|
The Morning Ledger: CFOs Brace for Further Trade Tensions After Election
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
A Ford Motor Co. plant in Dearborn, Mich. Ford isn’t anticipating a significant change in trade policy should Joe Biden become president. PHOTO: BLOOMBERG NEWS
|
|
|
Good morning. Finance chiefs are closely tracking how U.S. trade policy could change after the presidential election, potentially leading to higher tariff-related costs and new restrictions on certain products.
The winner of the election will have to navigate tensions with China and Mexico as well as determine the course on trade tariffs that can hurt a company’s financial health, disrupting its cash flow and supplies. Washington currently imposes tariffs on roughly three-quarters of all products China sells to the U.S.
[Continued below…]
|
|
|
The U.S. and China in January signed a Phase One trade deal, serving as a cease-fire in their trade war. Thanks to that deal, Ford Motor Co. now faces some nominal tariffs on auto parts exported to China and auto parts it makes there and imports into the U.S., but not at the level of 2018, when China put a 40% tariff on U.S. car imports.
Executives consider U.S.-China business relations and new trade agreements to be top policy risks regardless of who wins the election, according to an Oct. 13 survey of U.S. corporate executives by professional-services firm PricewaterhouseCoopers. But under a second Trump term, those risks ranked higher for companies.
|
|
|
|
Data on new orders for durable goods in September, due Tuesday, could help gauge the strength of demand for long-lasting factory goods heading into the fall.
Chubb Ltd., Cummins Inc., Harley-Davidson Inc., JetBlue Airways Corp., Microsoft Corp., Sherwin-Williams Co. and S&P Global Inc. are among the companies scheduled to release earnings today.
|
|
|
Consultants Are Forecast to Book Lower Revenue From Financial Services Clients
|
|
Companies in the financial services sector are reducing their consulting budgets, clouding the outlook for consultants working for these firms. Consulting revenue for the global financial services consulting market is set to decline 12% this year from $45.7 billion in 2019, according to a report by Source Global Research, an advisory firm for professional services.
Financial services consulting makes up about a third of global consulting revenue, Source Global Research said, adding that in some sectors, it might take until 2023 for consulting revenue to recover to pre-pandemic levels.
Clients in the financial services industry said they expect consulting costs to fall as the economic crisis drags on and companies allocate less money for consulting work. Declines are expected to be more pronounced in the banking sector, where almost 60% of organizations reported lower revenue in the second quarter compared with the prior-year period.
Nina Trentmann
|
|
|
|
In an attempt to turn around the ailing clothing retailer, Gap Inc. Chief Executive Sonia Syngal is reducing the number of stores and items, focusing instead on e-commerce platforms to drive sales. The gambit will be a highly visible test of whether a struggling company in an industry highly exposed to the pandemic can right itself in time.
|
|
|
|
|
2,000
|
The estimated number of sales of fuel-cell cars in the U.S. in 2019, less than the number of Ford F-150 pickup trucks sold in an average day.
|
|
|
|
|
Chinese financial-technology giant Ant Group is set to raise at least $34.4 billion from the world’s biggest-ever initial public offering, filings showed Monday, in a blockbuster deal that will bypass U.S. stock exchanges.
The mammoth IPO, which spans Shanghai and Hong Kong, adds to an already frenetic year for China’s capital markets, which are enjoying a boom in share sales despite heightened tensions with the U.S.
|
|
|
-
The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 650 points Monday as coronavirus cases surged, adding to worries about the economic outlook after Congress and the White House failed to agree on a much-anticipated fiscal stimulus deal.
-
SAP shares plunged more than 20% Monday after Europe’s biggest technology company by sales scrapped its profit targets for the year and said measures to thwart a rebound in coronavirus infections would weigh on business through the middle of next year.
|
|
|
|
Qingdao Port in China’s Shandong Province last month. In January, Beijing committed to buying $140 billion in U.S. goods this year. PHOTO: ZHANGJINGANG/ZUMA PRESS
|
|
|
China accelerated purchases of U.S. farm products last month, new data shows, but overall it remains far behind on a commitment to buy about $140 billion in specific U.S. agricultural, energy and manufactured goods this year under a trade accord signed in January.
As of Sept. 30, China had purchased $58.8 billion in goods covered by the agreement. Purchases should have reached $108 billion by that time to be on track toward the full-year target.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Pason Systems Inc., a Calgary, Alberta-based energy services company, named Celine Boston as finance chief, effective Nov. 30. Ms. Boston joins Pason from chemical solutions firm CES Energy Solutions Corp., where she was most recently director of finance.
|
|
|
|
|