Ford shares, on pace for worst day since 2009, lead autos rout after company's disappointing earnings

DETROIT — Ford Motor is leading a decline in major U.S. automotive stocks this week amid disappointing results and investor skepticism around future performance.

Shares of Ford were off by more than 17% in early trading Thursday — on pace for their worst decline since 2009 — after the company missed Wall Street's bottom-line earnings expectations due to warranty problems, a recurring issue with the company.

Shares of General Motors and Stellantis were notably off as well after the companies reported their results this week. Shares of Tesla, which reported results Tuesday afternoon, were up slightly Thursday after their largest daily decline since 2020 on Wednesday.

The traditional "Detroit" automakers — Ford, GM and Stellantis — were punished partially due to industrywide uncertainty, but more so in response to individual issues.

GM, down roughly 7% this week, outperformed Wall Street's expectations for the second quarter and increased its guidance for the year. Wall Street was impressed with the quarter, but investors balked at pullbacks in growth businesses, waning upside during the second half of the year, and fear that the automaker's earnings power has peaked.

Stellantis reported "disappointing" first-half results, as described Thursday morning by CEO Carlos Tavares, largely due to ongoing issues in its North American operations.

NYSE-listed shares of the company were down by almost 10%, trading near a 52-week low set in August of $17.57 per share.

Despite the ongoing problems, Stellantis reconfirmed its 2024 guidance that includes a double-digit adjusted operating income margin, positive industrial free cash flow and at least 7.7 billion euros in capital return to investors in the forms of dividends and buybacks.

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