by Calculated Risk on 10/25/2023 02:41:00 PM

From WardsAuto: October U.S. Light-Vehicle Sales Looking Good Despite Strike-Related Inventory Losses (pay content).  Brief excerpt:

Sales are showing surprising strength in October despite the inventory hits taken at Ford, GM and Stellantis from strike-related plant shutdowns. Still, industry inventory at the end of the month will be lower by an estimated 5% because of the shutdowns, and November deliveries will be negatively impacted, too, as the rest of the industry will not be in a strong position to make up the to-date losses at the Detroit 3.
emphasis added

Click on graph for larger image.

This graph shows actual sales from the BEA (Blue), and Wards forecast for October (Red).

On a seasonally adjusted annual rate basis, the Wards forecast of 16.0 million SAAR, would be up 2% from last month, and up 9% from a year ago.

Vehicle sales are usually a transmission mechanism for Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) policy, although far behind housing.  This time vehicle sales were more suppressed by supply chain issues and have picked up recently.