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Insider trading ahead of Hyundai-Kia MPG debacle suspected

Reuters is reporting that large-scale insider trading may be at the heart of some particularly fishy stock-selling behavior, just prior to the original announcement about the Hyundai-Kia fuel economy ratings debacle.
On November 1st, Hyundai-Kia shares traded roughly 2.2 million times (the single highest-volume day of the year), and the stock price fell by about four percent. For reference, a standard daily trading volume for the stock in 2012 saw about 600k shares trading hands. On November 2nd, the company made public the bad news about the dropping fuel economy ratings for many of its models. In other words: No one outside of the company (and only a smallish group inside the company, we'd imagine) should have known anything about the impending bad news as of the first day of November. After the announcement, the stock price tanked, as you'd expect, and trading volume was way down as well.
Experts seem fully aware that the whole thing reeks of leaked information and subsequent insider trading. If chicanery on this sort of scale seems wacky to you, you'd be inline with the experts who report to Reuters that the level of trading is absolutely suspicious.

Kia GT to debut in Paris, production in 2017

After years of waiting, the Kia GT four-door coupe (concept pictured above) could finally debut in production guise at the Paris Motor Show in October, and the brand would start making it in 2017, according to Autocar. The South Korean automaker could also create a hotter variant of the pint-sized Rio in 2018 to give the lineup a dash more performance. Kia debuted the rear-wheel drive GT concept at the 2011 Frankfurt Motor Show, and the svelte four-door offered some speed thanks to a 3.3-liter turbocharged V6 with 389 horsepower and 394 pound-feet of torque and an eight-speed automatic gearbox. Kia seemed primed to build the model several times over the years as a US-focused vehicle, but the latest report hinted that production wouldn't happen until 2017. Autocar claims that the final design incorporates cues from the sporty GT4 Stinger concept. Kia also intends to introduce performance-oriented models with the GT moniker lower in its range. According to Autocar, the Rio GT would ride on the vehicle's lighter next-gen platform and offer about 180 horsepower from a 1.6-liter engine to compete against the Ford Fiesta ST, which already has 197 hp. However, the South Korean automaker might want to consider a more potent powerplant to keep up in the hot hatch arms race, because spy shots already suggest the Blue Oval's development of a Fiesta RS with around 250 hp. Related Video: Featured Gallery Kia GT Concept: Frankfurt 2011 View 13 Photos News Source: AutocarImage Credit: Copyright 2016 Drew Phillips / AOL Design/Style Rumormill Paris Motor Show Kia Hatchback Concept Cars Performance Sedan 2016 paris motor show kia rio kia gt kia gt concept

Kia, Mercedes, Carmax poised to return to NBA after league bans Sterling

NBA Commissioner Adam Silver dispatched some swift justice yesterday on the bigoted owner of the Los Angeles Clippers, Donald Sterling. The 80-year-old billionaire was banned for life and fined $2.5 million for making strongly racist remarks that were recorded on tape. Commissioner Silver has also vowed to try and force Sterling to sell the Clippers in a bid to sever any and all connection between him and the NBA.
Sponsors had rapidly abandoned the Clippers, with covers like the one above going up on sponsor logos during a playoff game against the Golden State Warriors earlier this week, due to the strong and vocal public condemnation of Sterling and his views. With the punishments in place, though, the door has been opened for Kia, the southern California dealer group for Mercedes-Benz and used-car retailer CarMax (among other, less auto-related organizations like State Farm, Red Bull and Sprint) to renew their sponsorship with the team.
"We stand with the Commissioner, the league, the players and the fans condemning Mr. Sterling's views. We look forward to a positive resolution and continuing our relationships within the NBA community, including our league and team sponsorships and our personal ties to [Clippers star] Blake Griffin," Kia said in a statement obtained by Automotive News.