Topic: Growth Stocks

The Stock Pickers Digest Hotline – Friday, January 23, 2009

Article Excerpt

NISSAN MOTOR CO., $6.44, symbol NSANY on Nasdaq, plans to shift production of its Nissan March compact car to India, Thailand and other lower-cost countries in 2010. Nissan currently builds 47,000 of these cars a year at its Oppama plant, near Tokyo. Moving this production to Thailand would cut costs by 30%. Nissan also plans to move production of other compact cars currently being built in the U.K. to India. The weak U.S. dollar has hurt Nissan and other Japanese automakers by reducing the value of overseas sales when they are converted into yen. Conversely, the yen’s strength makes investments in plants in emerging markets even more cost-effective. The U.S. dollar is at a 13-year low against the yen, and is trading at around 90 yen to one dollar. In response to slumping global demand, Nissan will reduce its domestic production by 64,000 vehicles in February and March of 2009. These cuts raise the total number of vehicles eliminated in…