Monday morning in Detroit dawned just a little darker than usual. And it’s not just because it’s fall in Michigan. It’s also strike season this year, as the United Auto Workers (UAW) took their case for better wages, more healthcare, and improved time off to the picket lines. And that’s enough to take the stocks of all three of Detroit’s biggest automakers—Stellantis (NYSE:STLA), General Motors (NYSE:GM), and Ford (NYSE:F)—down in Monday afternoon’s trading.
The strike is now in its fourth day, having gone on through the weekend after starting up on Friday. And already, at least 600 jobs have been lost outright. Ford shut down an entire section of the Michigan Assembly Plant’s body construction department over a sheer lack of work. The metal parts made at that department need to be coated immediately to protect them from damage. With the paint shop out on strike, therefore, that work would go to waste rapidly and was therefore shut down in advance.
GM also has plans to shutter some departments, with plans to send home 2,000 workers from their Fairfax Assembly plant in Kansas. It’s a similar matter, too; with the Wentzville plant shut down, so too are its stamping operations. And that means nothing for the Fairfax Assembly plant to kick in. The motivations involved in the strikes, meanwhile, only get more complex as workers bridle at massive CEO pay packages, but CEOs point out that much of their pay is connected to stock prices, which are inherently at risk, as we’ve seen today.
What is the Best Car Stock to Buy?
Of the Big Three automakers, only Stellantis is considered a Strong Buy. Ford and GM, meanwhile, are Moderate Buys. Yet GM offers the strongest upside potential at 51.02% against an average price target of $50.53 per share. Meanwhile, the lowest upside potential currently belongs to Stellantis, as its average price target of $23.89 gives it a 26.14% upside potential.
