Navistar Continues to Strip Tease

Navistar (NAV) came out with some interesting information on Dec 30 at about 8pm ET. The headline reads Navistar Posts Near Record Fiscal 2008 Earnings Excluding Asset Impairment Charges, Despite Weak Truck Market. When you continue reading the press release you come across this tidbit of info.

“Navistar reported a loss for the current fourth quarter of $343 million, or $4.81 per diluted share, compared with a loss of $103 million, or $1.46 per diluted share in the fourth quarter a year ago.”

Just the day before Christmas they let us know that the inventory was incorrect and fortunately they had made an additional $50 million. Now the results are being released and the Q4 loss is 350% larger than last year. But hey wait until the conference call on Jan 5 to hear all the details. Seems to me we are experiencing the drip method of disclosure. One painful drop of acid at a time.

My prediction for the conference call will be that the explanations will have substantially more information than the press releases that they snuck out during the holidays. Where or when does disclosure governance kick in on this one?