Toyota Motor Corp. is likely to report its first-ever operating loss in the current year ending March 31 as a result of plunging sales and the strength of the yen, the Nikkei financial daily said yesterday. The world's biggest auto maker has never posted an operating loss since it began releasing earnings in 1940, the Nikkei said. Toyota has said it will announce revised 2009 sales forecasts at its year-end news conference on Dec. 22. Toyota cut its operating profit forecast by more than half last month and said it would do everything it could to meet the new forecast of ¥600-billion ($8.1-billion) for the year. Options include halving the number of temporary workers in Japan, delaying new factory launches and cutting research and development costs, it said. 7203 (Tokyo) fell ¥50 to ¥2,960.