General Motors today posted its sixth straight quarterly loss, but results exceeded cautious Wall Street expectations.
The world's largest automaker reported a loss of $323 million, or 57 cents per share, compared with a loss of $1.3 billion, or $2.22 per share, a year earlier. Revenue rose to $52.2 billion from $45.8 billion a year earlier.
GM shares and bonds rose on the results, which embattled chief executive Rick Wagoner hailed as evidence of the progress the automaker has made in cutting costs and stemming a slide in US market share after a $10.6 billion loss in 2005.
Excluding one-time items, but including a $1 billion pre-tax healthcare charge, GM lost $529 million, or 94 cents a share. Excluding that health-care charge, equivalent to $1.20 a share, GM would have posted a profit of 26 cents a share.
On that basis, analysts on average had forecast a loss of 42 cents per share.
But Wall Street estimates had ranged from a loss of $1.33 a share to a profit of 6 cents a share, making comparisons difficult given the range of one-time items.
GM shares rose over 3 per cent in pre-market trade to $21.24 from yesterday's close of $20.57.
GM had said earlier this month that it would take a pre-tax charge of at least $1 billion to account for payments to a fund created for future retiree health-care costs.