Ford sales rise 3 percent

Ford, which posted a nearly $1 billion third-quarter profit and positive cash flow in a quarter for the first time in more than two years, said U.S. sales rose 2.6 percent for its Ford, Lincoln and Mercury brands.

Including Volvo, U.S. sales rose to 136,920 in October from 132,838 a year earlier, the automaker said. Ford said it expects its U.S. retail share to be up for the 12th time in the past 13 months in October.

On Monday, Ford said it expected U.S. auto sales overall to come in at about 10.6 million vehicles in 2009 including medium- and heavy-duty trucks. It has not revisited yet forecasts for 2010 industry sales at 12.5 million and 2011 at 14.5 million.

U.S. auto industry sales were propped by the government "cash for clunkers" program in July and August, but demand slumped back in September with the program expired.

Ford shares were down 6 cents, or less than 1 percent, at $7.52 Tuesday on the New York Stock Exchange. The automaker late Monday announced plans to repay or extend $10.7 billion of secured debt and issue $3 billion of stock and equity-linked securities to improve its balance sheet.

(Reporting by David Bailey, editing by Matthew Lewis)