Ford or General Motors?
Investors may once again be asking themselves that question after Ford's announcement Wednesday that it plans to boost its electric vehicle investments to $30 billion and target 40% EV sales by 2030.
Earlier this year, GM said it hoped to go all-electric by 2035. Its stock is underperforming Ford's so far this month, quarter and year.
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Two traders told CNBC on Wednesday that they were sticking with the leader.
"Ford's sales are booming," Gina Sanchez, the founder and CEO of Chantico Global and chief market strategist at Lido Advisors, told CNBC's "Trading Nation."
Ford's first-quarter earnings and revenue far exceeded Wall Street estimates despite an ongoing chip shortage that the company said would likely have its worst impact in the second quarter of this year.
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"The announcement of the electric Ford F-150 was massive, but I think the Mustang Mach-E is also the ultimate clean muscle car," Sanchez said. "You have to think that they've got a lot of momentum going into this race."
Momentum has also been a theme in Ford's stock chart, with the stock up 58% year to date, Matt Maley, chief market strategist at Miller Tabak, said in the same interview.
"Maybe General Motors can outperform slightly on a very near-term basis" because of Ford's temporarily overbought condition, he said.
Ford shares closed almost 9% higher on Wednesday after reaching levels not seen since 2016.
Longer term, however, Ford is setting up for significant upside, Maley said.
"It's had a nice series of higher highs and higher lows with a new higher high just in the past week or so," he said.
"Not only that, but the stock has broken significantly above its very long-term trend line. This trend line goes all the way back to the late 1990s, so, this is really a bullish sign on a long-term basis," he said. "Although both charts look pretty good, I think Ford is definitely the one that looks better on an intermediate and long-term basis."
GM shares closed up just over 2% on Wednesday. That stock is up almost 39% this year.
