Caterpillar, Inc. (CAT) is trading higher this afternoon. As I write this, shares are up over $3, or 4.6%. Not bad at all for a company like this one. Volume is quite convincing, too.

The heavy-equipment maker is very close to its 52-week high of $72.83, a level that was hit today. The one-year chart is encouraging to both investors and traders alike. The stock has pulled far away from the 52-week low, and judging by the current price action I'm seeing, it seems that the uptrend could certainly continue.

Deere (DE), a maker of heavy equipment for the farming industry, will be reporting earnings for the fiscal first quarter on Wednesday, February 17.

If you're a shareholder, you'll need to ready yourself for a big drop in per-share profit. That's because, according to estimates, the company is expected to earn somewhere in the vicinity of 19 cents per share. In the comparable quarterly period, 48 cents per share was recorded on the bottom line.

Caterpillar (CAT), the famous maker of heavy equipment, was down over 7% in afternoon trading at the time of this writing. Volume of shares traded will end up being way above the norm once today's session is in the history books. The fourth quarter apparently didn't satisfy the market.

Except it should have, at least in my opinion. According to the press release, on an adjusted basis, the company made 41 cents per share. Earnings.com says analysts wanted to see 28 cents per share. Not only do we have that as a positive, but cash from operations jumped significantly to $6.3 billion in 2009 from $4.8 billion in 2008.

Caterpillar (NYSE: CAT) is doing great. The stock is hot, and even though the company is still reporting sales and earnings declines, you just know that the fundamentals will eventually get better. In the meantime, management is doing its best to beat earnings expectations.

Yesterday, management succeeded. For the third quarter, according to our Closing Bell post, Caterpillar said it made 64 cents per share. Analysts were expecting only 6 cents per share. Well, something was off there, huh? Anyway, according to the actual press release, sales decreased over 40%, and per-share profit was off by 15%, but really, it didn't matter to the market. Shares of the heavy equipment maker closed higher by 3%, on heavy volume.

Today was a weak day even before the leading economic indicators brought a disappointment. The dollar was strong ahead of the FOMC meeting decision this week, where the Fed is expected to give less free money but will likely hold rates firm. The good news is that despite a negative news bias from companies, the drops were not as hard as they could have been.

Here were today's unofficial closing bell levels:

Dow 9,778.93 -41.27 (-0.42%)
S&P 500 1,064.71 -3.59 (-0.34%)
Nasdaq 2,138.04 +5.18 (0.24%)

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Earlier in the week, Caterpillar (NYSE: CAT), the famous maker of heavy equipment and engines for industry, reported earnings for the second quarter. This is exactly the kind of company that one worries about during a recession. Looking through the results, one can't help but cringe. There's nothing you can do about it.

Sales dropped over 40%, impacted in part by currency translations. Adjusted profit of 72 cents per diluted share represented a steep decline in profit growth. Caterpillar earned $1.74 per diluted share in the year-ago period.

Deere (NYSE: DE) will be reporting numbers for the second quarter on Wednesday, May 20. Analysts aren't looking for expansion of the bottom line. Considering what Deere makes, it isn't surprising. We're still in a recession, and purchases of heavy equipment will obviously remain in an ambiguous state.

So, Wall Street is figuring on somewhere around $1.08 per share. That compares to $1.74 per share in the year-ago period. Last quarter, Deere didn't do so well, with its bottom line declining precipitously to 48 cents per share. Analysts had wanted to see 63 cents per share.