Toyota slides after US ups pressure, eyes on f'cast

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Toyota Motor Corp shares slid to a 10-month low on Thursday after the Obama administration stepped up the pressure on the world's largest carmaker to address a range of safety issues.

Shares of Toyota, set to report third-quarter results after the bell, have now lost some USD30 billion or one-fifth of their value since a recent high on Jan. 21, hammered by a deepening recall crisis that has badly tarnished the company's reputation for safe vehicles.

On Thursday morning, they fell 3.5 percent to 3,280 yen, the lowest since April 1.

In New York a day earlier, Toyota's American Depositary Receipts (ADRs) sank 6.0 percent in one of the heaviest volumes in its US-listed history after a top US transportation official warned Toyota owners caught up in the massive recall to stop driving their cars, triggering alarm.

US Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood later called his remark an obvious misstatement, although he said he would take the unusual step of calling Toyota President Akio Toyoda to emphasise how seriously the Obama administration is taking the investigations.

"Our ... people will hold Toyota's feet to the fire to make sure they are going to do everything they said they were going to do to make the vehicles safe," he said.

All eyes are now on Toyota's third-quarter results announcement at 3 p.m. (0600 GMT), at which it is widely expected to lift its cautious guidance for this year.

With less than two months left in the financial year, Toyota is likely to slash what most analysts deemed an excessively conservative operating loss forecast of 350 billion yen (USD3.85 billion).

October-December is likely to show a second straight quarterly profit as government incentives drove sales higher worldwide.