U.S. auto assemblies continue to rise   

U.S. assemblies of autos and light trucks rose to a seasonally adjusted level of 8.38 million in July from 7.37 million in June. This is the highest level of assemblies since July of 2008. The number may be misleading though, as non-seasonally adjusted assemblies were the lowest since July of 2009. The usual July auto assembly plant shut downs may not have been as pervasive as is factored into the seasonal adjustment. Non adjusted assemblies were 36% higher than last July. Our graph is a 3-month moving average of the seasonally adjusted annualized sales, and shows strong growth for 2010, but still very depressed levels compared to historical assembly volumes.