The latest Market Talks covering the Auto and Transport sector. Published exclusively on Dow Jones Newswires at 4:20 ET, 12:20 ET and 16:50 ET.

1617 GMT - After a tough quarter for Ford Motor's profits, the company is reporting a bounce-back in sales of its profit-boosting gas-powered trucks. The automaker says F-series truck sales rose 26% from a year earlier in October. Results are benefiting from an easy year-ago comparison because of the UAW strike, but the 67,483 trucks sold is still a steep sequential increase from the 58,736 sold in September, according to Motor Intelligence data. Ford's 3Q results last week troubled investors after profit took a hit from the company's EV business. Continued losses from battery-powered cars and trucks put more pressure on Ford's trucks and SUVs to carry results. Shares rise 1.8%. (ben.glickman@wsj.com; @benglickman)

1534 GMT - Nancy Vanden Houten of Oxford Economics infers that the two big hurricanes in the Southeast were partially responsible for greater auto sales in October. Storm damage sends owners shopping for replacements. Oxford estimates the storms will boost replacement demand by about 100,000 when all is said and done. Looking ahead, car sales may keep up the momentum into next year, lifted by a resilient economy, a solid labor market and lower interest rates, Vanden Houten writes. Oxford expects the annualized vehicle-sales volume to stay above 16 million into 2025. (matt.grossman@wsj.com, @mattgrossman)

1501 GMT - Ford's October U.S. sales report sheds more light on the automaker's decision to tap the brakes on production of its all-electric F-150 Lightning pickup truck. Ford says it sold 1,863 of the pickups last month, roughly half of year-ago sales levels. Ford had sold about 23,000 Lightning pickups in the U.S. through September, up almost 90% year over year. Ford last week said it plans to temporarily stop production of the F-150 Lightning in a pause amounting to about six weeks of output. Ford up 2.6% to $10.49. (colin.kellaher@wsj.com)

0920 GMT - Ryanair has scope for more shareholder returns with free cashflow yields stepping up to over 10% by fiscal 2026 as capital expenditures decrease, RBC Capital Markets analyst Ruairi Cullinane says in a note. The budget airline lowers 3Q unit costs slightly on fuel hedge savings, strong interest income and a modest aircraft-delay compensation. Passenger numbers are expected to rise around 8% to with a 198 million to 200 million range for fiscal 2025, but it lowers expectations for fiscal 2026 to 210 million from a previous 215 million passengers given Boeing's aircraft-delivery delays. "We see longer term attractions to Ryanair's low-cost, and relatively high-margin--and so high return on capital employed/return on invested capital--business model," Cullinane says.(anthony.orunagoriainoff@dowjones.com)

0824 GMT - Although Ryanair's 2Q average fares fell, it maintained its pricing strategy, Davy Research analysts Stephen Furlong and Ava Costello say in a note. The low-cost carrier has agreed on 14 deals with around 90% of online travel agents, and this could lead to positive momentum into summer 2025, the analysts say. The airline expects full-year costs to be broadly flat as fuel savings, strong interest income and modest aircraft-delay compensation from Boeing will largely offset ex-fuel cost inflation, the analysts say. Davy leaves its net profit estimates of around 1.6 billion euros for FY 2025 and 1.9 billion euros for FY 2026 largely unchanged. Shares are down 3.05% at 17.47 euros. (anthony.orunagoriainoff@dowjones.com)

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

November 04, 2024 12:20 ET (17:20 GMT)

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