Caterpillar's quarterly financial results are out, and the numbers don't look good for shareholders.

Q2 earnings came in at $1.45 per share, missing analysts' estimates for $1.68 per share.

Caterpillar is a global supplier of construction and mining machinery. As such, it's considered to be a reliable bellwether of global economic activity. In other words, what's bad for Caterpillar is good for almost no one.

Among other things, management downgraded its forecast for global growth.

"World economic growth slowed in the first half of the year, and we are revising our growth estimates downwards," they said. "Although we expect some improvement in the second half, the improvement will be less than previously expected. Currently, we expect that world economic growth for 2013 will be a little over 2 percent, slightly slower than in 2012."

Here are some key bullet points from their comprehensive economic outlook: