News from Detroit last week could best be described as two-tone. The darker hue was painted by General Motors: the world's largest automaker reported that first-quarter sales were off 15% from last year to $4.85 billion. Earnings as a result slipped 34.5% to $389.6 million, the poorest first-quarter profit for G.M. in five years. Balancing all that, however, were brighter prospects for the auto industry as a whole. Braced by an unexpectedly strong upturn in sales during April, auto companies have revised their production schedules for the second quarter. Altogether, 2,155,000 cars...
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