Stocks and Sectors

Zacks.com submits:

Shares of Ford Motor Co. (F) surged to $14.15 in afternoon trading Wednesday for the first time in five years. The stock price rose 4.9% since January 2005 before it closed at $14.10 Wednesday.

The 5-year high was primarily driven by Moody’s Investors Service’s upward revision of Ford’s corporate family rating and probability of default rating to “B2” from “B3.” The agency also lifted the company’s secured credit facility to “Ba2” from “Ba3,” and its senior unsecured debt to “B3” from “Caa1.”

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John Petersen submits:

Today we have a bit of a hodge-podge as I consider sticker shocks, delays and manufacturing capacity forecasts in the vehicle electrification and energy storage sector. Since the sticker shock and delay discussions involve recent news, I’ll touch on them first before getting into the fuzzier aspects of manufacturing capacity forecasts.

I’d like to begin with a note of thanks to one of my Seeking Alpha followers, MRTTF, for sending me links to both news stories. For readers who don’t delve into the comment streams, MRTTF is a PhD chemist who works in R&D for a leading domestic lithium-ion battery manufacturer. I truly appreciate his willingness to correct me when I make mistakes, provide technical detail that’s beyond my competence and remind overly optimistic readers "lithium-ion is best for applications where size and weight are of paramount importance and cost is no object."

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The Pragmatic Capitalist submits:

Freight traffic posted big year over year gains for the week ending March 13th. According to the AAR, railroads posted their third consecutive week of gains:

U.S. railroads originated 287,837 carloads during the week, up 3.2 percent from the comparable week in 2009, but down 12 percent from 2008. In order to offer a complete picture of the progress in rail traffic, AAR now reports 2010 weekly rail traffic with comparison weeks in both 2009 and 2008.

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Rolfe Winkler, CFA submits:

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Research Recap submits:

Despite all the problems facing automakers, Oxford Economics forecasts that motor vehicles will be the fastest growing industry in the US over the next five years, displacing medical devices which will drop out of the top 10 growth industries list. We are pleased to offer a complimentary download of Oxford Economics Sector Prospects Briefing for the US.

Oxford Economics forecasts annual growth of 16.4% for motor vehicles for the next five years. The sector had the worst performance in 2009 with a 41.6% decline. Other sectors with double digit growth forecast for the next five years are Iron and Steel (15.0%), Electric Components, Computers and Office Equipment, Motor Vehicle Bodies and Parts and Casting.

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Morningstar submits:

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Ravi Nagarajan submits:

It is so fashionable these days to read stories about a rising China and declining America that any contrarian feels almost provoked to offer a rebuttal. However, it is increasingly difficult to do so at a time when the Chinese are taking on initiatives to improve infrastructure that make American efforts seem trivial in comparison. China’s plans for high speed rail offer the type of astounding numbers that only reinforce common beliefs regarding China’s rise.

30,000 km of New Railway Over Five Years

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Larry Dignan (ZDNet) submits:

K. Venkatesh Prasad, head of Ford’s (F) infotronics research and advanced engineering team, sees the auto as one big mashup—where computing and the car cabin will meld together to create intelligence that will make a driver’s life easier. The open ended question for Prasad is how to get there.

Ford has been working diligently to create a platform that will make in-cabin technology as big of a buying point as reliability, design and safety. However, the rules for this technology push are still being written. It’s not easy to solve “the last inch” problem in a car cockpit where things like social networking, calls and other things on the Internet we take for granted come together at 70 miles per hour.

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optionMONSTER submits:

By Bryan McCormick

Ahead of FedEx’s (FDX) earnings release this morning (see transcript here upon availability), a bullish pattern is active on its daily chart.

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Market Blog submits:

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