Latest earnings from Caterpillar sum up the global economy
Caterpillar is big global group dealing in machinery for the resource and construction industries (among others) and it's a good bellwether for the state of the global economy. They haven't been upbeat for quite some time and their latest earnings report says they won't be for 2016 either
- Q4 sales were $11.03bn vs $11.43bn exp
- Outlook for 2016 sales and revenues do not anticipate an improvement in global growth or commodity prices
- 2016 sales in resource industries expected to be 15-20% lower than 2015, mainly due to mining firms continuing to cut capex and falls in mining related commod prices
- Additional restructuring likely in 2016
- Outlook reflects struggling oil and other commod markets and continued weakness in developing countries
- Dealer inventories decreased around $1n in Q4 vs $600m in Q3, expects similar inventory reductions in 2016
- Expects similar global growth to 2015 at around 2.5%
- While us and European economies show signs of stability, global economy remains under pressure
- Expects general and heavy construction activity to increase in the US
- US monetary policy could temper business confidence
- China's push for structural reforms has slowed growth and increased volatility
That pretty much sums things up right now. There's unlikely to be any growth records broken this year
