Toyota expects profits to plunge

Unfavorable currency trends, weak U.S. market blamed for poor quarterly results. Christine Tierney / The Detroit News Rounding out a bleak earnings season for automakers, Toyota Motor Corp. is expected to report a steep drop in quarterly profits Thursday because of slumping U.S. auto sales. Unfavorable currency trends also weighed on the Japanese automaker, according to analysts who forecast its operating earnings may be down more than 40 percent for the three months to June 30. Toyota previously cautioned investors that profit for the fiscal year that began April 1 would fall for the first time in seven years, to 27 percent below last year's record level of $15 billion. Many analysts had viewed Toyota's forecast as conservative but now suspect this year may be even tougher than the automaker predicted because of the... [read full story]