No one’s diving off skyscrapers yet, but General Electric missing estimates that they used to hit within a penny with Jack Walsh in charge can’t be a confidence builder in the trading pits.

Dear ol’ Dubya doesn’t want to hear any of that there recession talk, but even Fed head Ben Bernanke has brought it up a little bit.

Too bad, guys, GE saw first quarter profits drop 6 percent.  The Dow, Nasdaq, and the S&P 500 are cratering as of lunchtime on the 11th of April. Investors may be wondering if it’s time for Jeff Immelt to find a new job.

Forbes took the headline of the day with General Electric Shocks Investors (electric, shock, geddit?) What they reported about GE can’t be good, no matter what spin Immelt puts on it:

GE’s robust infrastructure business, which did have strong double-digit earnings growth for the quarter, was offset by double-digit decreases at its in the consumer, industrial, healthcare and financial divisions. “Our primary shortfall was a decline in financial services earnings,” GE Chief Executive Jeffrey Immelt said. “We knew the first quarter was going to be challenging, but the extraordinary disruption in the capital markets in March affected our ability to complete asset sales and resulted in higher mark-to-market losses.” 

Translated: OMFG everybody panic!!!!Q!1111Q!111

Ok, don’t panic. But be concerned. If GE can take this kind of hit, lots of other big names can too. Weakening economies, and dare I say recessions, will do that sort of thing.