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Construction and mining equipment company Caterpillar said Tuesday quarterly earnings rose a greater-than-expected 34 percent as strong growth in emerging economies offset weakness in North America, Western Europe and Japan.
The company also raised its full-year outlook, despite what it warned would be significantly higher material costs in the second half, sending its shares modestly higher in premarket electronic trading.
Caterpillar, a component of the Dow Jones industrial average and a U.S. business bellwether, reported a second-quarter profit of $1.11 billion, or $1.74 a share, compared with $823 million, or $1.24 a share, a year earlier.
Sales rose 20 percent to $13.64 billion.
Analysts, on average, expected the Peoria, Illinois-based company to earn $1.54 a share on sales of $11.87 billion, according to Reuters Estimates.
"Never in my 35 plus years with the company have I seen Caterpillar do so well in the face of such a difficult economic climate in the United States," Jim Owens, the company's chairman and chief executive, said in a statement.
In North America, Caterpillar said economic conditions in construction and quarrying continued to deteriorate during the quarter, offsetting some improvements in commodity sectors.
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