Ford Motor: The U.S. economy in a company

Ford had a good June.

The company reported a 14 percent increase in sales last month, led by SUVs, gas-friendly cars and light trucks:

“Strong demand for Ford’s fuel-efficient cars and crossovers continues, and we now are seeing truck buyers return to the market with significant appetite for our fuel-efficient V6 engines,” Ken Czubay, Ford vice president, U.S. Marketing, Sales and Service said in a statement.

That point about trucks is very interesting, indeed, for what it might say about the U.S. economy in general. As Joe Weisenthal rightly points out on Business Insider, people buy trucks "for construction and doing real economic activity."

Is Ford telling us something about some hidden strength in the U.S. economy, the world's largest?

Here's what the company said about its trucks in today's release:

"Ford truck sales increased across the lineup in June, with F-Series (up 7 percent), Ranger (up 18 percent), Transit Connect (up 40 percent) and Econoline (up 4 percent). Transit Connect sales were 2,992 – the second highest sales month ever."

"Ford’s F-Series truck remained the best-selling vehicle in the U.S. with June sales of 49,618. In the first six months of 2011, F-Series sales totaled 264,079 (up 10 percent). Sales of the F-150 with new V6 engines continued to outsell V8s in June – and V6 engines accounted for 56 percent of F-150 retail sales. The 3.5-liter EcoBoost engine accounted for 41 percent of F-150 sales, and the 3.7-liter V6 accounted for 15 percent."

Wall Street was certainly happy about the Ford news, as well as signs of strength in the U.S. manufacturing sector.

The market scored its best week in two years, though trading was light ahead of the July 4th holiday.