Up almost 10% so far. Will probably sell half between about $160-$164, and hold the rest with a target of about $172.
Currently up almost 12% on this one in 2.5 weeks. Target is $172 and we're a little over half way there. Approaching overbought levels and will probably run into some resistance between $160-$164. Will re-evaluate in the next few days to see if I want to close early, close part, or continue on the same path.
Caterpillar increased manufacturing segment revenue 33% to $12.2 billion compared with the prior year’s quarter. The industry has been in growth mode thanks to a combination of U.S. tax reform, strong economic activity, and positive commodity price trends. Caterpillar’s resource industries and energy and transportation segments clearly demonstrate this point, as both segments increased revenue 32% to $2.2 billion, and 27% to $4.3 billion, respectively.
I'm not sure what commodities have been experiencing "positive commodity price trends". Not the PMs, not the grains. Iron maybe? I doubt it.
Chart of the Day: Caterpillar (CAT) Machinery Sales Still Weak Feb 13, 2019 COTD Bullet Points: Caterpillar machinery sales for January grew just 9% y/y, the lowest rate of growth since June 2017. North America bucked the trend in January as the only region to show an acceleration in its rate of y/y growth to 20%. Sales in Asia actually swung to a decline of 4%, making it the only region with negative growth. Chart of the Day: Shares of Caterpillar (CAT) have had a tough time recovering from their Q4 swoon as the stock continues to struggle with resistance in the $135 range. Slower sales of machinery is one factor behind the weakness in the stock. Sales figures for the month of January were released earlier this morning and showed a deceleration in worldwide three-month average y/y sales, falling from 10% down to 9%. That’s the slowest rate of sales growth since June 2017 and the seventh consecutive month where y/y sales growth saw a sequential decline. Since our dataset begins in 2009, this is the longest such stretch of monthly declines. While global sales growth is still at 9%, it masks a much weaker picture around the world. The chart below shows y/y sales growth broken out by region, and at 20%, North America is clearly steering the ship. Sales growth in the region is more than twice the global rate of growth and four times the rate of growth as the next closest region (EAME). Not only that, but North America was also the only region of the world where CAT saw an acceleration in the rate of overall sales. At the other end of the spectrum, sales growth in Asia actually swung to a decline in January, falling 4% y/y. That’s the first negative reading for the Asia region since July 2016. We would also note that coming out of the prior global slowdown in CAT sales, Asia was the first region to climb out of negative territory, so let’s hope it’s not leading the rest of the world this time around.
Good job Cy. I like CAT. It is an easy to understand business. They sell tools, machines, safety clothing, phones, etc. But ... allways a but ... here, current levels are expensive. Anyway it is a name I will allways add after crumble down. When it happens, I mean...
Converting mining equipment from diesel to battery electric is moronic, if the purpose is reducing emissions. It makes sense for underground work, where they can't hot box the limited air supply with diesel exhaust. At some point, nearly everything will need to convert to battery electric but I would think construction equipment ought to be last to convert, if it converts at all. What sort of battery is in that truck? 2MW? That is going to take two days to charge at a rate of 50KW. Even if they charge at a rate of 500KW, that is going to take over 4 hours and they had better ramp up to that half megawatt rate quickly or the charge time will stretch way out. How is the power grid at that remote mining site? Can it handle half a megawatt connections coming on and off line? 2MW is not all that big, at that scale. It would take considerable math but, given how far an e-truck can tow 20K pounds on a flat surface, a mining truck isn't going to be able to haul 500t very far (all up the steepest possible hill while it goes back down unloaded). They are likely in a situation where the max load on the battery pack is so high, they will be forced to use primary cells and they will need to be extremely high current, at that. So, they will need to buy twice as many trucks at $7+M so they can be charging half the time and they will have to bring in major grid scale lines to charge the fleet before they can start operations? Wow. A diesel tank can be filled in under an hour. Makes no sense to me.
