GM and Ford Canadian auto sales soar in November

General Motors was gaining 5.52 percent to $36.44.

Auto sales are running at near-record levels as the US economy continues to expand with little inflation and with relatively low gasoline prices spurring demand for pickups and SUVs.

Plus, deals were plentiful.

GM’s stock has received different recommendations from Financial Analysts, according to data provided by FactSet. Incentives now average $3,475 per vehicle industry-wide. “Black Friday advertising, both in the automotive sector and elsewhere, played a big role in driving increased demand and costs in November”. The corporation holds 124.79 million outstanding shares and its 112.23 million shares were floated in the market. But on the whole, November was still quite lucrative for the industry.

Editor’s note: An earlier version of this story overstated the Explorer’s sales increase in November.

Ford’s sales last month were driven in part by new vehicles such as its recently redesigned Super Duty. “With the help of substantial incentives and holiday sales events, especially Black Friday weekend, retail sales will see the most significant improvements”. That makes it the highest November on record, beating the previous record of 1.32 million set in 2001, according to Kelley Blue Book. The breakdown of the increase recorded for its brands are as follows: Chevrolet was up by 8.1%, GMC increased 14.1%, Cadillac rose 14.5%, and Buick increased by 16.1%, as reported in USA Today.

The company said it is ahead of its planned pace of selling its 2016 model-year inventory, an encouraging sign for pricing and therefore profitability.

GM stock jumped 3.6% to $35.76 at 9:54 a.m. For the first 11 months of 2016, F-Series pickup sales are up 5.5% year over year.

The sharp decline in GDP growth during the first half the year did fray a lot of nerves as retailers, auto companies and home improvement stores found it hard to hold on to their sales growth trajectories.

The company’s flagship Ford brand was up 4.6%.

Brian Johnson of Barclays said an expected rise in interest rates and a tightening of easy credit may pressure sales in 2017. Ford brand sales are down 0.3% at 2,275,910 units delivered.

On the domestic front, the laggard was Fiat Chrysler. Dodge sales fell by 2 percent. FCA fleet sales were down 42% year over year as the automaker continues to reduce its sales to the daily rental segment. All brands saw double-digit percentage declines except Ram, which was up 12 percent on strong sales of pickups and the ProMaster commercial van. The Dearborn, Michigan-based company’s shares climbed as much as 7 percent to $12.80, the biggest intraday gain since October 2012. Sales from Ford’s luxury auto brand Lincoln saw strong demand, with an increase of 19% over the year-ago period. Toyota sold 197,645 vehicles, while Nissan sold 115,136.

Lincoln sales rose 19% (more on that in a second), which was impressive, but SUVs really stole the show with a 20% gain compared to the prior November. Incentive spending by automakers averaged an estimated $3,475 per vehicle in November, TrueCar estimates. Ford-branded cars accounted for 40,039 units sold, with the C-MAX and Police Interceptor Sedan seeing sales increases of 5.4% and 20.8%, respectively. On Aug 8, 2016, John C Lechleiter (director) purchased 5,000 shares at $12.26 per share price, according to the Form-4 filing with the securities and exchange commission.