General Electric Co. is selling fewer locomotives and less oil-field equipment as global economic uncertainty takes a toll on demand for big-ticket industrial products.
Orders fell 2 percent in the second quarter — and tumbled 16 percent when excluding the effects of acquisitions and currency shifts — the company said in a statement Friday. That drop and weak generation of free cash flow sapped investor confidence and pushed down shares.
“The texture of this quarter is very similar to the two most recent quarters, with exceptionally weak orders,” Nigel Coe, an analyst at Morgan Stanley, said Friday in a note. GE must generate significant growth in the second half of this year in an “extremely challenging” environment, he said.
Leave a Reply