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Wow. Did you see the price of stock for GM & Ford? This is crazy. Does this look like what the End of Packard looked like? I wasn't alive back than, but wonder if this might be the beginning of the merger of GM & FORD? They might have to if they want to survive. Sad days for the American Auto Industry. (I do not want this to get into politics, just the automotive side of it!)

GM shares fall to lowest level since 1950
Thursday October 9, 11:53 am ET

DETROIT (Reuters) - General Motors Corp (NYSE:GM - News) shares fell as much as 21.6 percent to their lowest level since 1950 on Thursday amid financial market turmoil and the car maker's report of European sales declines through the first nine months of 2008.


GM, whose shares fell as low as $5.42 on the New York Stock Exchange, blamed the credit crisis and inflation for hurting consumer confidence in Europe, where its sales have declined 1.9 percent in 2008 through September.


Citigroup also cut GM and Ford Motor Co (NYSE:F - News) to "sell" ratings on Wednesday.

Ford shares fell 20 cents, or 7.5 percent, to $2.46 on Thursday. Ford stock had reached its lowest level in a quarter century on Wednesday, falling as low as $2.10.

GM shares were off $1.01, or 14.6 percent, at $5.90.

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Rather than merge with Ford, I'd think that GM would start buying up some of its own stock (likely after a forthcoming downgrade) and wait for a turnaround to cash in at a tidy profit.

That could also be a real buying opportunity for investor, but I'd wait until you're sure the market has hit bottom and has turned around - though that could be months away.

In the meantime, either Ford or GM could be ripe for a hostile takeover from a company that's in better financial shape, but hopefully not the likes of Cerberus Capital.

Now is the best time in the world to invest in just about anything. I finally started investing mid July. For some not the best of times. However, I made money.You can make money. I made $700 in one day with Freddie Mac when it dropped to 50 cents a share. If I would have been quicker with my on-line investing I could have made more. As for GM and Ford the US government cannot afford to let them go bancrupt. Their retirement liabilites are too much for the government to want to absorb. Buy GM, a 5.00 it is a real bargain. It will be back to 10.00 (which is my short term
benchmark) within a week. Buy anything. You will make money. This is the time to buy. but, you have to watch the market everyday and sell. or buy when you feel anxious. Do
not fall in love with a stock. This is not a long term market. If you want to make money Buy and sell daily. I had 26 transactions in the last 30 days. But my daughters weeking fund is 2 1/2 times my initial investment.

There are a couple of articles today that GM & Chrysler have been and are talking merger. GM to get the car division of Chrysler since they apparently are already working closely on some forthcoming stuff and Chrysler (Cerberus) to get GMAC financial since they already own 51%. Daimler also wants out of the remaining 20% of Chrysler they still own.

Other analysts say they don't think it will happen because GM will still need a lot of cash they (Chrysler) don't have to do the deal. Interesting either way.

Casey. What is a "weeking fund" ????

Yes, i would think GM and F are once in a lifetime superb gambles at this point. If Gm and F go under then the US will have bigger problems than worrying about $700 billion.



Any other good recommendations besides GM and F ??? Especialy in the $2 - $7 range???? Especialy any with P/E's below 5.

I've also been trying to determine who the big money boys are at Cerberus. Any ideas???

When Daimler took over Chrysler I thought that when that happened good things were going to happen. Turns out Daimler really screwed thing up at Chrysler.


John F. Shireman

casey rog -

I agree there are some buying opportunities in the market and that GM could be one of them, but it's gonna be a long road back.

However, I doubt if GM will be back to $10 a share withing a week. While the stock IS undervalued, further depressed by panic selling, the company is terribly screwed up.

Also, I don't believe we have seen the last of bank failures, which will further upset the market. I have taken most of my money out of a large multi-state bank (that, over the years, gave me less service as they got bigger) and put it in the hands of a bank that didn't play this sub-prime game.

If you can afford to buy thosuands of shares at a time and can watch the tading all day, you might make thousands, but the turn of an unfriendly card can cost you thousands, too.

Too risky for me. I got out of the market in July, which cost me a couple more thou, but saved me several more in the months since.

A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.

Don't discount oil and resource stocks. Some of these are trading at only 3 times earnings! Freeport-McMoran the copper giant had a 52 week high of $127 and now trades at $36! I am a buy and hold kind of investor and at my age more interested in dividends and yield than capital gains. I am going to wait until I see a trend either way befor committing. Most of my investments are in bonds and preferreds so I have a bit of cash to move into common shares. personally I find auto companies pretty risky.

HH56 -

That sounds almost like S-P all over again

However, while combining Studebaker and Packard product lines gave the appearance of broader market coverage (and might have worked if they had been able to move forward with the sahred-body/platform concept), all you have with GM-Chrysler is more product overlap and plant capacity - too much, in fact.

For that reason, I don't believe that Ford-Chrysler would work, either.

Unfortunately, I believe that Chrysler's best chance (and to get rid of Cerberus) is to be acquired by another foreign automaker whose product lines would be complemented by theirs. Then, pare down the Jeep line to just a few models, and make any overlapping models between the brands more distinctive.

Unless you clean house WRT to top management, I think GM could be a lost cause. It's a shame to see a company, with so many engineering resources and such a broad dealer network still at their disposal, produce such an overly-complicated, underwhelming, over-priced line-up of vehicles.

BH wrote: "Unless you clean house WRT to top management, I think GM could be a lost cause."

YES! That will be the key to GM's future. As well as Americas. A thorough house cleaning at all companies, all the way down to mid-level management as well as Government at ALL levels is LONG overdue. Then in 2012 clean house again in government.

Never let a politician have a second term.