Capital Spending, Automation & Earnings

Check out the accompanying pdf and chart collection. Executive Summary: While surveys of business managers’ capital spending plans suggest more spending caution, that could partly reflect all the recession talk recently. Actual capital spending shows no sign of recession; it hit a record high last quarter. … Also: Factory managers are flocking to technological solutions to their many challenges, reports Jackie; Rockwell updates the story. … And: Joe reviews what Q1 results reported to date collectively say about how companies fared last quarter and how results jibe with analysts’ expectations. Notably, analysts haven’t been slashing estimates after hearing managements’ conference calls, as they’ve done in recent quarters.