Has GM’s Recovery Hit a Snag?

Much has been made of General Motors’ (NYSE:GM) recovery recently. The federal government will begin selling off its remaining 32 percent stake in the company this year, the automaker reported earlier this month that January sales jumped 16 percent year over year, and its stock has advanced close to 45 percent in the six-month period ahead of its fourth-quarter earnings release.

But the company has hit a small bump in its road to recovery. On Thursday, the Detroit automaker reported weaker-than-expected quarterly profit. GM posted earnings of 48 cents per share, excluding one-time charges, 3 cents below what analysts polled by Thomson Reuters had predicted. To be clear, the restructuring charge was taken with the intention of showing consumers that the company has “confidence that it will continue to be profitable in coming years,” stated Reuters.

Losses in Europe — which totaled $699 million in the three-month period and $1.8 billion for all of 2012 — not only reflected plummeting demand in the region, but also affected GM’s results. The company has posted losses in Europe for 13 consecutive years, as Reuters reported, and Chief Financial Officer Dan Amman does not expect that trend to reverse course in 2013…