Welcome to today's edition of the Daily 5.
It initially looked like August was a pretty good month for U.S. new-vehicle sales, with seven automakers reporting a combined sales boost of nearly 13 percent.
But nobody was celebrating. The seasonally adjusted annual rate of sales came in under expectations at 15.1 million, according to Motor Intelligence data, down nearly a point from July and the lowest level since January.
U.S. dealers understand. Their outlook for the current quarter is tepid, if not pessimistic, according to the latest Cox Automotive Dealer Sentiment Index results we reported this morning.
This all adds up to more justification for the Federal Reserve to cut interest rates this month. Wall Street today was grappling with how much of a cut could be coming, but we won't know for sure until the Fed meets Sept. 18.
The bottom line, as sales stagnate and inventories rise, is that automakers and their customers need rates to come down soon.
In other matters, there's plenty of buzz today about Elon Musk's potential conflicts of interest if the Tesla CEO becomes head of an efficiency commission being touted by Donald Trump if he regains the White House in November's election. There's some interesting debates about this, as noted in our story from Reuters.
Meanwhile, the Japanese government made it clear it wants to help automakers move ahead with electrification. Toyota, Nissan, Subaru and Mazda are planning to invest some $6.6 billion into EV battery developments in the next few years — with $2.3 billion coming from government subsidies. Our Hans Greimel explains it all in this story.
Finally, this story by Carly Schaffner tells why Kia is slow-rolling assembly of its EV9 in West Point, Ga.
Looking ahead, we'll have an exclusive report Monday on the future product plans for Tesla Inc., Rivian Automotive and the other top U.S. EV makers.
Until then, have a great weekend.
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