A view into how hard shortages are hitting
GM revealed today that Q3 sales fell 32.8% from a year earlier due to supply shortages, worse than industry analysts who were expecting around 30%.
Here's a chart from Hedgeye that estimates US auto inventories:
The problem is that you simply can't find a car to buy and if you do, you have to pay full price or higher.
We will be getting more auto sales numbers today and next week.
I've written recently about how auto sales are a perfect glimpse into all the post-pandemic problems because they show bottleneck inflation but also show that consumers will cut back on purchases due to higher prices -- a sign they're not expecting prices to remain high.
If prices begin to rise again it will mean that consumers have decided that price hikes aren't transitory and the Fed would have a problem on its hands.
Auto sales:
