Diamonds and Dogs

10/27/22

Caterpillar (CAT) continues to chug along. The construction-equipment company is jumping 8% to a five-month high following better than expected earnings as revenues rose 20% to $14.99 billion. The strength was in North America where sales rose 33%. Sales have slowed in Europe and Asia, but are still showing growth of 8% and 9% respectively. Sales in China fell in the third quarter continuing a recent trend.

Disastrous day for Facebook/Meta (META) following earnings. The social network giant is down 22% today and down 70% year to date. Meta earnings missed as sales fell 4.5% to $27.71 billion as advertising slows. The big concern is with Meta spending heavily on building out a virtual-reality-fueled gathering place called, Metaverse. Meta is spending over $90 billion this year and possibly $100 billion next year. With the stock down 70% year to date the company has gone from top five largest US companies to around 20^th now with Mark Zuckerberg's net worth dropping by $100 billion.