GM to cut more after $3B loss

General Motors Corp. on Wednesday provided further proof that the company's painful downsizing in the United States isn't over, posting a first quarter loss of $3.25 billion, the third-straight quarterly deficit that included widening losses in its home region.

The No. 1 U.S. automaker has spent the past two years slashing jobs, closing factories and axing unsuccessful vehicles. But GM still isn't lean enough to make money in its critical North American operations, where it lost $812 million in the first three months of the year.

"All the things we've done were necessary and important, but we can't just stay static and say 'We've done it all,' " GM Chief Operating Officer Fritz Henderson said during a conference call Wednesday. "You've got to do more."

The automaker, after months of holding out, on Wednesday conceded that U.S. vehicle sales are likely to fall further this year than it initially expected. The coming months will bring widespread production and job cuts at a company that since 2006 already has ushered out 35,000 hourly employees, shuttered factories around the country and cut $9 billion in annual costs.

On the product side, Henderson said Wednesday, GM needs "fewer, better" cars and trucks in each of its eight brands.

"They're not out of the woods with their turnaround," said David Kudla, chief investment strategist at Mainstay Capital Management LLC. "But they're continuing to make progress." More at Detroit News