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Letter to the Editor

This article originally appeared in the October 2009 Issue of INSIGHT

Sense - Ability

This time of year Mother Nature makes us Midwesterners very aware of the Autumn changes. I enjoy a brisk walk in the woods, crunching through many-colored leaves, and dodging wildly falling acorns. I can even smell the difference in the brisker air. My senses are on alert for Fall.

If only changes on Wall Street could be sensed as easily! My ability to predict the ups and downs of the Stock Market is occasionally on target, and sometimes misses the mark completely. It seems to me that we are in a very slowly and cautiously recovering Market.

Only one of our industry-related supplier stocks and two of the insurers we track are in the red for their per share stock prices YTD. Our Collision Repair Supplier Index is up over 31 percent from its dismal January mark. However, I cannot get too excited about it. It speaks more to how bad our industry-related stocks looked at the beginning of the year than to big successes as the year winds down.

Our national car dealerships are continuing to post huge percentage gains over their initial 2009 per share stock prices. Sonic Automotive dipped a little this month to $10.94 per share, but its per share price is still up a very respectable 168 percent YTD. Penske Automotive has doubled its New Year per share price, selling at $17.19 per share. CarMax has continued to climb nicely at the Dow, too, with its per share price up about 133 percent. AutoNation is on cruise control this month, posting an almost 74 percent improvement per share compared to its low January price of $10.64.

Our paint and refinish manufacturers had a calm month on Wall Street, with Akzo-Nobel, DuPont, and PPG all holding steady about 30 percent over their New Year’s spots. Valspar’s per share stock price hit $27.50 this month, a very tidy increase YTD of almost 49 percent. Sherwin-Williams, however, lost some ground this month on Wall Street. The company’s per share stock price of $60.00 slipped back to only one penny above its January price.

Progressive had a stronger showing this month than our other industry-related insurer stocks, posting a nearly 13 percent improvement in its stock price.

-Charles Baker-

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