Question-and-Answer Session
Operator
Thank you. (Operator instructions). Our first question comes from Sergey Vasnetsov of Barclays Capital. Please go ahead.
Sergey Vasnetsov - Barclays Capital
Good morning. My question is say little bit more about next year. This year, fourth quarter typically a recent could be a little erratic I fell the weak and also we're really looking 2010, what's the early view of 2010 in terms of earnings and also what's' your view for the CapEx and growth?
Jeff Keefer
Sergey this is Jeff. We're going to lay all of that out for you on November 3 and so you get a comprehensive picture. What I would comment on is, is that clearly we've laid a solid foundation for growth this year. We commented about pricing discipline, cost productivities evident and our new products. So I think that bodes well for the future and the operating leverage of the company.
Sergey Vasnetsov - Barclays Capital
Okay. Thank you.
Operator
Our next question comes from Jeff Zekauskas from JPMorgan. Please go ahead.
Jeff Zekauskas – JPMorgan
Hi, good morning. In the performance materials business you had a small gain, but if we exclude the gain, you made about $200 million, and what I was wondering is, how sustainable is that level of EBIT in that your volumes are still way below the year ago period, you've cut out a lot of fixed costs there's some puts and takes. Is that $200 million or so a normalized quarterly level now?
Jeff Keefer
Let me just thank you for that question. Let me clarify. The performance materials platform has really put in a lot of productivity efforts and maintained discipline pricing. I would point out last year we did have the hurricane quarter-over-quarter which was an impact on the comparison, so you need to take that into account.
Jeff Zekauskas – JPMorgan
I'm sorry, please.
Ellen Kullman
I was just going to add, Jeff that we're very well positioned by lowering our break even, our lower cost point and I think you can expect double-digit margins in the long term from that segment.
Jeff Zekauskas – JPMorgan
Okay and then as my follow-up. One of the themes has been higher raw material costs in the agricultural area and obviously seed prices have been very, very volatile this year or rather grain prices have been volatile. Is it the case you get some raw material benefit in 2010 or can you not see that just yes yet?
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