NEW YORK (Bloomberg) — Bermuda-based Tyco Electronics Ltd., the world's largest maker of electronic connectors, posted a loss in its first-quarter on weakening demand from automakers and said profit in the current quarter will trail analysts' estimates.

The loss from continuing operations was $37 million, or eight cents a share, compared with profit from continuing operations of $868 million, or $1.75, a year earlier, the company said yesterday in a statement. Revenue in the quarter ended December 26 declined 21 percent to $2.8 billion.

Chief executive officer Tom Lynch is slashing costs and cutting jobs as demand for connectors used in cars and desktop computers slows. Sales declined 31 percent in the automotive unit in the quarter, the company said. Tyco Electronics forecast total revenue to drop as much as 35 percent in the current quarter.

"Tyco's typically disciplined approach to serving the auto industry will be severely tested in the first half of 2009 as auto demand remains weak," Steven Fox, an analyst at Merrill Lynch & Co., wrote January 13. The New York-based analyst has an "underperform" rating on the stock.

Excluding some items, profit from continuing operations was 22 cents a share, less than the average of 10 analysts' estimates compiled by Bloomberg for earnings of 29 cents. Profit this quarter, excluding some items, will be five cents to 10 cents a share. The average estimate in Bloomberg's survey was for profit of 33 cents.