GM posts huge loss as costs rise

DETROIT (Reuters) – General Motors Corp. on Monday posted a
massive quarterly loss as high gasoline prices slammed sales of
big sport utility vehicles and rising costs for everything from
raw materials to health care eroded profits.

The world’s largest automaker, lost more than $1.4 billion
in the first half of the year amid deepening financial woes,
posted a loss of $1.6 billion, or $2.89 a share, in the third
quarter.

Excluding special items, GM’s loss totaled $1.92 cents per
share. On that basis, analysts’ average forecast was a loss of
81 cents a share, according to Reuters Estimates.

The pressure is mounting on GM, with its main auto parts
supplier in bankruptcy, its share price at multiyear lows, and
once-robust sales of gas-guzzling SUVs stalled. GM stock is
down about 30 percent so far this year, compared with a 2
percent drop in the S&P 500 index and a 4.6 percent decline in
the blue-chip Dow Jones industrial average.