GM stock slips further after automaker says it will restate earnings

The Detriot Free Press reports:

General Motors Corp. shares, already at 13-year lows, fell another 5 percent Thursday after the world's largest automaker said it would restate its earnings for 2001 because an accounting error led it to overstate its 2001 profit by up to $400 million.

The announcement in a filing late Wednesday with the Securities and Exchange Commission comes as the company faces a continuing regulatory investigation of its accounting practices. It has reported huge losses for the first nine months of the year, its auto sales are being pressured by competition from foreign manufacturers and it faces rising health benefit and pension obligations.

Also on Wednesday, the credit ratings agency Fitch Ratings lowered GM's debt deeper into "junk" status.

GM shares fell $1.23, or nearly 5 percent, to $23.40 in morning trading Thursday on the New York Stock Exchange after sinking 5 percent on Wednesday to its lowest level since November 1992.

As we've said before the stock could go lower.