Telis Demos
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WSJ What’s News
The Long Journey Home for Migrants Turned Away From the U.S.
The risk is that we aren't really clued in on what's happening in consumer credit because the numbers are looking better, but under the hood, things are getting worse.
WSJ What’s News
The Long Journey Home for Migrants Turned Away From the U.S.
The concern is that what's going on in the economy with tariffs, with potential slowdowns and growth, President Trump didn't rule out a recession. Those things are not great for consumer borrowers. And so the issue is whether or not consumer lenders will continue to see increasing spending. Part of the way they make money is when you spend money. They make money when you use your card.
WSJ What’s News
The Long Journey Home for Migrants Turned Away From the U.S.
The other way that they make money is by lending you money and you paying it back. And if you're not paying it back, that's not so great for them. So consumer lenders tend to be highly cyclical stocks. The risk is that we aren't really clued in on what's happening in consumer credit because the numbers are looking better, but under the hood, things are getting worse.
WSJ What’s News
The Long Journey Home for Migrants Turned Away From the U.S.
Employment is the lifeblood of consumer credit. Whatever's going on in the economy, if people are working, they're pretty good at paying back their debts. And so the risks that people see to employment are what will ultimately really drive if there's going to be like a significant sell-off of consumer lenders and consumer credit companies. assets.
WSJ What’s News
The Long Journey Home for Migrants Turned Away From the U.S.
And so the last jobs report was a little light versus expectations. So there's not necessarily any screaming red alarms right now. However, you spin forward some of the things happening with are we going to lay off huge numbers of government employees? They are consumers like anyone else. And so something that impacts them would be meaningful for consumer credit.
WSJ What’s News
The Long Journey Home for Migrants Turned Away From the U.S.
Here's what I focused on and maybe the kind of pivot point here. And that is what's going on with wealthier borrowers. Are they feeling the squeeze of concerns about their job future? They don't have endless budgets. And so that is the thing to key in on as the real variable here for the sort of the consumer borrower and consumer economy.
WSJ What’s News
What to Watch for This Earnings Season as Trump’s Tariffs Come Into Play
If you're looking at... KPIs are like numerical targets that people are looking at that might not be earnings, revenues.
WSJ What’s News
What to Watch for This Earnings Season as Trump’s Tariffs Come Into Play
Yeah, I want to ask you, you talked about this kind of, you know, expectations are changing. I feel like Delta and maybe airlines have been an interesting one, right? After the fourth quarter reports, Delta was very optimistic. They came out in January with positive indicators. You know, the stock was doing well.
WSJ What’s News
What to Watch for This Earnings Season as Trump’s Tariffs Come Into Play
But then, you know, in recent weeks, Delta has lowered its first quarter outlook, citing reduced consumer and corporate confidence and economic uncertainty. So, you know, that seems like a... kind of a bellwether that if people aren't flying, they're probably tightening their belts in other ways too, right?
WSJ What’s News
What to Watch for This Earnings Season as Trump’s Tariffs Come Into Play
But I think the drama is even beyond, you know, we'll talk about what's going on with stocks and earnings and things. But I think this is just like a kind of like it just feels like one of those – you read about in your history textbook kind of moments, right?
WSJ What’s News
What to Watch for This Earnings Season as Trump’s Tariffs Come Into Play
That had been a stalwart of consumer spending the last few years.
WSJ What’s News
What to Watch for This Earnings Season as Trump’s Tariffs Come Into Play
Gosh, that seems complicated to figure out with the tariffs.
WSJ What’s News
What to Watch for This Earnings Season as Trump’s Tariffs Come Into Play
A car made here has imports. A car made over there has exports. You know, it's so complicated.
WSJ What’s News
What to Watch for This Earnings Season as Trump’s Tariffs Come Into Play
And regardless of what comes next, it just certainly seems like this announcement has kind of knocked everybody off their axis a little bit. Miriam, can you take us through exactly what transpired last night?
WSJ What’s News
What to Watch for This Earnings Season as Trump’s Tariffs Come Into Play
Could there be companies that actually benefit from this dynamic, right? Like we have, say, a company like CarMax, right? They report next week. Maybe you're going to rush out and buy a used car, right, before you think the prices of cars are going to go up. If you think the price of auto parts are going to go up, maybe you rush out and you buy all of the parts you need, you know, now, right?
WSJ What’s News
What to Watch for This Earnings Season as Trump’s Tariffs Come Into Play
Well, maybe you should get those winter tires now before the price increases. So could there be companies that actually have great first quarters or have – give strong guidance because of all this going on?
WSJ What’s News
What to Watch for This Earnings Season as Trump’s Tariffs Come Into Play
Because I think just setting it up, I think that this was beyond what people were saying, I guess, depending on your point of view, best case or worst case scenario for tariffs would be what was ultimately announced was Maybe even in excess of those scenarios.
WSJ What’s News
What to Watch for This Earnings Season as Trump’s Tariffs Come Into Play
So in general, if tariffs do what I think the president and people around the administration intend, which is to reshore parts of American manufacturing and things like that, are there companies whose shares or earnings might reflect that now? Or are we just in a long adjustment period and those benefits will be difficult to quantify or things that we might not see for a long time?
WSJ What’s News
What to Watch for This Earnings Season as Trump’s Tariffs Come Into Play
Should we be thinking about that in earnings now or is it too soon?
WSJ What’s News
What to Watch for This Earnings Season as Trump’s Tariffs Come Into Play
Are there any companies that stand to more or less directly benefit from tariffs? Are there people who, because of the impact that tariffs have on the price of imports that they compete with, maybe it's because of something that happens because of currency movements and things like that. Are there any companies that are like tariff winners that you would point out?
WSJ What’s News
What to Watch for This Earnings Season as Trump’s Tariffs Come Into Play
Materials, that's like making basic stuff, right?
WSJ What’s News
What to Watch for This Earnings Season as Trump’s Tariffs Come Into Play
Interesting. Miriam, of course, we had an episode a couple of episodes ago. We talked about the difference between small companies and large companies.
WSJ What’s News
What to Watch for This Earnings Season as Trump’s Tariffs Come Into Play
Large companies having lots of ability to negotiate and other kind of levers that they can pull. It might be the smaller midsize companies that really feel the heat from tariff and trade policy. All right, Christine, we're going to take a quick break. But when we come back, we've got one more question for you. So stay put.
WSJ What’s News
What to Watch for This Earnings Season as Trump’s Tariffs Come Into Play
Yeah, thanks for being on.
WSJ What’s News
What to Watch for This Earnings Season as Trump’s Tariffs Come Into Play
And that's everything you need to know to take on your week. The show is produced by Trina Menino, Jessica Fenton, and Michael LaValle with help from Jess Jupiter. Michael LaValle and Jessica Fenton are our sound designers. Michael also wrote our theme music. Aisha Al-Muslim is our development producer. Scott Salloway and Chris Zinsley are the deputy editors.
WSJ What’s News
What to Watch for This Earnings Season as Trump’s Tariffs Come Into Play
And Philana Patterson is the head of news audio for The Wall Street Journal. For even more, head to WSJ.com. I'm Telus Demos.
WSJ What’s News
What to Watch for This Earnings Season as Trump’s Tariffs Come Into Play
We're doing a podcast, huh?
WSJ What’s News
What to Watch for This Earnings Season as Trump’s Tariffs Come Into Play
It's like we do one every week. God, we do one every week when you say it like that. Okay.
WSJ What’s News
What to Watch for This Earnings Season as Trump’s Tariffs Come Into Play
And it seems like, like you said, you know, both things happen. Right. Even countries that have trade that the U.S. has trade surpluses with will be paying a I think it's a 10 percent is the is the proposal as it stands now as we record.
WSJ What’s News
What to Watch for This Earnings Season as Trump’s Tariffs Come Into Play
And then countries that had a trade deficit, it seems like the journal had a story laying out basically the math they did, which was like how big is the trade imbalance with the US, right? How much more do they buy from us than we buy from them? And then taking that amount and I think in some cases like basically dividing it by two and saying that's going to be the tariff.
WSJ What’s News
What to Watch for This Earnings Season as Trump’s Tariffs Come Into Play
And so those add up to big numbers.
WSJ What’s News
What to Watch for This Earnings Season as Trump’s Tariffs Come Into Play
Yeah. And we can and will have, you know, long discussions about the economics, you know, of these things. You know, there are obviously people on both sides of the issue who feel very strongly that this is the right or wrong way to go about things. But in the meantime, let's talk about what the markets have been doing in reaction to that.
WSJ What’s News
What to Watch for This Earnings Season as Trump’s Tariffs Come Into Play
And, you know, one thing that the markets have really been struggling with is not even so much what the tariffs are, but just the exact policies, but just that it is done and dusted and in the books.
WSJ What’s News
What to Watch for This Earnings Season as Trump’s Tariffs Come Into Play
I perhaps the market now will at least have some certainty that, OK, maybe these tariffs will be slightly different, but that they will be dramatic and significant either way, because there are still some exceptions. Right. I think that Canada and Mexico for now are not involved in this reciprocal regime. You know, whether or not those things stick around, we'll see.
WSJ What’s News
What to Watch for This Earnings Season as Trump’s Tariffs Come Into Play
But it does seem like there's at least certainty that they weren't joking when they said that they wanted to do something very significant.
WSJ What’s News
What to Watch for This Earnings Season as Trump’s Tariffs Come Into Play
Yeah. And so and so again, for the for the time being, here we are, you know, speaking the morning after the announcement and the U.S. market is down, you know, by it's down at this very moment by about 4 percent. We'll see, you know, how that plays out over time. But I think that next week people will be looking for those announcements. There's also the Consumer Price Index update next week.
WSJ What’s News
What to Watch for This Earnings Season as Trump’s Tariffs Come Into Play
We'll see if there's anything in that report that kind of gives us a little view of obviously one of the main concerns about tariffs is that it will raise prices here in the U.S., that we will all be essentially paying for these tariffs if they are passed along to us in the form of higher costs. And so we'll see in the CPI, which obviously will not
WSJ What’s News
What to Watch for This Earnings Season as Trump’s Tariffs Come Into Play
include what's happening now, it's backwards looking. However, we'll see if companies have started to raise prices on things ahead of tariffs, maybe as they have tried to buy things up that they want to hoard, essentially, before the price of them goes up. If you're buying raw materials and things like that, we'll see if those things start to filter through to prices.
WSJ What’s News
What to Watch for This Earnings Season as Trump’s Tariffs Come Into Play
The most recent inflation reading we had, the Personal Consumption Expenditures Index, that was pretty hot. So I think people might be a little... interested in what goes on with this consumer price index.
WSJ What’s News
What to Watch for This Earnings Season as Trump’s Tariffs Come Into Play
Miriam, which ones are you going to be watching closely?
WSJ What’s News
What to Watch for This Earnings Season as Trump’s Tariffs Come Into Play
Absolutely. Big consumer read there. And then I think one I'm watching is CarMax. They are the kind of car seller. They sell out of used cars. It's going to be super interesting, I think, to see what happens with them. Their stock has been a bit of a roller coaster lately because on the one hand, you know, if you tariff
WSJ What’s News
What to Watch for This Earnings Season as Trump’s Tariffs Come Into Play
The importation of new cars or new car parts, that should, I think a lot of people think, make used cars. Prices go up.
WSJ What’s News
What to Watch for This Earnings Season as Trump’s Tariffs Come Into Play
So in theory, that might be good for CarMax. But in the immediate aftermath of the tariff announcement, their stock was down. So I think it'll be really interesting to see what they say.
WSJ What’s News
What to Watch for This Earnings Season as Trump’s Tariffs Come Into Play
Sell your winners. Maybe that's the old saying goes. So it'll be interesting to see what they report and what they say and also how the market reacts to it. Yeah. But I want to step back a little bit on earnings given the environment that we're talking about here.
WSJ What’s News
What to Watch for This Earnings Season as Trump’s Tariffs Come Into Play
Obviously, we know that there are worries about the economy amidst what's going on with tariffs and frankly other kind of big policy changes. There are recession risks that people are talking about. But that is not the same as saying how are companies themselves actually doing corporate earnings?
WSJ What’s News
What to Watch for This Earnings Season as Trump’s Tariffs Come Into Play
Because as much as big companies collectively make up, you know, our economy, you know, they employ us. We buy stuff from them. Their fates and the economy's fate are not exactly the same. Tariffs could increase costs. Maybe companies pass along those costs to consumers. Maybe some companies raise their prices because other prices are going up and they end up making more money.
WSJ What’s News
What to Watch for This Earnings Season as Trump’s Tariffs Come Into Play
Hey, everyone. I'm Telus Demos. I write for The Wall Street Journal's Heard on the Street. And this is WSJ's Take on the Week, the weekly podcast where we give you a leg up on the worlds of money and investing. Each week, we bring you conversations with insiders and from inside The Wall Street Journal's newsroom about, well, mostly about tariffs, frankly. Frankly, we mostly talk about tariffs.
WSJ What’s News
What to Watch for This Earnings Season as Trump’s Tariffs Come Into Play
Absolutely. What if companies lay people off and improve their profitability that way? Right. We could see a struggling economy, but companies doing OK to maybe well.
WSJ What’s News
What to Watch for This Earnings Season as Trump’s Tariffs Come Into Play
Those someone's being consumers, you, me, people.
WSJ What’s News
What to Watch for This Earnings Season as Trump’s Tariffs Come Into Play
And then does the market even care? Right. Does the market care about how companies are expected, their earnings are expected to perform? Because really, you know, the market is sort of two things. Right. One, it's a sort of prediction of what company earnings will be and then also how much it values those company earnings and what kind of volatility it expects from those things. So.
WSJ What’s News
What to Watch for This Earnings Season as Trump’s Tariffs Come Into Play
And there are times when companies have great quarters. They report big positive earnings and then their stock goes down. And that makes our jobs as reporters interesting but also difficult.
WSJ What’s News
What to Watch for This Earnings Season as Trump’s Tariffs Come Into Play
Because we have to explain why that happens. That brings us to our interview this week. We spoke to Christine Short. She is the head of research at Wall Street Horizon, a TMX group company. And she looks at earnings in really a mind-boggling level of detail. So she talked to us about what we should expect from earnings season, what impact tariffs could have.
WSJ What’s News
What to Watch for This Earnings Season as Trump’s Tariffs Come Into Play
We looked at a bunch of different sectors, individual companies. It is a wide ranging conversation and a user guide to the upcoming corporate earnings season. Stick around for that. It's going to come right after the break.
WSJ What’s News
What to Watch for This Earnings Season as Trump’s Tariffs Come Into Play
I will briefly reintroduce someone that everybody should be familiar with now, who is Miriam Gottfried, who is on her last guest hosting assignment before Gunjan Banerjee returns, but first in our hearts still. Miriam, welcome again.
WSJ What’s News
What to Watch for This Earnings Season as Trump’s Tariffs Come Into Play
So obviously, we're looking at first quarter results. So these are how companies did in the first three months of the year when tariffs were nascent, right? They were just beginning. So we might not see an actual like earnings hit from even companies that will be dramatically affected. We won't necessarily see it yet. So what kinds of things should we be looking for from earnings reports?
WSJ What’s News
What to Watch for This Earnings Season as Trump’s Tariffs Come Into Play
You mentioned companies talking about tariffs. Is it forward guidance? What are other things that we might hear or see in earnings reports that will spark the market and, you know, move prices.
WSJ What’s News
What to Watch for This Earnings Season as Trump’s Tariffs Come Into Play
That's a long streak of increases, right?
WSJ What’s News
What to Watch for This Earnings Season as Trump’s Tariffs Come Into Play
Yes. Well, this past week, there was obviously big, big news in the world of tariffs, the market's obsession. And it was, I mean, quite honestly, it was pretty dramatic. I was like having trouble sleeping last night just sort of thinking about how to pull it all together on today's podcast. We're recording this on April 3rd. You know, the market has obviously reacted quite strongly.