Diamonds and Dogs

12/22/15

Ford tough today. Ford Motor (F) is up 3% on rumors the company is in talks with Google (GOOGL) to help build their self-driving cars. If the contract manufacturing deal is finalized, it's expected to be announced next month. Ford has trailed most competitors in this category, but has stepped up efforts to develop self-driving cars earlier this year and said it would expand advanced safety technology, such as automatic breaking and hands-free operation of cars under specific conditions. Even without this news or speculation, Ford's stock is cheap trading for 7 times 2016 earnings with a 4.35% dividend.

Steelcase (SCS) has some cracks in it. The office products company is down 23% to a new 52 week low and missing fiscal third-quarter profit estimates and sales expectations while also providing a downbeat outlook for the current quarter. Steelcase has a unique business model with a large portion of sales coming from overseas. Currently weak sales in Europe, Middle East and Africa region are offsetting growth in the Americas and other regions. For the current quarter, the company expects revenue in the range of $720 million to $745 million and EPS of 20 cents to 24 cents, below the FactSet consensus estimates of $772 million and 26 cents, respectively. Let's hope Steelcase can turn things around in 2016.