What happened Shares of industrials giant General Electric (NYSE: GE) are hopping in afternoon trading Wednesday, up 7.5% as of 1:10 p.m. EDT as GE CEO Larry Culp expounds on the company's plans at a Morgan Stanley investor event currently in progress. So what What's driving GE shares higher? TheFly.com is giving minute-by-minute updates on the CEO's comments. Among the encouraging news: GE's recent second quarter -- the results from which were not great -- is likely to have been the "toughest period" GE will experience this year. GE burned through $3 billion in negative free cash flow in the first half of this year, according to data from S&P Global Market Intelligence. However, this year's second half should show improvement, with cash flow (if not free cash flow) at least turning positive. (Cash flow alone was negative $1.4 billion in the first half, with the remainder of the cash burn accounted for by capital investments.) And GE expects to have momentum on its side as it emerges from 2020 into 2021. Image source: Getty Images. Now what In short, this industrial bellwether seems to be promising a brighter future after it emerges from the shadow of COVID-19. At a price less than 16 times earnings, paying a modest 0.6% dividend yield, and with the prospect of self-sustaining free cash flow on the horizon, investors today appear willing to take the CEO at his word, and give GE stock another spin. 10 stocks we like better than General ElectricWhen investing geniuses David and Tom Gardner have a stock tip, it can pay to listen. After all, the newsletter they have run for over a decade, Motley Fool Stock Advisor, has tripled the market.* David and Tom just revealed what they believe are the ten best stocks for investors to buy right now... and General Electric wasn't one of them! That's right -- they think these 10 stocks are even better buys. See the 10 stocks *Stock Advisor returns as of August 1, 2020 Rich Smith has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.Source