Honda Motor Co. reported record profit for a fiscal first quarter Friday as sales growth in new markets offset the damage from a stronger yen and soaring material costs.
The results came a day after U.S. automaker Ford Motor Co. reported its worst quarterly loss ever.
Honda, Japan's No. 2 automaker, earned a better-than-expected 179.6 billion yen ($1.68 billion) in the April-June quarter, up 8.1 percent from the same period the previous year. Analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial had forecast 131.3 billion yen ($1.2 billion) in quarterly profit.
Sales for the quarter dipped 2.2 percent from a year ago to 2.867 trillion yen ($26.79 billion), largely …