Ancestry.com Inc., the world’s largest online provider of family histories, surged on the first day of trading after raising $100 million in an initial public offering. The Provo, Utah-based company’s shares advanced as much as $1.25, or 9.3%, to $14.75 in Nasdaq Stock Market composite trading. Ancestry.com, private-equity firms Spectrum Equity Investors and W Capital Partners, and other owners sold 7.41 million shares at $13.50 each, the midpoint of its forecast range in its IPO. The sale valued the company at about $572 million.  “They’re the leader in the market,” Eric Guja, an analyst at Renaissance Capital LLC in Greenwich, Connecticut told Bloomberg. “Their profit margins are impressive.” Mortgage rates for 30-year fixed U.S. home loans fell for the first time in a month this week as the Federal Reserve pledged to keep its benchmark rate near zero for an extended period.  The average 30-year mortgage rate declined to 4.98% from 5.03%. The 15-year rate was 4.40%, mortgage buyer Freddie Mac (NYSE: FRE) of McLean, Virginia, said today in a statement, according to Bloomberg. Read Full Article » Money Map Report Login » What is 'the third element'? 11/05/2009 Soaring Productivity, Drop in New Benefits Claims Provide Silver Lining in the Dour Jobs Market 11/05/2009 China Fuming Over the Latest U.S. Trade Complaint 11/04/2009 Euro Leaders Outraged as GM Backs Out of Opel Deal Feature Why the Pros Are Investing Billions in Oil See More » The Week Ahead November 2 U.S. Auto Sales (10/09) November 3 Factory Orders (10/09)   Federal Reserve Board Meets November 4 Federal Reserve Issues Policy Statement November 5 Retail Sales for Chain Stores (10/09) November 6 Unemployment Report (10/09) Worth Considering This Market is (Finally) Heating Up -- Get in Before Its Too Late Buy, Sell, or Hold? by Horacio Márquez Insights on Income by Martin Hutchinson Inside Wall Street? by Shah Gilani When and How the U.S. Economy Will Recover Three Big Reasons Oil Prices Will Rally Back Big Time Alternative Energy Asia Commodities Europe Global Markets Gold/Precious Metals Oil Real Estate Technology U.S. Economy

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