Well, it seems that CAT was greatly helped by the surge in mining equipment sales caused by soaring commodities!
SO SOARING GOLD PRICES HELPED CAT MAKE IT'S NUMBERS!
But gold is down now and the dollar is up.
Sorry no free lunch.
What will the surging dollar do to CAT next time? Hmmmm....?
This notion that the US economy can "allow" a bond crash, and get a surge in the dollar is just a little nuts.
A bond crash and a dollar surge might pass quickly, like ships in the night, but net-net the US NEEDS FOREIGN CAPITAL TO STAY AFLOAT!
SO, HIGHER RATES WILL EVENTUALLY CRASH THE DOLLAR, AND THE BOND.
THE STREET HAS GOT A LOT OF MILEAGE USING WISHFULL THINKING, CONTORTED REASONING AND ROSIE SCENARIO ARGUMENTS;
BUT THAT IS A MARKET EVENT EXISTING ONLY IN THE PAGES OF THE WSJ;
IT'S NOT A MACRO EVENT.
THE MARKET ACTION OF THE LAST WEEK CAN NOT BE FOUND IN ANY TEXT ON MACRO-ECONOMICS.
AND TO THAT END IT'S ALL LIKELY TO BE FAKE.
Most of the "action" for the last couple of weeks can be directly traced to the threat of Euro 130! That's when the panic button was hit, but nothing, I repeat, nothing has changed.
The weak dollar fundamentals are still in place.
And, crashing the bond market is still a doomsday scenario for the FED.
