Kia's Sprague on Crossovers Driving Record Sales in May (Audio)

while Kia looking pretty good. In fact, Kia announced record May sales. We're going to find out how much Hamsters will be helping those sales. First, let's get to Charlie Pellow in the newsroom. He's got a bloom big business flash and stock. So Hi, Thank you, Kathleen. Twenty nine minutes to go ahead of the clothes on this page

book Wednesday. We are brought to you by Sectors to E t F S. Why buy a single stock when you can invest in the entire sector of visits sector s P d R S dot com or call one sector E t F Federal Reserve says the U. S. Economy expanded at a modest pace across most of the countries since mid April, causing the labor market to tighten as employers continued adding jobs and nudging wages higher. In its page book report, the Fed said quote wages grew

modestly and price pressures grew slightly in most districts. Stocks a little changed after the SMP five d index captain's longest stretch of stretch of monthly advances since two thousand fourteen, first trading day of the new month. Stocks are higher right now SMP of two points to two thousand ninety nine, a gain of point one percent, down, industrials up nine again also a point one percent, and stack up six a gain of point one percent. One issue for investors

is the deal making in ament and government regulation. Bob dall As, senior portfolio manager at Neuvine Asset Management, Sadly, we just don't know what the rules are. You know, you you're do an M and a transaction and then the government turns around and and breaks it up later, or you don't know what the regulatory environment is going

to be or the tax environment. Like investors with uncertainty, corporate managements are facing the same thing, so they're very reluctant to step forward, and investments stead stayed well below what we'd like to see. Gold down three ten younds to twelve fourteen, a drop of three tenths of one percent, Crude now hired by seven cents, seventeen, naval gain of point one percent, and three two on Wall Street. Now we'll look at other news. Thank you, Charlie from the

Bloomberg News room. I'm Rainey, innocent. CIO. Police on the campus of U c l A say today's shooting was a murder suicide. The campus had been on lockdown since this morning when reports of a shooting came in. The lockdown has now been lifted and official say the campus is safe. A French company says it's special undersea search vessel has detected signals from one of the flight recorders on egypt Air eight oh four that crashed into the

Mediterranean Sea last month. A company statement does not say how it knows that the signals were from the egypt Air black box. The French investigation agency b e A says it's impossible to determine from the signals whether it is the flight's data or voice recorder. Donald Trump tops Hillary Clinton on honesty. According to a new national poll by Rasmussen Reports, thirty percent of voters found Trump more honest than most politicians. That's compared to fifteen percent for Clinton.

But voters found both presidential candidates less honest than most other politicians say Clinton and fort say Trump is less honest. May was a violent month in Chicago. Police say there were sixty six murders and more than three hundred shootings in the city last month. Interim Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson says a city needs to do a better job of stopping repeat offenders. Some of the parts that we are getting correct is simply holding these individuals accountable for repeat

gun offenses. So I'll be spearheading the charge to hold them more accountable. So we need our judicial partners in our state legislators to help the help us hold them accountable. Johnson says more than sixty people were struck by gunfire over the Memorial Day weekend. Global News twenty four hours a day, powered by our journalists in more than one fifty news bureaus around the world. From the Bloomberg Newsroom, I'm Rainey Incencio, Charlie and we thank you, and again

recapping stocks to remain higher. S and P five index up three now to two thousand, ninety nine point sixty seven, a gain of point one percent. I'm Charlie Pellett and that's a bloom Bird business flash. You're listening to Taking Stock with Fox on Bloomberg Radio. If you're US big three auto manufacturing me, it was not so hot for you. Declines for Ford and GM. In fact, GM sales down four down six percent. Christs are up just one percent. However, if you are the head of Kia Motors America, you

are clapping today. I am sure announcing the best every male sales on record, nearly sixty three thousand units. It was highlighted by double digit increases for the Sportage and Sorrento c u VS. Very happy to welcome to the show. Now someone who can tell us what's going on, what's driving this game, and that'd be Michael Sprague's CEO, chief operating officer for Kia Motors America, and he's joining us from Irvine, California, this afternoon. Welcome Michael, Thanks for having

me so a good month. You've had a few good months. What what to what do you attribute the strength of Kia sales now? I would say we've got the right um products for the market right now. Uh, that you mentioned our CUV sales were up in May. Consider are all new Sportage which just came out the spring head its best month ever, uh, selling over units and our Sorrentos see you be sold close to twelve thousand units.

And as we've been talking about over the last year, consumers are shifting to cuvs, and we've got two of the newest products in the market. Just to make sure everbody realizes too that a CUV is a crossover utility vehicle. So how much do you expect the Kia Hamsters to add to that? I think this is so fun. As of Friday they are back after a two year hiatus,

dancing and singing away yet again. Yes, absolutely, we've introduced them back in two thousand and nine when we introduced the Soul and which is also a crossover utility vehicle, and every year our Soul sales have gone up and uh we had this is now the seventh campaign and we found a direct link between when we advertised that with the Hamsters are sold, they go up and so our dealers were asking for it, consumers were asking for it, so we thought now was the right time to bring

them back. Well, I've bet a lot of TV networks were asking for it too. I mean, that's a it's an ad that would bring in some revenue. But instead you're going to be showing only on YouTube and some

thirty four thousand movie theaters across the country. Why not television? Well, you know, we we see television ratings to client viewership decline over the summer because a lot of reruns come back and people are out doing other activities and a lot of people are actually going to the movies, and particularly between Memorial Day through Labor Day, it's one of the biggest times for the movie industry, and you know, people are there to be entertained, and we've got an

ad that we think will definitely connect with consumers as the preparing to watch the latest movies. Do you think is this part of a move away? Do you think Americans viewing habits have changed so much that's just not worth it to pay the big bucks to advertise on a big network. No, I would say that, you know, it's all everything works um in compliments to each other.

I mean, we still have, as a brand that's only been in the US for the last twenty years, we still have to use broadcast television to raise awareness for the brand um and also you know, YouTube and other digital means in now cinema as well. All of them helped compliment and spread the message because consumers are watching and consuming content in so many different places. Michael Sprague

is the CEO of Kia Motors America. When you see the sales figures for some for some of the big auto makers, big auto sellers in the US, this in the month of May, does that concern you at all? Do you think there's the question being raised today for a lot of US is have auto sales peaked well? You know, And again it goes back to product and if if you have the right product, then your sales should continue to be pretty strong. And they mentioned we

believe we've got the right product. Over sixty three percent of our sales are for cuvs or people movers. So the sportage current of the soul in the Sedona, uh, And so I think we're feeling pretty good about the outlook for the rest of the year. Gas prices are going up a little bit, not too much of a concern. At this point, the FED is probably going to raise the rates. I think we'll be able to manage through that.

You know, the election. I think there's still there's some people that are holding back a little bit until they see what happens with the election. But for a brand like US, that's basically all new since we came over the last couple of years. You know, people are discovering us and they're excited by what we're offering. You've just opened a manufacturing plant in Mexico. Will uh, you'll be shipping a lot more than autos into the US from Mexico. And will it save you money to have autos built

in North America. Yes, So this is now our second production facility in North America. The first one we have is in West Point, Georgia, where we build the Optima and Sorrento, which makes up about forty of our US sales. And so now having this other facility in northern Mexico does allow us to ship vehicles there to the US, but it also allows us to ship vehicle to other parts of Central and South America. So it's from a strategic standpoint, it's very beneficial to the US. Well, Michael Sprague,

thank you so much for joining us. Congratulations on your your sales for May, and and thanks for bringing the hamsters back for Kia being having the opportunity. Okay, Michael Sprague is chief operating Officer executive vice president for Kia Motors America, joining us today from Irvine, California. We're gonna be taking a look at stocks next. The averages are

slightly higher today. We've got the Dow Jones up about attempt sixteen points to seventeen thousand, eight three, with SMB five hundred up three point four, about point two to the Nastacks at point one five. That's seven points at This is Bloomberg Radio. Stocks are modestly higher today two weeks to the FED while they raise raids or not, and are opportunities better overseas for investors. That's coming up now on Bloomgrigg Radio.