• Reuters, Thursday, September 18, 2008 9:15 AM

General Electric Co shares tumbled 6.6% on Wednesday, even as the conglomerate's chief said people should "not be panicked" about the current financial crisis. GE, parent company of NBC Universal, has lost about 17%of its market value, or $46.7 billion, over the past week.

GE shares sold off as investors worried that the trouble at Lehman, AIG and other large financial services firms may be a warning sign about GE Capital, the financial arm that provides about half of GE's profits.

GE chief Jeff Immelt tried to be reassuring. "GE capital earned $5.2 billion through the first half of the year. We do boring stuff fundamentally in financial services. And I'm proud of that."

Read the whole story at Reuters »