NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - Ford Motor Co. posted its fourth straight losing quarter Wednesday, although the loss was less than expected, and the No. 2 automaker said it expects to top Wall Street's expectations for the second quarter.

Ford lost $108 million, or 6 cents a share, in the first quarter excluding special items. Analysts surveyed by earnings tracker First Call had a consensus forecast of a 15-cent-a-share loss. The company earned $1.13 billion, or 60 cents a share, excluding special items in the year-earlier period.

Revenue fell 6 percent to $39.9 billion.

In their presentation to analysts, company executives said they expect to top the consensus estimate in the second quarter by at least the 9 cents it shaved off the first quarter loss forecast. First Call's forecast is for earnings of 14 cents a share in the second quarter compared with a loss of 30 cents a share in the year-earlier period, when it was hit by the cost of replacing Firestone Wilderness AT tires on many of its vehicles.

The company said it also is committed to breakeven results for the full year, but added it is comfortable with the consensus forecast. First Call's estimate is for Ford to earn 11 cents a share for the year, rebounding from a 44-cent-loss in 2001.

The results and new guidance helped lift Ford (F: up $0.32 to $16.18, Research, Estimates) shares by about 2 percent Wednesday.

"It's hard to say you're satisfied with a 6-cent loss but we are satisfied," Ford Chief Financial Officer Martin Inglis told CNNfn's The Biz Wednesday. "The economy helped in the first quarter. The industry in the U.S. was better although merchandising costs were higher."

In the first quarter the company was hit not just by decreased North American sales but also by higher marketing costs, which include the various incentives used to help spur sales since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

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Ford said marketing costs for its Ford, Lincoln and Mercury equaled 15.7 percent of total sales for those vehicles and, while down from 16.7 percent in the fourth quarter, are up from 12.2 percent of sales in the year-earlier period. Ford CFO Inglis said that even though advertising expenses are expected to increase later in the year as Ford gears up on sales of some new models, it expects that marketing costs will continue to decrease.

"We're not looking for incentives to go up. I'd like to see them go down further," he told analysts.

But the drop in incentives could cost Ford further sales, said John Casesa, auto analyst for Merrill Lynch & Co.

"For the next year, year and a half I expect Ford to lose market share," Casesa told CNNfn's The Money Gang. "It doesn't have many levers to pull. Its product pipeline is relatively dry and GM is being very aggressive."

Ford said its revitalization plan unveiled in January is "on track to meet or surpass [its] 2002 earnings milestone." That plan is eventually supposed to eliminate 35,000 jobs and improve capacity utilization in North America by at least 10 percent. It also quoted Ford President Nick Scheele as saying the company is seeing signs of an economic recovery.

Ford is aiming to cut the cost of each vehicle by an average of $700 by the middle of the decade. It is assigning 300 engineers to work with suppliers to reduce the costs of various parts. While executives said it will be next year before average vehicle costs start to decrease, it expects that by the end of this year they will see evidence that the costs are poised to decrease.

Still, the improved guidance is modest compared with the outlook given Tuesday by competitor General Motors Corp. (GM: Research, Estimates), which raised full-year earnings guidance to $5 a share from $3.50 excluding the impact of its Hughes Electronics unit, which it is in the process of selling.