What's going on?

In a tale of two American industrial conglomerates, $116 billion-valued Honeywell reported sweet second-quarter results on Friday, sending its stock buzzing up. Meanwhile, 126-year-old General Electric (GE)�s results weren�t bright enough to keep its stock from dimming.

What does this mean?

Things are looking good, honey: Honeywell�s sales and profit grew more than expected and it raised its own expectations for the rest of the year � for the third time. Honeywell�s aerospace division was leading the charge, thanks to demand from the airline industry and higher US military spending.


GE also did better than expected: its drop in profit was smaller than anticipated due to cost cutting. But, while Honeywell was revising its expectations up, GE was revising its own down � saying it�s going to generate less cash for the year overall. Despite GE�s aviation division also doing well, this was offset by weakness in its energy business.

Why should I care?

For markets: Investors like Honey.

Investors saw things going well for Honeywell and went for a piece of the comb � the stock rose 4%. GE�s stock, on the other hand, fell by 4% � its shares have halved over the past year. Once the world�s most valuable public company, GE also said that it�s also going to sell fewer large power turbines this year as renewables take over � furthering its energy segment�s troubles.

The bigger picture: Forewarned is forearmed.

Honeywell�s started buying components from countries other than China to avoid getting caught in the crossfire as the US and China butt heads over trade. The company�s also raised some of its prices in anticipation and locked in some purchases ahead of the tariffs coming into effect. It still expects to be hit, but it�s got its raincoat and umbrella to hand to weather the storm as best it can.