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‘If confirmation were needed that the US is in recession, then GE’s [General Electric] profit warning and gloomy outlook is it,’ says Damian Reece of The Telegraph. ‘The whole statement is riven with gloom,’ he adds.

Meanwhile, Mark Kleinman, also of The Telegraph, says the profit warning ‘reflects the fact that the pain in the financial sector is only just beginning to seep through into the real economy.’ He goes on to say that GE is a ‘proxy for the US economy to an even greater extent than Tesco is regarded as a bellwether for ours.’ As a result, the 13% fall in GE’s share price following the profit warning, could be ‘the harbinger of further traumas.’ Reece concurs, commenting that GE’s diversified nature ‘makes it a touchstone for the health of the US economy.’ He goes on to say that although the company failed to offload debt which has had to be marked down in value, ‘what struck me as being more relevant to the wider economic picture, outside the arcane world of credit, were the results of GE’s industrial and appliances businesses.’ He adds, ‘The famous swirly GE logo adorned many a US household fridge for decades but the division saw a double-digit drop in earnings.’ Reece also points to the fact that GE’s industrial operations ‘failed to outstrip its consumer related declines, confirming the broad nature of America’s decline.’ He concludes by saying that the company will remain ‘a global powerhouse’ but ‘a bump in the road for a juggernaut such as GE is enough to make the wheels come off plenty of smaller, less diversified concerns stuck in the rut of a US recession.’