Caterpillar

Following Friday's broad sell-off, stocks opened mixed on Monday as corporate earnings fell short of what analysts had forecast for what was already expected to be a disappointing quarter. The Dow Jones industrial average was down six points, basically flat at 13,338, shortly after the opening bell on Wall Street. The Dow fell 205 points Friday. The broader Standard & Poor's 500 index was flat at 1,433, after opening in the negative. The Nasdaq gained nine points, or 0.3%, to 3,014.

Heavy-equipment maker Caterpillar Inc. reported a 45% drop in first-quarter profit and cut its full-year outlook amid a slowdown in its mining business. The Peoria, Ill., company said mining companies continue to reduce their spending and new equipment orders remain weak after a surge last year. But Caterpillar said its sales in China increased in the quarter ended March 31, and that it's becoming more optimistic about the U.S. housing sector. "What's happening in our business and in the economy overall is a mixed picture," said Doug Oberhelman, Caterpillar's chairman and chief executive.

Re "Cat on Strike: The Waning Power of Unions," series, May 14-18: Your thoughtful and compelling articles about the Caterpillar strike miss a very important point. Unions are dying a slow death in this country because management has succeeded in forcing labor into making concessions to maintain a company's global competitiveness. Must American workers be hammered to the same level of wage slavery that prevails in Malaysia, China, Mexico and Korea to protect the profits of companies like Caterpillar?

Following Friday's broad sell-off, stocks opened mixed on Monday as corporate earnings fell short of what analysts had forecast for what was already expected to be a disappointing quarter. The Dow Jones industrial average was down six points, basically flat at 13,338, shortly after the opening bell on Wall Street. The Dow fell 205 points Friday. The broader Standard & Poor's 500 index was flat at 1,433, after opening in the negative. The Nasdaq gained nine points, or 0.3%, to 3,014.

As quests go, the one Thousand Oaks garden designer David Snow embarked on is a doozy. For six months, Snow has devoted himself to saving the reputation of America's most beloved butterfly by getting the world's largest maker of pesticides to change its ways. Specifically, Snow wants Ortho to change the labels on its "Bug-B-Gon" and "Flower, Fruit and Vegetable Insect Killer" so they no longer feature images of the striking monarch butterfly caterpillar under the ominous vow, "guaranteed results.

Caterpillar Inc., the world's largest maker of bulldozers and excavators, said fourth-quarter earnings rose 11% as demand from China, Russia and South Africa helped overcome slower sales in the U.S., where recession is "a definite threat." Net income increased to $975 million, or $1.50 a share, from $882 million, or $1.32, a year earlier, the Peoria, Ill.-based company said. Sales gained 10% to $12.1 billion. Overseas sales accounted for about 56% of the year's $45 billion in revenue.

Caterpillar Inc., the world's second-biggest maker of heavy-duty diesel engines, said it would lay off as many as 3,270 workers at Illinois and Georgia plants that make truck engines because of slowing demand. Caterpillar and rivals such as DaimlerChrysler's Detroit Diesel unit are laying off workers as heavy-truck demand declines because of tougher U.S. truck-engine pollution rules that took effect this month.

Re "Jews Target Caterpillar Shareholder Effort," April 13: Protesting Israel's use of Caterpillar tractors to destroy terrorists' homes and sanctuaries is equivalent to protesting the fire department because it ruined your carpet and put a hole in your roof while putting out a fire. In both cases, look at the arsonist -- the terrorist -- as the real individual to blame. It is the action of the arsonist that creates the fire damage and the terrorist that leads to actions such as bulldozing homes.

Caterpillar Inc. and the United Auto Workers are to resume full-scale negotiations today, more than six years since the last time the construction equipment maker and the union had a contract. Last year, officials from both sides held six meetings with a federal mediator to figure out where they stood. Those meetings led the officials to order talks between each UAW local and factory-level executives to settle individual concerns.

Caterpillar Inc. announced 2,110 new job cuts on top of 20,000 announced earlier this week by the Peoria, Ill., maker of earth-moving equipment.

As quests go, the one Thousand Oaks garden designer David Snow embarked on is a doozy. For six months, Snow has devoted himself to saving the reputation of America's most beloved butterfly by getting the world's largest maker of pesticides to change its ways. Specifically, Snow wants Ortho to change the labels on its "Bug-B-Gon" and "Flower, Fruit and Vegetable Insect Killer" so they no longer feature images of the striking monarch butterfly caterpillar under the ominous vow, "guaranteed results.

Scientists have isolated a viral gene that induces zombie-like behavior — in caterpillars. The virus causes gypsy moth caterpillars to climb to the tops of trees, where they die and their disintegrating bodies rain infectious particles on their unsuspecting brethren below. The discovery, published in Friday's edition of the journal Science, highlights a singular pathogen gene that manipulates the behavior of its host. Researchers had long commented on the odd behavior of caterpillars infected by the virus, dubbed LdMNPV (short for Lymantria dispar nucleopolyhedrovirus)

Eric Carle's famous book "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" has become a foot soldier (well, a many-footed soldier) in the war against child obesity. The storybook character, beloved by parents and children since he emerged from an egg -- pop! -- on a Sunday morning in 1969 is not exactly the exemplar of good eating habits himself. But the American Academy of Pediatrics and a consortium of philanthropic groups has decided that parents can point to the omnivorous larva to convey a few important messages about healthy eating (while their wee ones poke their tiny fingers into the various fruits and food items devoured by the very hungry caterpillar)

Moths of the Hawaiian genus Hyposmocoma are an oddball crowd: One of the species' caterpillars attacks and eats tree snails. Now researchers have described at least a dozen different species that live underwater for several weeks at a time. "I couldn't believe it," said study coauthor Daniel Rubinoff, an evolutionary biologist at the University of Hawaii at Honolulu, of the first time he spotted a submerged caterpillar. "I assumed initially they were terrestrial caterpillars . . . how were they holding their breath?"

People who Googled anything on the first day of spring this year were met with a particularly charming version of the search engine's logo. The Very Hungry Caterpillar, a beloved children's book character created by Eric Carle in 1969, crawled across the page, eating holes in letters brilliantly colored in characteristic collage style. The only other children's literature icon the Internet giant has deemed recognizable enough to grace its opening search page? Dr. Seuss. No wonder.

Caterpillar Inc. announced plans to lay off more than 2,400 employees at five plants in Illinois, Indiana and Georgia as the heavy-equipment maker continues to cut costs amid the global economic downturn. Peoria, Ill.-based Caterpillar, the world's largest maker of mining and construction equipment, has seen its sales wither as the sluggish world economy and credit crisis weaken demand for its products.

Caterpillar Inc., the earth-moving equipment manufacturer, said today that it is closing a plant in Glasgow, Scotland, that employs 1,220 people and is considering closures in Iowa and Oregon that would affect another 1,630. As part of a long-term retrenchment, Caterpillar will take a pretax write-off of $109 million in its fourth quarter, company spokesman Gil Nolde said. Plant closings are contemplated in Davenport, Iowa, where 1,300 are employed, and in The Dalles, Ore.

President Obama preached a message of hope about the economy here Thursday, praising employees gathered in a Caterpillar plant for soldiering through tough times, and he promised that help is on the way. But the audience was dotted with dispirited workers who had just gotten word of 20,000 layoffs coming at the heavy-equipment giant, and though community leaders and managers cheered Obama's words, others in the crowd were in no mood to join in.

Even before the stimulus deal was complete in Congress, President Obama said Wednesday that evidence already showed his economic rescue plan would improve the lives of American workers. The White House asserted three times Wednesday that Caterpillar Inc., which has laid off workers recently, would be able to rehire employees if Congress approved the stimulus bill. But as the president prepared for a trip today to visit a Caterpillar plant in East Peoria, Ill., it was unclear whether the world's biggest maker of earth-moving equipment could provide an example of the stimulus bill's job-creating powers.