** Baird downgrades farm equipment makers Deere & Co DE.N, CNH Industrial CNH.N and AGCO AGCO.N to "neutral" from "outperform"
** "H1 2025 marks the bottom in agricultural production, while inventories will continue to gradually destock; but this is now the consensus view and reflected in stock performance over the past 3 months" - brokerage
** Uncertainty looms for sector as commodity prices still lack traction and farmers are dealing with meaningful policy uncertainty, Baird says
** OEM margins could be further pressured by shocks from tariffs and rising steel prices - brokerage
** S&P 500 Industrials .SPLRCI index up 3.3% YTD; it increased 15.6% in 2024
(Reporting by Aatreyee Dasgupta)
((Aatreyee.Dasgupta@thomsonreuters.com))