Caterpillar’s CEO said he is convinced that long-term demand for minerals will grow, Reuters reported. Despite the current financial downturn, James Owens said Caterpillar is comfortable with its 2008 outlook for profits of about $6 a share and revenues and sales of about $50 billion. Owens said the company’s outlook for next year was obviously being formed as it “looks at all the traumas going on in the global financial markets.” Owens said he was confident that the company’s in-house finance arm, which lends money to buyers of its construction and mining equipment, would be able to weather the financial storm. Owens spoke during the Wall Street Journal’s CEO conference in Washington, D.C.