GM stock hits 33-year low as markets plummet
GM stock hits 33-year low as markets plummet
Automotive News | June 6, 2008 - 2:48 pm EST
Shares of General Motors set a 33-year low today at $16.22, and much of the auto industry’s stock got beaten up as the Dow Jones industrial average closed down 394 points — a 3.1 percent decline.
GM shares closed at the low point of the day, a 4.69 percent drop from the stock’s close on Thursday, June 5.
GM shares haven’t traded at this level since the height of the energy crisis in December 1974, when they bottomed at $15.25 a share, according to YahooFinance.
Oil prices closed at $138.54 a barrel, rising 8.8 percent for the biggest one-day gain in the market’s history. The jump came after a Morgan Stanley analyst said oil prices could hit $150 a barrel by July 4, and the Israeli transport minister said an attack on Iran looked “unavoidable” because sanctions had failed to keep Iran from enriching uranium.
American Axle & Manufacturing Holdings Inc. also saw its share price hit a 52-week low today at $15.55. American Axle stock closed at 15.59, a 2.93 percent drop from the previous day’s close.
Ford Motor Co.’s stock closed down 5.63 percent at $6.04.
The nation’s largest auto dealership groups also got hit hard today. AutoNation Inc. fell 6.53 percent to $14.46. Group 1 Automotive Inc. was down 5.2 percent to $24.38.
Suppliers struggled too, with shares of Visteon Corp. falling 6.82 percent to $3.76 and shares of Johnson Controls Inc. falling 5.68 percent to $31.54.
A poll released Thursday by Ipsos Public Affairs found that at $4-a-gallon gasoline, 76 percent of Americans would alter their driving behavior. According to the American Automobile Association, the average fuel price today was $3.98 a gallon for regular unleaded gasoline.
