GM Earns $2B in Q3

General Motors has reported a $2 billion third-quarter profit, its biggest quarterly report in 11 years. The figure shows that GM doesn’t need to sell big to earn big anymore, writes Nick Bunkley in the New York Times. A week before its initial public offering—which will reduce the government's stake from 61% to 43%—the automaker is on course for its first full-year profit since 2004, notes the Los Angeles Times.

Whereas three years ago, the firm had to sell some 4 million vehicles to break even, the newly streamlined GM can make money with about half those sales, says its CEO. “We have just started doing a better job marketing our brands to consumers,” he noted.