Ford profit falls by almost half, misses Wall Street estimates

DETROIT (Reuters) - Ford Motor Co on Wednesday posted a second-quarter net profit that was down by almost half from the prior-year period, missing analyst expectations, due to a fire at a parts supplier that disrupted production of its popular pickup trucks, while falling sales and tariffs hurt the automaker's business in China.

The No. 2 U.S. automaker reported a second-quarter net profit of $1.07 billion, or 27 cents a share, compared with $2.05 billion, or 51 cents a share, a year earlier. Analysts on average had expected earnings of 31 cents a share, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

(Reporting by Nick Carey and Ben Klayman; Editing by Leslie Adler)