Toyota's profit for the January-to-March quarter sank 28 percent from the previous year. The Japanese automaker reports this morning that a strengthening yen and lagging North American sales chipped away at its earnings. Toyota forecast even tougher times ahead. For the current fiscal year through March 2009, it expects sales to drop for the first time in nine years -- and net profit to plunge 27 percent. The pessimism underlines how even Toyota and its small cars reputed for good gas mileage hasn't emerged unscathed from the risks of a global slowdown. Toyota is the world's second-biggest automaker after General Motors.
     
   

WebReady^TM Powered by WireReady^® NSI