Another economic bellweather chimes in today with near disastrous but media ignored results that sharply contrast the relentless rise of U.S. equities. We will see if CAT is forced to change their outlook over the coming week like our friends at FedEx.

Scam central - VHF

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If The Economy Is Recovering...(CAT)

Karl Denninger

March 18, 2010

... then how come the wire has this story?

Co. reports retail sales of machines declined 20% y/y in Feb and sales of reciprocating & turbine engines to retail users & OEMs declined 33% y/y in Feb

Another source off the wire has even uglier numbers:

 Caterpillar Inc Reports 3 month dealer statistics;
 Dec-Feb sales - filing
 - Retail Sales of Machines: 

              Feb.10    Jan.10    Dec.09 
Asia/Pacific  DOWN 2%   UP 1%     DOWN 12% 
EAME*         DOWN 22%  DOWN 35%  DOWN 41% 
Latin America DOWN 20%  DOWN 15%  DOWN 24% 
ROW*          DOWN 15%  DOWN 19%  DOWN 28% 
North America DOWN 30%  DOWN 40%  DOWN 46% 
World         DOWN 20%  DOWN 27%  DOWN 35% 

Sales of Reciporcating & Turbine Engines 
to Retail Users & OEMS by Business Sector 

                Feb.10   Jan.10   Dec.09 
Electric Power  DOWN 26% DOWN 27% DOWN 27% 
Industrial      DOWN 15% DOWN 22% DOWN 44% 
Marine          DOWN 23% DOWN 18% DOWN 29% 
Petroleum       DOWN 47% DOWN 46% DOWN 46% 
Total           DOWN 33% DOWN 33% DOWN 36% 

(Hattips to rebeltraders and aztrader)

I thought last February was pretty much "the depths of Hell" when it comes to the economy and heavy industrial orders?

That's what we've all been told, right? That the economy bottomed last winter and spring and it's all sunshine and great days ahead, yes?

Well, then how come we're seeing huge decreases from last February's run rate in one of the leading heavy-equipment manufacturers' sales everywhere except Asia, and there we're not seeing gains - just flat sales.

Various forms of fixed investment are coming back, yes? We don't need anything like big diesel engines or earth-moving machines to actually construct any of that sort of fixed investment, right?

The ToutTV pumpers wouldn't be lying, would they?

(Let's see when this is picked up on CNBS - of course you know the answer, right? NEVER!)