For example, Monish Patolawala, the CFO of ITW's fellow multi-industry industrial 3M (NYSE: MMM), told investors in September that he saw unprecedented inflationary pressures that were causing inflation to outpace price increases. It may seem counter-intuitive to suggest buying stocks in the sector just as many of them are about to report third-quarter earnings characterized by rising raw material price inflation and COVID-19-related supply chain issues. In a nutshell, the difficulties come down to a combination of reopening teething problems, the Delta variant of the COVID-19 virus, and strong demand creating rising raw material and supply chain costs.