GM beats Wall Street expectations for Q2 earnings even as coronavirus hits revenue hard

• GM lost far less money than Wall Street expected for the coronavirus-devastated second quarter.
• The carmaker said that vehicle sales in the quarter declined 34% compared with a year ago.
• North American operations achieved a "near breakeven," the company said in a statement.

GM reported second-quarter earnings on Wednesday before the markets opened, and the automaker beat Wall Street analysts' expectations by a generous margin.

The automaker lost $0.56 per share on a GAAP basis, and $0.50 per share on a non-GAAP basis. The bottom line was down 130%, compared to the same 2019 quarter.

Revenue slid 53%, to $16.8 billion, as the coronavirus pandemic forced GM and the entire global auto industry to shut down manufacturing operations in Q2.

Analysts had expected a loss of about $2 per share, on higher revenue.

On the news, GM's stock price moved higher in pre-market trading, up almost 4% to $27.

The company's North American business posted a less severe loss than international operations.

"Clearly, the second quarter was a challenge, but we achieved near breakeven ... in North America, despite losing 8 of 13 weeks of production," CFO Dhivya Suryadevara said in a statement. "These results illustrate the resiliency and earnings power of the business as we make the critical investments necessary for our future."

GM ended the quarter with just over $30 billion in total liquidity, the company said, after expanding its credit facilities in the quarter.

On a call with the media after results were announced, Suryadevara declined to provide guidance but indicated that GM expects $7-9 billion in cash generation in the second half of the year.