By Savyata Mishra
(Reuters) -McDonald's executives on Tuesday brushed off a potential sales hit from the deadly E. coli outbreak in the U.S., saying that the fast-food giant was past the incident and was looking to revive muted demand through promotions and value menu items.
Shares of the company reversed course to trade up about 2% in early trading. They had fallen about 2% premarket after the company reported a bigger-than-expected drop in global comparable sales but a quarterly profit beat.
Last week, McDonald's temporarily paused serving Quarter Pounders in a fifth of its 14,000 U.S. restaurants due to an outbreak that has killed at least one person. Shares had declined nearly 7% last week as infections rose to 75 people. Quarter Pounders were being added back to the menu this week.
CEO Chris Kempczinski apologized to customers for the outbreak on a post-earnings call on Tuesday, and said the situation appears to be contained and he was "confident in the safety of eating at McDonald's."
