Automation company earnings trends

I've been collecting some first quarter (Oct-Dec) earnings reports and they are a mixed bag. The overall tone is optimistic, though. I'll take that. National Instruments was up. Emerson was down year over year, but took pains to point out that 1Q 2009 was a record quarter. Honeywell was down year over year by a little without much comment (automation, sensing and controls). Rockwell was down year over year and sequentially. On the surface that's not good news (although it was still profitable), but CEO Nosbusch was bullish in his comments and revised earnng forecast for the year upward. Wall Street smiled. Or maybe it smiled because the company continued to generate tons of cash. Must be why I keep running into recently ex-Rockwell people all over the place--very talented ones at that.

Overall, it looks as though we're headed for a recovery. Can't happen any too soon!