General Motors (GM) posted a staggering $15.5 billion second-quarter loss Friday, as sales plunged 18% from a year ago. The automaker said it lost $27.33 a share for the quarter, reversing the year-ago profit of $1.37 a share. Even adjusting for $9 billion in noncash charges, GM lost $11.21 a share, missing the analyst expectation of a loss of $2.62 a share. The company posted $3.6 billion in negative cash flow, bringing its cash position down to $21 billion, as the auto industry struggles to adjust to sharply lower consumer spending driven in part by record high oil prices. GM North America lost $4.4 billion on an adjusted basis, as revenue dropped by a third from a year ago to $19.8 billion, and the company’s market share slipped to 20.2% from 22.7%. Shares dropped 7% in early trading.

The news comes as GM and rival Ford (F) have slashed truck production and reduced their U.S. work forces, in a bid to bring costs in line with reduced North American demand. GM noted that it set sales records in the three global regions outside North America, and said its decision to close four truck plants and make other moves show it’s on top of the situation. “As our recent product, capacity and liquidity actions clearly demonstrate, we are reacting rapidly to the challenges facing the U.S. economy and auto market, and we continue to take the aggressive steps necessary to transform our U.S. operations,” said CEO Rick Wagoner. “We have the right plan for GM, driven by great products, building strong brands, fuel-economy technology leadership and taking full advantage of global growth opportunities.” But Friday’s report shows once again that, at best, it will be a while before that plan comes to fruition.

Bank stock investors aren’t the only ones who should be worried about the size of their dividend checks. General Motors (GM) may have to cut its dividend and raise new capital as the auto market continues to slow, Goldman Sachs analysts said Thursday in downgrading the stock to sell from hold. Goldman analysts said the cash burn rate at the company’s auto operation could worsen as consumers snub the big trucks that have been so profitable for Detroit in recent years.

The downgrade comes a day after rating agency Fitch cut its issuer-default rating on GM and said a further downgrade is possible, depending on declines in GM’s cash holdings, its ability to refinance short-term debt and whether the company is forced to offer further support to struggling affiliates such as the GMAC financing business it sold last year to private equity firm Cerberus. GM shares have lost almost half their value this year and recently traded at a 17-year low, reflecting the hefty toll being exacted by soaring steel and energy prices. Shares were down about 5% again in premarket trading Thursday.

General Motors (GM) may soon be raising more money. The automaker said it has enough cash to run its business this year, but may make cost cuts or get new financing if the economy continues to suffer, Bloomberg reports.

Finance chief Ray Young says the company believes its nearly $24 billion in available liquidity it now has is enough to run the business, fund capital projects and cover continuing worker-attrition programs, The Wall Street Journal reports. But he says the company could sell noncore assets or reconsider its capital spending plans if the squeeze gets tighter.

“If current adverse economic conditions persist or deteriorate further, we would consider a wide range of possible actions to reduce our funding needs and to obtain additional liquidity,” GM said in a banking and insurance presentation in Warren, Mich., Bloomberg reports. 

The comments come as GM struggles with a sharp decline in demand driven in part by surging energy prices. Operating chief Fritz Henderson said Tuesday the U.S. auto industry “is definitely in recession.” But if that’s not enough, GM could have other problems. The company, which lost $3.3 billion for the first quarter, could face more costs tied to the restructuring of parts maker Delphi and mortgage lender ResCap, whose parent GMAC is owned 49% by GM and 51% by private equity firm Cerberus. And Fortune’s Alex Taylor points out that the government could soon adopt economy standards that “could render vast swaths of the current car and truck lineup obsolete and doom their manufacturers to the scrapyard.”

General Motors (GM) posted another quarterly loss Wednesday, and the automaker trimmed its industrywide sales forecast for 2008. GM reported a net loss of $3.3 billion, or $5.74 per share, compared with a year-ago loss from continuing operations of $42 million, or 7 cents a share. The latest quarter included a $1.45 billion charge reflecting the impairment of the company’s investment in its 49%-owned GMAC affiliate, a $731 million charge related to costs tied to the restructuring of auto parts maker Delphi, and $718 million in other items tied to North American and European operations. Excluding the charges, the latest-quarter loss was $350 million, or 62 cents a share.

GM’s adjusted loss is substantially narrower than analysts had been expecting. “We continue to leverage our global product portfolio to take advantage of tremendous growth in key emerging markets, while at the same time taking the appropriate actions to deal with the challenging economic conditions in the U.S.,” CEO Rick Wagoner said. But citing “the current state of the U.S. economy and automotive industry,” GM cut its 2008 U.S. total industry seasonally adjusted annual rate outlook to the mid to high 15 million unit range, down from the low 16 million unit range. GM said earlier this week that it would eliminate a shift of production at four assembly plants, and the company told reporters Wednesday that the economic outlook has “deteriorated” since the beginning of the year. Nonetheless, shares were up around 2% in early trading Wednesday.

General Motors (GM) is about to take on a new burden at a touchy time. The automaker is considering assuming more of parts maker Delphi’s pension liabilities in a bid to help Delphi emerge from Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, The Wall Street Journal says. GM has agreed to assume $1.5 billion of Delphi’s pensions but is now in discussions to boost that figure, the Journal reports, citing people with knowledge of the discussions. The talks come as Delphi’s exit from bankruptcy court has been delayed by investors’ flight from risky debt, which has made it difficult for the company to secure a financing package. A group of hedge fund investors who have agreed to make an equity infusion into Delphi have given the company until Friday to line up financing.

A stepped-up role for GM would come as the company struggles with a weakening economy that is hammering sales. The company said earlier this week that March sales fell 13% from a year ago on an adjusted basis, though GM continues to hold out hope for a second-half recovery. The prospect of expanded support for Delphi could start to look costly if the recovery is delayed.

General Motors (GM) posted a better-than-expected fourth quarter and set plans for a new round of employee buyouts. The automaker lost $1.53 billion, or $2.70 a share, from continuing operations for the quarter ended Dec. 31. On an adjusted basis, excluding restructuring costs and other charges, the company made $46 million, or 8 cents a share. That’s down from a 32-cent adjusted profit last year but much better than the 64-cent loss Wall Street analysts were looking for. Revenue fell to $47.1 billion from $50.8 billion a year earlier, as GM completed the sale of a majority interest in its GMAC financing unit last year and lost the revenue from that business.

“We’re pleased with the positive improvement trend in our automotive results, especially given the challenging conditions in important markets like the U.S. and Germany,” said CEO Rick Wagoner, “but we have more work to do to achieve acceptable profitability and positive cash flow.” Indeed, for the full year, GM posted a loss of $38.7 billion, or $68.45 a share, after a third-quarter writedown of deferred tax assets. In its latest bid to bring down costs, GM reached an agreement to offer buyouts to all 74,000 workers covered by its contract with the United Auto Workers. The buyout push represents GM’s latest attempt to slash its costs by paring its well-paid union workforce.

But at Naked Capitalism, Yves Smith points to a piece by investment newsletter publisher Porter Stansbury that contends all the restructuring efforts in the world can’t insulate GM from a depressing economic reality: It is slowly bleeding to death. “There aren’t any easy answers,” Stansbury writes in a mock letter to GM investors that notes the company’s weak profitability and its crushing long-term liabilities. “And all of the possible solutions will be extremely painful to existing shareholders.”

Don’t count General Motors (GM) out just yet. Much has been made in recent years about huge market share gains by Toyota (TM), and indeed the Japanese carmaker has grown by leaps and bounds. But going by numbers released Wednesday, GM continues to hang onto at least a share of the title of world’s largest automaker. In a twist that recalls Jules Feiffer’s character Harold Swerg - a file clerk and who took on the world’s top athletes with the intent of matching, not beating, their best performances - GM managed to tie its faster-growing rival Toyota last year. Against all odds, Toyota and GM each ended up selling 9.37 million vehicles worldwide in 2007. While GM continues to lose ground in the United States, its performance in markets like China and Russia were heartening, at least for GM execs. “This is the kind of emerging market growth that fuels our global performance,” the company said in a press release. “Customers are responding to our fuel-efficient and dynamically-designed product lineup around the world.” Now the trick is to get them  to respond stateside as well.