Dow futures are higher by over 100 points following a spate of big beats among Dow components including 3M, GM, UTX, but none more so than Caterpillar which just announced blockbuster Q3 EPS of $1.95, nearly 50% higher than the $1.22 consensus estimate (and above the highest forecast), on revenue of $11.4 billion, which also was well above the $10.73 billion expected, which also was at the top end of the range.
Just days after we reported that in the mad dash by virtually every American city to become Amazon's second headquarters, in which some such as New Jersey offered as much as $7 billion in state and city tax credits, today Amazon announced that that it has received 238 proposals from "cities and regions in 54 states, provinces, districts and territories around North America" who want to host the company's second headquarters, also known as HQ2.
The unexpected decision by President Trump to amend an emergency Sept 11 order signed by George W Bush, allowing the Air Force to recall up to 1,000 retired air force pilots to address what the Pentagon has decribed as "an acute shortage of pilots" caught us by surprise. After all, this was the first time we have heard of this particular labor shortage - perhaps there was more to this executive order than meets the eye. Indeed, a just released report may help explain the reasoning behind this presidential decision.
As we’ve reported in the past, skyrocketing wages in mainland China have caused the adoption of robot workers by the country’s manufacturers to accelerate rapidly in recent years, cementing the country’s position as a world leader in industrial automation.
Authored by Chris Hamilton via Econimica blog,