DETROIT (Reuters) - Ford Motor Co's (F.N: Quote, , Research, ) U.S. sales analyst said on Thursday crisis in the financial sector had injected a new element of uncertainty into September auto sales, adding it was too early to tell if the downturn of the past year had hit bottom. 'All businesses are operating in a world of ambiguity,' Ford's chief sales analyst George Pipas told reporters. The comments were the latest from the battered industry trying to assess the risk of a deeper slump in the wake of the financial turmoil prompted by the weekend bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc (LEHMQ.PK: Quote, , Research, ). Industrywide auto sales in September to date have extended the weakness seen in July and August, Pipas said, adding that financial market volatility makes it hard to forecast results for the remainder of the month. September auto sales could come in anywhere between 12 million and 14 million units on an annualized basis, Pipas said. The annualized sales rate was 12.6 million in July and 13.7 million in August. U.S. auto sales are down 11 percent through the end of August, hit by tighter credit, high gasoline prices and a housing market slump. Ford expects 2008 U.S. light vehicles sales to be between 14 million and 14.5 million units, down from 16.15 units in 2007. 'We are pretty confident in the approach we took about a month ago in setting our second-half run rate at 13 million units for the rest of the year,' Pipas added. (Reporting by David Bailey; editing by Carol Bishopric and Andre Grenon)