At least PTJ agrees with me

At least Paul Tudor Jones agrees with me on long end Treasuries being a sale and that precious metals, along with commodities generally are very attractive. We remain long stocks including big oil, natural gas, natural gas pipelines, an offshore driller, uranium, gold, silver, copper and fertilizer stocks. Also, TIPS on the Treasury side.

A lot of earnings calls to go thru so let’s get at it. A mixed picture remains evident regardless of the 3% GDP estimates out there for Q3.

From Genuine Parts, the distributor of auto and industrial replacement parts and whose stock fell 21% yesterday:

“continued softness in market conditions across our global geographies negatively impacted our sales growth in the quarter relative to our expectations, with the most pronounced impacts in Europe and our global industrial business. The weaker demand environment continues to be impacted by interest rates, combined with persistent cost inflation and election and geopolitical uncertainty. These factors are impacting our customers, most notably with tightened budgets and reduced spending for capital projects in our industrial business and reduced spending in general maintenance and discretionary categories across our automotive segment.”

What this meant for earnings? “The weak sales environment along with cost pressure in wages and rent expense plus anticipated headwinds from depreciation and interest expense resulted in adjusted earnings being down y/o/y” by 24%. 

What are they hearing from customers? “We continue to hear from customers considering capital projects that they are pausing, not canceling these plans until they have better visibility into the interest rate environment and the outcome of the election in the US.”

From Sherwin Williams:

Here was the lay of their business land, “In our pro architectural business, demand remains variable by end market, with no impact to date from recent interest rate cuts. North American DIY demand remains weak driven by inflation and higher consumer debt levels. In our industrial businesses, demand remains choppy by end market and region.”

“We are maintaining our previous full year earnings guidance, recognizing the current range is wider than typical entering a fourth quarter.”

From MMM whose sales rose 1%: