U.S. November adjusted car sales seen up 0.4 pct

Influential forecaster J.D. Power & Associates said on Thursday that it expected U.S. auto industry sales to increase slightly on an adjusted basis in November from a year earlier due to stable retail sales and growth in fleet sales.

U.S. auto sales are expected to grow by 0.4 percent in November when taking into account two fewer selling days this year than last year, J.D. Power said.

The seasonally adjusted annualized rate of sales, a key measure for economists, is expected to rise to 10.2 million vehicles in November from 10.1 million a year ago, it said.

Sequentially, the annualized rate of sales is expected to decline from October, J.D. Power said. The rate in October was the strongest in a year when excluding July and August, which were boosted by the government "cash for clunkers" incentives.

For the year, J.D. Power expects the U.S. auto industry to post sales of 10.3 million vehicles. It expects industry sales to rise to 11.5 million in 2010.