Caterpillar slashed its 2015 revenue forecast and said it could cut up to 10,000 jobs through 2018, joining a list of big US industrial companies grappling with the shock waves from the mining and energy downturn.

The stock fell as much as 8 per cent to a five-year low and pulled down shares of other industrial companies. It knocked about 30 points off the Dow Jones industrial average .

Caterpillar, the world’s biggest construction and mining equipment maker, has also been hit by a slowdown in industrial activity in China.

Caterpillar expects revenue to fall in 2015, for the third straight year, to $48 billion (€42.74bn), below the average analyst estimate of $48.82 billion. For 2016, it forecast a 5 per cent revenue decline. It will update its 2015 profit forecast when it releases third-quarter results in October. – (Reuters)