Ford Reports Loss; Most Foreign Markets Up

Ford said this morning that it lost $129 million in the third quarter (6 cents a share), compared with a profit of $251 million (13 cents) in the same quarter a year earlier. Revenue was $32.1 billion. The company said it has $29.6 billion in liquidity.

The company, which the Associated Press said went through $7.7 billion in cash during the third quarter, said it would undertake cost-cutting measures, which includes eliminating an additional 10 percent of its salaried North American personnel, lowering ad costs and inventories, as well as looking at dropping non-core assets.

Also, of note this morning, European markets opened higher. London's FTSE is trading almost 2 percent higher as of about 7 a.m. EST, while French and German indicators are about 1 percent higher.

Asian markets closed largely up, with major indicators in Hong Kong and South Korea up more than 3 percent. But Japan's Nikkei, hurt by Thursday's lower profit forecast from Toyota, fell today, closing down 3.6 percent.

--Terri Rupar