Caterpillar (CAT) Caterpillar (NYSE:) shares, like Boeing, are falling hard as the company is vulnerable to a cut in its exports to the Chinese markets. After a six-month reprieve from the volatility that first appeared early last year, Wall Street is being rattled by a combination of pretty much everything going wrong at a time when stocks were priced for everything going right. The Federal Reserve could be constrained in how it responds if energy-push inflation, driven by Iranian responses to energy sanctions placed on it by Trump, results from higher crude prices.