Caterpillar Cautions Wall Street

Caterpillar announced its first-quarter results topped its performance for the same period last year due to "improved operating efficiencies, better prices in part due to favorable currency impact, lower research and development expense and higher volumes." Those positives combined to boost the manufacturing giant's sales to $4.8 billion (nearly 10 percent growth) for the first three months of the year. Meanwhile, net income skyrockted to $129 million (up 60 percent) for the quarter.

But Caterpillar management isn't letting these numbers create any false sense of security about the rest of 2003.

"Our outlook has improved somewhat, but given the degree of uncertainty in the business environment, the balance of the year will prove challenging," said the company in a statement.

In particular, the company is concerned about "continuing political unrest adn a delayed economic recovery."

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Caterpillar has a variety of expectations for different parts of its global market, and those include predictions that sales in North America will be flat at best.