Ford Motor Company (F) and General Motors Company (GM) reported June auto sales today
Monthly auto sales were up about 5% year-over-year in June, industry-wide. Things were more mixed for Detroit rivals
Ford Motor Company (NYSE:F) and
General Motors Company (NYSE:GM). While sales of F cars and trucks rose 2%, GM's sales slipped 3%.
Despite this fundamental divergence, the stocks are both struggling on the charts. At last check, F was 0.3% lower at $14.98 -- bringing its year-to-date deficit to 3.4% -- and GM is down an even steeper 1.1% at $32.96 (and 5.6% in 2015).
Shifting gears, sentiment toward
F has been
negative among options traders. The stock's 10-day International Securities Exchange (ISE), Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE), and NASDAQ OMX PHLX (PHLX) put/call volume ratio of 0.52 ranks in the 94th annual percentile. Echoing this, F's Schaeffer's put/call open interest ratio (SOIR) sits at 1.02, and rests just 10 percentage points from a 12-month high.
This negativity is, for the most part, shared among the brokerage crowd. In fact, 60% of covering analysts consider Ford Motor Company (NYSE:F) a "hold" or worse.
Surprisingly, Wall Street is more optimistic toward
GM. For starters, eight of 13 analysts have doled out "buy" or better ratings toward the stock, with not a single "sell" opinion to be found. If that's not enough, GM's 50-day ISE/CBOE/PHLX call/put volume ratio of 2.97 sits in the bullishly skewed 83rd annual percentile.
From a contrarian point of view, this could spell trouble. Should
sentiment shift among traders and/or analysts, General Motors (NYSE:GM) could drive into headwinds.