A snapshot of bike and ATV industry share performance across key manufacturers and major global markets at the trading week closure on Friday 11 November 2022. BDN financial editor Roger Willis reports.
USA — SAVED BY THE BELL
Wall Street’s eternal optimists cheered exultantly after the US Federal Reserve central bank announced that annualised American consumer price inflation for October had dropped to 7.7%, beating an estimate of 8% and sharply down on 8.2% in September. This news inevitably fuelled speculation about the Fed henceforth slowing its pace of repeated interest-rate increases. But the aforementioned optimists blithely ignored a warning from Fed chairman Jerome Powell that the US was still facing a serious recession.
Markets rallied dramatically in response, as evidenced by surging indices. The blue-chip S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average respectively closed on big gains of 5.9% and 4.1% for the week. S&P’s MidCap 400 stacked on 5.3%. The tech-heavy NASDAQ Composite beat them all, 8.1% up.
HOGOMETER
After rising by 0.5% on Monday, Harley-Davidson shares began to slide, 0.4% down on Tuesday and 1.7% in arrears on Wednesday. Then the Fed revelation provoked a spectacular 5.6% single-session hike on Thursday, followed by a further 2.2% improvement on Friday.
Harley’s sparky sideshow LiveWire wasn’t so electrifying, with consecutive losses of 0.9% on Monday, 0.7% on Tuesday and a painful 8.8% on Wednesday. And then its share price remained negative by 0.2% on Thursday when the NYSE was going berserk in an opposing direction. Friday’s rebound of 4.8% undid some of the damage.
| Currency: dollar | Price | Week | Month |
| Harley-Davidson | 48.24 | +6.4% | +34.4% |
| Polaris Industries | 116.62 | +12.6% | +21.8% |
| Textron | 70.88 | +3.4% | +18.4% |
| Ideanomics (Energica) | 0.26 | -3.7% | +23.8% |
| Niu Technologies | 3.22 | +2.9% | N/A |
| LiveWire | 6.55 | -7.2% | -12% |
EUROPE — FULLY GASSED
Even though falling US inflation had no direct bearing on European sentiment, the general sense of bonhomie it elicited was reinforced by mercifully falling gas prices throughout Europe, thanks to warmer autumnal weather and greater than expected supplies.
The benefit to gas-dependent industrial majors throughout the eurozone, obviously including big automotive manufacturers, was thus reflected in positive key market indices. Germany’s Xetra Dax in Frankfurt prospered by 5.7% and the Borsa Italiana FTSE MIB in Milan put on 5%. BMW, Volkswagen and Piaggio were notable winners.
| Currency: euro | Price | Week | Month |
| BMW | 84.24 | +5.6% | +12.3% |
| Volkswagen | 190.50 | +9.5% | +17% |
| Pierer Mobility | 57.80 | N/A | +1.2% |
| Piaggio Group | 2.79 | +6.9% | +25.1% |
JAPAN — CRUNCHING THE NUMBERS
With the Japanese quarterly corporate reporting season in full swing, Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 share index responded to some excellent results, gaining 3.9% in a third consecutive week of positivity. Among motorcycle manufacturers, Honda was the only loser, somewhat unfairly judged because its car division grossly underperformed half-year earnings estimates, despite very strong turnover and profitability from bikes. Yamaha, which charted impressive nine-monthly recovery, got the greatest share price reward.
| Currency: yen | Price | Week | Month |
| Honda | 3335 | -1.5% | +1.7% |
| Yamaha | 3465 | +12.3% | +18.1% |
| Suzuki | 5184 | +3.2% | +9.8% |
| Kawasaki | 2861 | +9.7% | +21.5% |
INDIA — WINTER BLUES
The peak sales season now well and truly finished post-Diwali, Indian investors grew more circumspect about risk. Mumbai’s BSE Sensex stock index struggled to a modest 1.4% gain and four out of India’s five leading motorcycle manufacturers lost value. The exception, market leader Hero MotoCorp, bucked this trend with news that it is now pouring enormous resources into playing catch-up on electrification.
| Currency: rupee | Price | Week | Month |
| Hero MotoCorp | 2668.50 | +3.1% | +5.2% |
| Bajaj Auto | 3727.65 | -1.2% | +4.4% |
| TVS Motor | 1107.45 | -0.6% | +2.7% |
| Eicher Motors | 3519.65 | -4% | +1.2% |
| Mahindra | 1287.10 | -3.8% | +4.6% |
CHINA — CHANGE OF TUNE
After China’s National Health Commission had categorically denied any change to stringent Covid prevention measures, thereby killing off a rumour-fuelled stock market rally, the Beijing government mysterious relented. Some reductions of zero-Covid lockdown severity would indeed be introduced, to boost flagging economic growth. So half way through the week, markets indices began to recover again. Shanghai’s SSE Composite and the blue-chip CSI 300 eventually closed on slightly marginal respective 0.5% and 0.6% weekly gains. However, most listed motorcycle manufacturers were too slow to jump on this latest bandwagon.
| Currency: yuan | Price | Week | Month |
| Qianjiang | 22.23 | -3.7% | +2% |
| Zongshen | 6.43 | -3.5% | +3.3% |
| Sundiro | 2.46 | +2.1% | -2.4% |
| CETC (Jialing) | 14.30 | -2.4% | +8.1% |
| Lifan | 4.51 | -2.4% | -3% |
| Loncin | 5.85 | +8.1% | +15.6% |
| Linhai | 9.25 | +7.9% | +13.4% |
| Guangzhou Auto | 12.06 | -4.4% | -5.3% |
| CFMoto | 139.00 | -4.1% | +1.3% |
| Xinri E-Vehicle | 21.29 | -5.3% | +3.8% |
| Currency:Â HK dollar | Price | Week | Month |
| Jianshe | 5.09 | -1.5% | -1% |