Mixxed signals from the Street

Arguably the largest factor in causing Friday's sell off was Caterpillar's poor earnings report, but were they accurate?

But the glaring holes in CAT's story are that the U.S. can suffer a recession, the Fed acts and has no effect, the global economy grows as robustly as ever, AND CAT rolls into 2010 having achieved 15-20% annual earnings growth and $50 billion in revenue! Huh? Something tells me that after it is all said and done that CAT really thinks that the U.S. will do better in 2008; otherwise, I think they are being for too optimistic about the chain of events that keep their long-term guidance on track.