GM falls as automaker reminds investors of $5 billion hit from tariffs
GM reported second-quarter earnings before the market opened on Tuesday.
Back in May, General Motors said it was expecting a tariff hit of up to $5 billion this year. With summer underway and pre-tariff inventories largely cleared out, that hit is starting to come to fruition.
The Detroit automaker reported second-quarter earnings on Tuesday morning, reporting a $1.1 billion tariff cost on the quarter. GM said it expects a larger charge in the third quarter due to the “timing of indirect tariff costs,” and the full-year outlook with a hit of up to $5 billion is unchanged.
GM noted that in the second half of the year, both quarters will be impacted by tariffs as opposed to just one in the first half, and that volume in the second half of the year is likely to be lower. Its shares fell about 2.5% in premarket trading.
The company posted earnings of $2.53 per share, down 17% from last year, but better than Wall Street expectations. Analysts expected $2.34 per share.
GM reported sales of $47.1 billion, beating estimates of $45.8 billion and down about 2% from the same period last year.
Earlier this month, GM said its sales climbed more than 12% in the US in the first half of the year, ahead of most of the industry on the back of tariff-induced panic buying. GM delivered about 746,600 vehicles in the US in its second quarter, eclipsing the delivery totals of rivals Ford (612,000) and Toyota (666,500).
