The chairman of the German government-backed trust designed to oversee the sale of Opel has said that GM cannot afford to keep control of the European unit, as it needs to focus on its fortunes stateside.  According to the New York Times, the company's Vice President maintains that it wishes to sell but that certain questions remain.  The president of AvtoVAZ, Boris Alyoshin, has resigned.  Russia plans to create a holding company to put together the state's stakes in the country's two biggest car makers, Avtovaz and Kamaz.  Car manufacturer Gaz is adapting to the conditions of a low-demand market, says its CEO.  The Moscow Times reports that the number of consumers planning to buy a car within the next year has doubled to 6%.  VTB has acquired rights to a controlling stake in developer Don ...

For Immediate Release

Chicago, IL – July 29, 2009 – Zacks.com announces the list of stocks featured in the Analyst Blog. Every day the Zacks Equity Research analysts discuss the latest news and events impacting stocks and the financial markets. Stocks recently featured in the blog include: SRS Labs (SRSL), Techwell (TWLL), Garmin (GRMN), Panasonic (PC) and Ford (F).

Get the most recent insight from Zacks Equity Research with the free Profit from the Pros newsletter: http://at.zacks.com/?id=5513

Here are highlights from Tuesday’s Analyst Blog:

Auto Electronics Poised for Growth

A recent iSuppli report painted a brighter picture for the auto industry, and the electronics segment of the industry in particular. Auto sales are expected to increase in the second half of the year, growing up to 5.7% in 2010. Electronic components, such as audio head units,

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A recent iSuppli report painted a brighter picture for the auto industry, and the electronics segment of the industry in particular. Auto sales are expected to increase in the second half of the year, growing up to 5.7% in 2010. Electronic components, such as audio head units, personal navigation devices (PNDs), advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS), embedded telematics systems and Bluetooth are expected to benefit.

This should be good news for companies like SRS Labs (SRSL), Techwell (TWLL), Garmin (GRMN) and TomTom.

SRS management stated that its auto business fared better than the overall auto industry in the first quarter. The company’s customers in the auto market are Panasonic (PC), Kenwood, Pioneer and Fujitsu-Ten.

Comments made by car makers such as Ford (F) that demand for cars incorporating electronics exceeds demand for cars without them further validates this view. Techwell’s video decoding systems are targeted at navigation, entertainment

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And it’s one, two, three, What are we fighting for? Don’t ask me, I don’t give a damn, Next stop is Vietnam; And it’s five, six, seven, Open up the pearly gates, Well there ain’t no time to wonder why, Whoopee! We’re all gonna die.

– Country Joe & the Fish, “I Feel Like I’m Fixin’ To Die Rag”

Robert McNamara must have been in a hurry too. He never had time to wonder why he was sending 500,000 American boys to fight a war when Lyndon Johnson was “publicly promising in campaign speeches not to ‘go North,’ not to send American boys to fight wars Asian boys ought to fight for themselves,” as an editorial appearing in the June 17, 1971 issue of The Washington Post put it.

Both the International Herald Tribune and the Financial Times describe the former Secretary of Defense as the “architect” of the Vietnam War. This is news to

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For Immediate Release

Chicago, IL - June 11, 2009 - Zacks Equity Research highlights SINA Corp. (SINA) as the Bull of the Day and Koninklijke Philips Electronics N.V. (PHG) the Bear of the Day. In addition, Zacks Equity Research provides analysis on Masco (MAS), Dryships (DRYS) and Ford (F).

Full analysis of all these stocks is available at http://at.zacks.com/?id=2676.

Here is a synopsis of all five stocks:

Bull of the Day:

SINA Corp. (SINA) is a leading provider of online media and value-added information services to the global Chinese community. The company posted a year-over-year increase in revenue, but results were below our estimates. SINA provided encouraging Q2 guidance.

However, economic growth in the country has continued to slow during to the global downturn. The company is also facing severe competition in

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The recession is moderating, though growth will not occur in the second halfThe June Beige Book confirmed what I have been saying for weeks: the pace of deterioration has slowed. Five districts said that the "downward trend is showing signs of moderating."Counter-balancing this was the expectation that there will not be "a substantial increase in economic activity" throughout the remainder of the year. Again, this is inline what with the trends I'm drawing from the economic and earnings estimate revision data. Conditions are improving, but we are nowhere near to getting out the woods.On the positive side, signs of improvement were noted in import and export activity, discount retail and lower-priced homes. Though this might sound like good news for Masco (MAS) or Dryships (DRYS), it's important to note that we're still far from a recovery in housing or transportation....

Euro goes back and forth over 1.43…Eurozone unemployment rises to 9.2%…Australia’s GDP surprises! Is it protectionism? And Now… Today’s Pfennig!

Good day… And a Wonderful Wednesday to you! I’m draggin’ the line today, as I was helping my oldest son, Andrew, with things in his brand, spankin’ new house, last night. Congrats to Andrew, for finding a great bargain, with a low, fixed, interest rate!

OK… Whew! What a day in the currencies yesterday! Another day, and another day of wild swings.. Volatility is the name of the game these days… Watching, for instance, the euro trade down to 1.4220, and then up to 1.4320 and not just on a one-way ticket! Oh No! this is a bounce here a bounce there… But just like it was going from 1.41 to 1.42, it took a few times over the 1.42 figure before it finally stuck, and headed to 1.43… All the other

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TODAY: US disappointed with Russia's stance on OSCE; Medvedev hopeful on Obama talks; Abkhazia's President Bagapsh wary of Russian control; Russia suggests ruble reserve currency for G8; prognosis not good for Russia-EU; gay rights parade broken up Talks on replacing the START treaty will begin today, the Economist reports.  President Medvedev is apparently optimistic that in his upcoming meeting with President Obama even thorny topics will be discussed.  US defense missile sites in Eastern Europe, one such example, will apparently be on the agenda.  Will OSCE monitoring also be?  Washington is apparently frustrated with Russia's veto of the security watchdog's activity in Georgia.  'It is disappointing and we hope that Russia will reverse its stance',  says a State Department spokesman.  An article ...

HONG KONG SPECIAL ADMINISTRATIVE REGION, People’s Republic of China – As deep as the U.S. auto industry’s financial crisis seems to be, there may actually be a fairly simple solution. Sell out to China. Nearly a decade ago, I warned that Detroit’s Big Three – General Motors Corp. [GM: 1.09, -0.06 (-5.22%)], Ford Motor Co. [F: 5.49, +0.33 (+6.40%)]and Chrysler LLC – had better learn to speak Chinese if they wanted to survive. I’ve repeated that warning many times since. Now, it appears that the idea is finally entering mainstream thought. China may well be Detroit’s lifeline. From some – chiefly those who don’t understand that Detroit has largely failed to make a passing grade in an increasingly global economy – my warnings have attracted a lot of criticism. That’s unfortunate, because by

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As deep as the U.S. auto industry’s financial crisis seems to be, there may actually be a fairly simple solution. Sell out to China. Nearly a decade ago, I warned that Detroit’s Big Three – General Motors Corp. (NYSE: GM), Ford Motor Co. (NYSE: F) and Chrysler LLC – had better learn to speak Chinese if they wanted to survive.

I’ve repeated that warning many times since. Now, it appears that the idea is finally entering mainstream thought. China may well be Detroit’s lifeline. From some – chiefly those who don’t understand that Detroit has largely failed to make a passing grade in an increasingly global economy – my warnings have attracted a lot of criticism.

That’s unfortunate, because by adopting such a defensive posture, these critics have missed the real point I was making: Chinese companies would initially have no interest in taking

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