Shares of Ally Financial Inc. were slightly lower Monday, as investors awaited assessments of the company’s exposure to hurricane Harvey, given that Texas is one of the bigger states in the U.S. auto market. Texas is Ally’s biggest state for retail auto loans, at about $9 billion of premiums, and commercial real estate, at about $650 million in premiums, according to research firm CreditSights, and it likely has big exposure in its $35 billion commercial loan book. Ally and the broader original equipment maker markets may actually benefit from the storm damage, as natural disasters effectively lead to a spike in the scrappage rate, or percentage of vehicles of a certain type in a given age class that are retired from use in a give year. That will pull supply from the market and drive consumers back to the lot earlier than expected, said CreditSights analyst Jesse Rosenthal. “There is precedence for this type of near-term tailwind, with used car prices bouncing in the wake of Sandy and Katrina, and could be a boost for the beaten-down industry in coming months,” said Rosenthal. Ally shares have gained 19% in 2017, while the S&P 500 has gained 9%.
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