Last earnings season, corporations talked about tariffs constantly.
Now, as the first quarter reporting season gets underway in earnest, we’re about to hear from executives again about their outlooks after President Trump’s “Liberation Day” tariff developments went much farther than many anticipated. (By the way, you can now listen to earnings calls live on Yahoo Finance.)
We’ll also hear about their plans for managing and mitigating an uncertain trade environment. The first indications suggest that many companies will pull their guidance, as Delta (DAL) did last week, while others, like Netflix, reassured investors that they will remain safe havens.
Here’s what some top CEOs told Wall Street analysts this week :
Netflix (NFLX) co-CEO Gregory Peters: “We’ve certainly seen periods of challenging economic conditions historically in different countries. And we’ve generally been able to keep that positive flywheel spinning even in those situations. And I think that speaks to … that we are, for many people, a very good value, even as they’re being careful about where they spend.”
L’Oréal (OR.PA) CEO Nicolas Hieronimus: “Most of our [consumer] brands, CeraVe, are manufactured in North America. So what is exported is mostly luxury. … We can take prices up. We have built inventory. And yes, we can relocate some of our productions. But of course, we don’t want to … take any measures on something that might be temporary. So we are watching carefully what’s happening and trying to figure out what will be the end game.”
American Express (AXP) CEO Stephen Squeri: “I think small businesses are the ones that we would pay a lot more attention to just because … they could be put in a situation and will not be able to compete effectively in the market.”
Squeri also told my colleague Brian Sozzi that so far, spending has been “as strong as it was last quarter, maybe slightly, slightly stronger, and credit still continues to look really good.”
