Caterpillar’s record profit can’t save it from trade-war carnage
NEW YORK – The world on the cusp of a trade war has spooked investors, and few companies are feeling the fright more than Caterpillar.
Shares of the Deerfield, Illinois-based company, which is expected to post record profit this year and the best sales since 2014, have dropped for five straight days and are headed for the biggest monthly loss since 2016. The stock vied with Boeing Co. as the worst performer Tuesday on the Dow Jones Industrial Average.
The slide for Caterpillar, a bellwether for American industry, shows how trade frictions are upending assumptions for an improving global economy. Markets were rattled as China vowed to retaliate “forcefully” after President Donald Trump threatened to slap another $200-billion on imports from the Asian nation. Caterpillar said as recently as January, after boosting its 2018 forecast, that it didn’t expect the Trump administration’s policies to ignite a trade war.
“The market is selling the big trade-related plays, and the exporters in particular,” Matt Arnold, an analyst at Edward Jones & Co. in St. Louis, said in a telephone interview.
Caterpillar was the best-performing stock in the Dow Jones gauge over the past two calendar years. In May, the maker of iconic yellow bulldozers and excavators posted its biggest monthly gain since December.
Comments
Press Office
Announcements
What's On
Subscribe to improve your user experience...
Option 1 (equivalent of R125 a month):
Receive a weekly copy of Creamer Media's Engineering News & Mining Weekly magazine
(print copy for those in South Africa and e-magazine for those outside of South Africa)
Receive daily email newsletters
Access to full search results
Access archive of magazine back copies
Access to Projects in Progress
Access to ONE Research Report of your choice in PDF format
Option 2 (equivalent of R375 a month):
All benefits from Option 1
PLUS
Access to Creamer Media's Research Channel Africa for ALL Research Reports, in PDF format, on various industrial and mining sectors
including Electricity; Water; Energy Transition; Hydrogen; Roads, Rail and Ports; Coal; Gold; Platinum; Battery Metals; etc.
Already a subscriber?
Forgotten your password?
Receive weekly copy of Creamer Media's Engineering News & Mining Weekly magazine (print copy for those in South Africa and e-magazine for those outside of South Africa)
➕
Recieve daily email newsletters
➕
Access to full search results
➕
Access archive of magazine back copies
➕
Access to Projects in Progress
➕
Access to ONE Research Report of your choice in PDF format
RESEARCH CHANNEL AFRICA
R4500 (equivalent of R375 a month)
SUBSCRIBEAll benefits from Option 1
➕
Access to Creamer Media's Research Channel Africa for ALL Research Reports on various industrial and mining sectors, in PDF format, including on:
Electricity
➕
Water
➕
Energy Transition
➕
Hydrogen
➕
Roads, Rail and Ports
➕
Coal
➕
Gold
➕
Platinum
➕
Battery Metals
➕
etc.
Receive all benefits from Option 1 or Option 2 delivered to numerous people at your company
➕
Multiple User names and Passwords for simultaneous log-ins
➕
Intranet integration access to all in your organisation