Today’s close
The market liked the looks of near-zero Fed funds, juicing Cat’s stock by nearly 2 percent on top of a big day yesterday. Oil prices dipped below $40 a barrel and the indexes traded mostly lower as large-cap tech names took a bit of a drubbing.
Cat’s numbers:
- Range: 43.01-45.70
- Open: 43.35
- Close: 44.65, +0.85 (1.94%)
- Volume: 12,748,300
The Indexes
- Dow: 8,824.34, -99.80, (-1.12%)
- S&P 500: 904.42, -8.76 (0.96%)
- Nasdaq: 1,579.31, -10.58 (0.67%)
A higher high on higher volume is good news in the short run. Here’s hoping there’s more of this to come.
It really bothers me that people do not understand how important oil has been to Caterpillar. The oil business is probably the most consistent profit over the years for Cat. Their oil business has had double digit growth every month except for three months in the last 6 years, and the profit margin is the best of all their products. A good oil price not extreme but at least 80 dol a barrel will allow drillers to start buying those 3500 and their attachments again.
Permalink | Posted December 17th, 2008, at 5:55 pmThis business carried Cat thru the 70’s when nothing else was selling.
Bennie: thanks for that input … Cat’s mining and construction businesses are pretty obvious but I wasn’t sure of how big the oil story is for Cat.
Permalink | Posted December 17th, 2008, at 6:15 pm