Doom & Gloom

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) — Porsche said Tuesday that January U.S. sales fell 36% to 1,658 vehicles from 2,595 a year ago. January Boxster and Cayman sales dropped to 266 vehicles from 758, sales of 911s fell to 445 units from 829, and Cayenne sales fell to 947 vehicles from 1008 last year.

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) — Ford Motor Co. on Tuesday reported a 42.1% decline in January U.S. sales to 90,596 cars and trucks, down from 156,391 vehicles a year earlier. Ford, Lincoln and Mercury car sales dropped 35.1% to 28,707. Total trucks fell 40.5% to 61,889 with the flagship F-Series pickup down 38.6%. Ford blamed a 65% drop in fleet sales for the retreat while saying its retail business has stabilized in the past four months.  The losses continue to mount at Motorola, which reported a fourth-quarter loss on write-downs and provided worse-than-expected guidance for the first quarter.  The company plans to deepen cost cutting and suspend quarterly dividend payments in an effort to strengthen its balance sheet. Motorola also said that Edward Fitzpatrick, senior vice president and corporate controller, will add the role of CFO to his duties, replacing Paul Liska.  Motorola posted losses of $3.6 billion, or $1.57 per share, for the fourth quarter ended Dec. 31, compared with profits of $100 million, or 4 cents per share, in the same period last year.