February U.S. LV Sales Weaken from January, But Q1 Tracking to Best Quarter Since Q2-2021
Executive Summary
Despite February’s downturn from January, sales in the first two months of the year on an annualized basis have the first quarter heading to the highest quarterly SAAR since Q2-2021. However, though sales are forecast to continue rising the rest of the year, economic and supply-related ramifications from the Russia-Ukraine conflict, as well as the continuation in February of never-ending unexpected, or surprise, chip-related production slowdowns, have added more risk to sequential growth than just a month ago.