Sales beat estimates slightly

Sales were expected around 17.45m so it's a decently strong beat, despite some weaker numbers reported earlier in the day.

That's a good sign at first blush but there has been talk of heavy discounting so be careful in drawing conclusions about the strength of the US consumer.

Domestic sales ran at a 13.87m rate compared to 13.33m expected and 13.13m prior.

Separately, Autodata is out with its sales measure and pegs the sales rate at 17.76m.