The company was forced to halt production following last month’s earthquake and tsunami that rocked Japan, resulting in a production loss of around 260,000 vehicles since March 14.

The 18 Toyota plants will resume at half capacity between the 18th and 27th, and then will halt again from the 28th through May 9 which is a time when plants would normally have been closed to observe the country’s Golden Week holidays.

Part shortages will remain a problem, with the company stating that it is still struggling to get around 150 types of parts, down from a previous shortage of around 500 different parts.

Earlier this week, the company stated that it will be inevitable to have to eventually halt production at its plants in the United States will it deals with its part shortages. The March 11 disaster destroyed the company’s parts factories in the northern part of the country, and then it was dealt another blow with electricity shortages resulting from the countries problems with its nuclear facilities.

The company gets around 90% of all its part components from its factories in Japan.

Ford benefited from sales in new and refreshed models of its vehicles, in addition to greater discounts than General Motors offered to its customers.

During the month, Ford sold 212,295 vehicles, versus 206,621 for General Motors.

The good news for General Motors is that its sales figures marked a 9.6% rise in sales… the bad news is that analysts had been expecting to see the company report a 20% jump in sales during the month.

Analysts had been expecting to see Ford post a 13% increase in sales, but its actual sales number represent a 16% increase for the month.

Beating General Motors is a major accomplishment for Ford, and something that it has only been able to accomplish twice in the past 13 years.

The auto industry is definitely starting to show signs of life. Industrywide, sales of light vehicles were a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 13.1 million, above the 12.9 million that analysts had forecast for the month.

The war of American car makers is still being won by General Motors, which outpaced Ford through the first three months of the year by a count of 592,545 to 495,508.

Here are a couple of the stocks that traded up to new highs today:

• Motorola (MOT) currently up 1.4% and hit new 52 week high of $9.05, currently trading at $9.01.
• Qualcomm (QCOM) currently up 1.0% to $49.94 and hit 52 week high of $49.98.
• Procter & Gamble (PG) hit a new 52 week high of $65.38 and is currently trading down 0.4% to $64.70.

Ford Motor (NYSE: F) hit a new 52 week high today of 9.14 before afternoon profit taking came in and pushed shares lower. The stock has been very strong lately, and recently was considered to be the stock of the year from the writers of CrossingWallStreet. Shares finished the day down slightly at $8.94, down 0.45%.

Technology giant Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) also rose to a new 52 week high today. Shares of the company hit a day today of $30.14. Shares of MSFT finished today trading session up 0.4% to $30.11, just three pennies off its new 52 week high.

Gold prices continue to rise, and Yamaha Gold (NYSE: AUY) has been benefiting from the recent gold rush, setting a new 52 week high earlier in the session at 13.49. After hitting another new high today, the profit takers came in and sold the stock off a bit, which ended the day slightly lower at $13.15, down 0.23%. Gold prices rose as high as 1146.5 but closed down 70 cents to 1,140.5.

What are your favorite stocks right now? Which stocks do you see rising to new highs in the near future?