US motor vehicle purchases likely to rebound in July

Buoyed by tightening labor market conditions, motor vehicle purchases probably rebounded by 2.3% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 17.5 million in July, the strongest performance for that month since the corresponding period of 2005.

"After adjusting for anticipated selling prices and different seasonal adjustments between the unit volume and value series, auto-dealer revenues likely climbed by 1.0%, or by approximately $950 million, to $92.7 billion during the reference period", says Societe Generale.

That forecast, if accurate, would add 0.2 percentage point to the Census Bureau's advance retail sales tally for last month.