Automotivenews.com has posted an article on their site that fully explains GM’s situation. It isn’t looking good for the  General these days and it looks like they are not out of the dark yet. Jamie Lareau and Philip Nussel write:

General Motors today lowered its 2008 sales estimate for the entire U.S. auto industry after it reported a net loss of $3.25 billion during the first quarter. The automaker posted a net loss of $42 million during the 2007 first quarter. Slow U.S. vehicle sales, high fuel prices and a continued housing slump prompted GM to lower its projected U.S. industry sales from just over 16 million units to the mid-to-high-15 million range, CFO Ray Young said during a conference call with the media and analysts.Most of GM’s reported loss came from one-time charges for its troubled GMAC Financial Services investment and the bankruptcy restructuring at supplier Delphi Corp.

Not including one-time items, GM lost $350 million, compared with a loss of $10 million a year earlier.

Wall Street had expected worse. GM stock soared 9.4 percent to $23.20 a share at closing time. More than 50 million shares traded hands — more than double the daily average of 19.2 million shares. GM also said it lost about $800 million in the quarter because of costs stemming from the UAW’s strike at supplier American Axle & Manufacturing Holdings Inc. GM posted total revenue of $42.7 billion, down from $43.4 billion during the same quarter last year.

The link to the full article is here:

http://www.autonews.com/article/20080430/ANA02/700111244/1142/emailblast02&refsect=emailblast02