Industrial supply companies always give great color on the state of the U.S. manufacturing sector, so investors have reason for caution after MSC Industrial's (NYSE: MSM) latest third-quarter earnings report. Let's take a look at the details and why they suggest many industrial companies could be giving weak outlooks in the forthcoming earnings season.
On a headline basis, MSC's results looked pretty good. After all, net sales of $835 million were only down 3.6% year over year. Moreover, MSC did a pretty good job on margins in the quarter.
It's going to be a difficult quarter for heavy manufacturing companies. Image source: Getty Images.