U.S. auto assemblies surge to 9 million annual pace   

Annualized U.S. assemblies of autos and light trucks surged to 9.0 million in October (seasonally adjusted). The last time assemblies exceeded 9 million was July 2008. Assemblies had been relatively flat for the previous 17 months ranging between 7.5 and 8.6 million units annualized (seasonally adjusted). Our graph is a 3-month moving average of the seasonally adjusted annualized assemblies. Year over year percentage growth using the three-month moving average jumped to 11.4%. Average monthly seasonally adjusted assemblies were 11.4 million from January of 2001 through December of 2007 indicating that auto assemblies are still at depressed levels.