Goldman Sachs has turned its attentions to the European truck market, and, as a result, has downgraded Daimler, Renault and Volvo.
Daimler goes from 'buy' to neutral, whilst Renault and Volvo both go to 'sell' from 'neutral'. In the case of the latter, Goldman's analysts have added the stock to their conviction sell list, about as robust a gesture that it's possible to make without actually coming to blows. Conversely, MAN now sits on the bank's conviction buy list; ostensibly as a result of outperforming in terms of financial performance, but we wonder if someone else might be sniffing .....
Goldman sees a likely 15 per cent drop in European truck sales in 2009, and regards this as no bad time to be gone, the recent uptick in stock values providing 'an attractive exit point tor reduce positions'.
We wonder if that's a message that might have caught the eye at Renault SA.