“For fiscal year '24, our outlook for net income is now expected to be approximately $7 billion.”

In context

“to our Financial Services operations on Slide 12. Worldwide financial services net income attributable to Deere & Company in the second quarter was $162 million. Net income was positively impacted by a higher average portfolio balance, which was partially offset by a higher provision for credit losses and less favorable financing spreads. As a reminder, net income in the second quarter of 2023 was also impacted by a nonrepeating onetime accounting correction. For fiscal year 2024, our outlook for net income remains at $770 million as benefits from a higher average portfolio balance offset a higher provision for credit losses and less favorable financing spreads. Finally, Slide 13 outlines our guidance for Deere & Company's net income, our effective tax rate and operating cash flow. For fiscal year '24, our outlook for net income is now expected to be approximately $7 billion. Next, our guidance incorporates an effective tax rate between 23% and 25%. And lastly, cash flow from the equipment operations is now projected to be in the range of $7 billion to $7.25 billion. This concludes our formal comments. We'll now shift to a few topics specific to the quarter. Let's begin with Deere's performance this quarter. We saw net sales decline roughly 15% year-over-year, yet operating margin came in at just over 21%. Across all business segments, we saw better-than-expected performance despite a more challenging macro backdrop. Josh Beal, can you walk us through what went well for Deere? Josh Beal: Yes. Absolutely, Josh. This is really a story of executional discipline across the organization. We were able to outperform on the top line as demand held up slightly be”