Morningstar Research predicting that it’s likely that Caterpillar’s U.S. Sales will increase this year (citing improvements in construction sector)

In a note to investors this morning, Morningstar Research did a write-up on Caterpillar’s recently reported results.

I’ve highlighted one of the comments (in bold type):

During the quarter, Caterpillar saw 28% year-over-year volume growth in its construction segment, driven by fleet replacement in developed economies and continued solid growth in emerging economies. However, the firm's dealers in China saw declining deliveries to end users; Cat's sales improvement in the region stemmed from continued inventory building at distributors' lots. The whole industry in this geography has seen weakness in recent months, and we expect the company could see slower results in 2012. Conversely, the improving construction picture in North America (as shown by leading indicators such as the Architecture Billings Index) will probably lead to climbing U.S. volume for the year, with low interest rates helping to further spur demand.