In this round of our review of mega-companies earnings call transcripts, there seem to be two clear winners: "emerging markets" and agriculture.
In particular, China is "back" (if it ever went away...), and Mexico and Brazil are well down the path of creating a buoyant middle class.
And within ag, extreme weather conditions are forcing farmers to make new purchases and adjust their production methods.
But the rest of the world faces a cloudy 2013.
We compiled earnings transcripts from Bloomberg and selected the juiciest portions for your consumption.
Tupperware is trying to adapt to the exploding middle class in Mexico.
"...product-wise, on really moving to separate ourselves from the discount beauty company there, rebranding it more with our Armand Dupree lining, and moving towards higher priced products, and less discounting. That's going to take time, but we're committed to that strategy. It's the right margin and the right image. As you grow a middle class, she doesn't aspire for beauty products that are discounted, she inspires to pullout a tube of lipstick and for her friends to see it, they would say, wow, I'm not poor anymore. That's what middle class becomes in these markets."
Source: Bloomberg/Company Transcript
3M also really likes LatAm.
"On a geographic basis, Latin America/Canada was once again our fastest growing region, with organic local currency growth of 9.7%. This performance was broad based, with all six of our businesses generating positive organic growth in the region, including double-digit increases in Health Care; Safety, Security and Protection Services; Consumer and Office; and Electro and Communications. Brazil and Mexico both posted impressive results. Brazil grew 11% organically in the face of a still recovering economy, and Mexico grew 10%.”
Source: Bloomberg/Company Transcript
Caterpillar hopes the Fed keeps pumping.
“In the United States, we’re becoming increasingly optimistic. The Fed’s interest rate policies and their plan to continue injecting liquidity are in our view positive for 2013 growth. We’re expecting the U.S. economy to grow at least 2.5% in 2013. Now that’s not what any of us would consider a robust level of growth, but it certainly than what we – better than what we saw in the second half of 2012. We expect U.S. housing industry to help the economy in 2013, and we’ve all seen the positive news items related to housing over the past few months.”
Source: Bloomberg/Company Transcript
See the rest of the story at Business Insider
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