Caterpillar was a star performer in the November 2016 “Trump trade,” as investors piled into stocks that were supposed to benefit from stepped-up infrastructure spending in the US. China, meanwhile, was the Evil Empire that the new administration planned to confront.
Today’s record-breaking results from US construction equipment maker Caterpillar turn that story inside out. “Total sales rose 9.6 percent to $11.33 billion and handily beat analysts’ average estimate of $10.93 billion, according to Thomson Reuters. Sales from Asia Pacific, Caterpillar’s third-biggest market, jumped 23 percent in the quarter, boosted by an increase in construction equipment sales in China,” Reuters reported today.