Please stay tuned for important disclosure information at the conclusion of this episode.

Welcome to Investing Insights. I'm your host, Ivana Hampton. The U.S. auto industry is driving on a bumpy road.

Automakers are dealing with chip shortages, stubborn inflation,

and high interest rates. Car buyers are seeing eye-popping sticker prices, and it's costing them

more to borrow to buy a car. Right now, the industry is sitting at a fork in the road.

Morningstar Research Services, U.S. Auto's equity analyst, Dave Whiston, has written about the industry's outlook.

Dave, is joining in Best Ansights.

Dave, you and other analysts put together a big report on the auto industry each year. What are this year's things?

Well, 2023, obviously, is a year of great uncertainty for a number of reasons, but it's both good and bad, honestly.

For a global sales forecast, we're looking for a range between down 1% to up 3% year over year versus 22.

The U.S. market is choppy and recovering from the chip shortage as is the rest of the world.

In China, you've got the expiration of EV incentives.

Everyone's battling high inflation, of course, and rising interest rates.

And then over in Europe, of course, you've got massive uncertainty from the war in Ukraine.

Well, let's look at the chip shortage.

Fewer cars rolled off the assembly line last year and sales failed to their lowest in years.

Talk about where inventory stands now and maybe in a few years.

Yeah, so I'll just stick to the U.S. market because that's my area of coverage.

But U.S. light vehicle inventory has really been on a huge roller coaster since the pandemic started in March of 2020.

Initially, inventory was getting hurt for a while due to no production in spring 2020.

Things started to recover in the back end of 2020.

And then we went to, and then the chip shortage started to really hit in early

...