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Over the past week the financial news cycle has been dominated by the expanding tariff war between the U.S. and China, and technology data privacy issues. But while those two items have been getting most of the headlines, there have been some very positive reports regarding both General Motors (GM – Free Report) , and Las Vegas Sands (LVS – Free Report) . Each company has had several important data points mostly brushed under the rug, but that does not mean the data was not important to their long term growth stories. 

On April 3rd, the March motor vehicles report was released, and overall the data was much better than expected. Total vehicle sales came in at 17.5 million, well above the expected reading of 16.9 million.Moreover, domestic vehicle sales totaled 13.7 million, ahead of the 12.9 million consensus estimate.This strong sales month reversed the downturn that had been in place for the past 3 consecutive months.It was believed that increasing interest rates, and the millions of nearly new vehicles coming off lease would continue to dampen the appetite of new buyers. 

This vehicle sales bounce back was led by General Motors (GM – Free Report) , who reported selling 296,341 crossover, truck, and car deliveries in the U.S for the month of March. This was a banner month for the company, as it was the best March in GM’s history. Further, total sales were up +16% as Buick had its best March since 2004, Chevrolet had its best March since 2007, and Cadillac posted its best March since 2014. 

General Motors also posted a +14% YoY improvement in retail sales, and increased its retail market share to 17.7%; its biggest percentage since 2009.Chevrolet was also recognized as the industry’s fastest growing full line brand. 

On a segment basis, the company posted some impressive March year over year sales numbers as well; Buick crossovers +50%, Chevrolet crossovers +39%, GMC crossovers +42%, Cadillac XT5 +17%, Cadillac Escalade +14%, Chevrolet Silverado +24%, Chevrolet Colorado +52%, GMC Canyon +9%.The company’s electric vehicle division also saw some positive traction as Bold EV deliveries totaled 1,774 in March.