Toyota - gunning for number one in the U.S.
There's a convergence of interesting news about the U.S. auto market today.
First, Reuters
reports that Toyota market share surged in the first half of November. Here are the top five's numbers: GM market
share 18.8 percent, Toyota 17.9 percent, Ford 15.3 percent, DaimlerChrysler 13.6 percent, Honda 12.2 percent. More
telling are the trends year-over-year: GM down 24 percent, Ford down 30 percent, Toyota up 16 percent.
Second, Wall Street guru Jim Cramer (co-founder of TheStreet.com) titled his Friday syndicated newspaper column
"Toyota flies; GM crashes." His thesis? The market is pricing in Toyota's success and GM's failure (see the Toyota NYSE
chart above, data current at 12:30 ET). Cramer's take is that the market believes no matter what happens, GM will have
to scale back its operations in a big way, either through bankruptcy
(not in the cards, according to GM CEO Rick Wagoner) or
radical restructuring. Either way, it will come out a smaller player. In my mind, Ford is in the same boat. Who's there
to pick up the pieces? Toyota.
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