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By Thomas Gryta 

General Electric Co. warned its first-quarter earnings would be below its prior forecasts and pulled its financial guidance for the full year, citing the disruptions and uncertainty caused by the coronavirus pandemic.

The industrial conglomerate is the latest major company, from FedEx Corp. to Starbucks Corp., to withdraw its financial forecasts as the rapidly spreading illness disrupts the global economy, travel and daily life.

GE, which has announced job cuts and furloughs in recent weeks, said Thursday it expects first-quarter earnings to be materially below its prior estimate of 10 cents a share. It still expects cash flow from its industrial operations to be about negative $2 billion for the March quarter.

"Given the evolving nature of the pandemic, at this time, GE cannot forecast with reasonable accuracy the full duration, magnitude, and pace of recovery across our end markets, operations, and supply chains," the company said in a statement Thursday.

--COVID-19

GE shares rose 12 cents to $7.42 in premarket trading. The shares have fallen about 35% so far this year, compared with a roughly 18% drop in the S&P 500 index.

Analysts are projecting earnings of 10 cents a share and negative cash flow of $2.17 billion for the first quarter, according to FactSet. Wall Street was projecting earnings of 45 cents a share for the year on cash flow of about $400 million.

Write to Thomas Gryta at thomas.gryta@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

April 09, 2020 09:44 ET (13:44 GMT)

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