Ford profits make a U-turn

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Kai Ryssdal: Lost in the market hoopla today was a landmark of sorts for Detroit. Ford reported its first quarterly profit in two years this morning — $750 million. It was a surprise, to be kind. So we called Micheline Maynard, the Detroit bureau chief for The New York Times, and asked why.

MICHALENE MAYNARD: Well, one of the things that led to Ford’s performance in the second quarter was that they aren’t paying the size of incentives that they’ve been paying. Their big-truck sales are down, but their incentives on those big trucks are also down. And that’s helping them a lot.

But . . .

MAYNARD: There’s no time for celebration at Ford because even as they were talking about this surprising quarter he was saying that Ford expects substantial losses in the second half of 2007, especially in North America.