The Trial Balance is CFO’s weekly preview of stories, stats, and events to help you prepare.
Part 1: Planned Parenthood CFO’s Digital Transformation and Metric of the Month
Reporter Adam Zaki will publish a Q&A with Ilana Esterrich, CFO of Planned Parenthood America. Zaki and Esterrich discuss her role during the organization’s digital transformation, addressing tone in communications and the challenges the organization faces in the upcoming months. (2/8)
February’s Metric of the Month from APQC covers three ways to lead your team to better performance in annual reporting. APQC CFO Perry Wiggins unwraps a benchmark for the time elapsed between the completion of annual consolidated financial statements and the release of earnings. (2/7)
Part 2: This Week
On “60 Minutes” Sunday night, Fed Chair Jerome Powell told America that the time is coming for an interest rate cut. But he also said, “We just want some more confidence before we take that very important step.”
Two of the Fed governors (Adriana Kugler and Michelle Bowman) and eight of the 12 Federal Reserve Bank presidents hit the road this week for speaking engagements. We haven’t heard much from Fed Governor Adriana Kugler, who appears at the Brookings Institution on Wednesday. That’s because the Georgetown University professor joined the Fed board last September. This will be her first major speech in the role. We’re also especially interested in what Minneapolis Fed President Neel Kashkari, one of the more outspoken Fed presidents, says on Tuesday about the U.S. economy and monetary policy. Some of his latest thoughts are in this essay.
The regional Federal Reserve banks are a good source of economic trends and data. The New York Fed this week releases its quarterly report on household debt and credit. Consumers appear to be more positive about the economy lately, but slow-to-fall interest rates may stress households’ cash flow if consumers continue to take on record amounts of debt in 2024.
How are lenders feeling? The senior loan officer opinion survey on bank lending practices (SLOOS) prints on Monday. Tighter standards and weaker demand for commercial and industrial (C&I) loans and commercial real estate (CRE) loans were the story in 2023. A change in banks’ underwriting attitudes showing up in this month’s survey is unlikely, but you never know.
What’s going to happen to the economy in the next 10 years? The Congressional Budget Office releases “The Budget and Economic Outlook: 2024 to 2034” on Wednesday. It includes a 10-year economic forecast and updated 10-year budget projections. The CBO’s two-year forecast, released in December, predicted lower economic growth in 2024 due to slowing consumption, investment, and exports. The CBO’s forecast for 2023 didn’t do too well — it’s projection of federal revenues was off by $0.5 trillion (11%) and its projection of federal outlays was too low — $0.6 trillion (9%) less than was actually spent.
IPO Watch
“If this IPO recovery feels shaky, well, they often do,” wrote Bill Smith, CEO of IPO ETF provider Renaissance Capital, in an email on Sunday. He was referring to the IPO of Amer Sports, which some analysts called disappointing because it priced well below the initial range and it didn’t have a big first-day pop. However, Smith considered it a success, pointing out that the stock returned 3% on its first trading day and 12% on Friday. Wall Street will be watching closely to see what happens on Monday.
This week, four IPO deals are set to raise a combined $1.7 billion, according to Smith: American Healthcare REIT, Mexican discount grocery chain BBB Foods, insurer The Fortegra Group, and autoimmune disease biotech Kyverna Therapeutics. Fortegra, a multinational specialty insurer, is a subsidiary of Tiptree, whose CFO we interviewed last November.
Earnings this week: McDonald's, Caterpillar, Vertex Pharmaceuticals, Tyson Foods, NXP Semiconductors, Estée Lauder, Eli Lilly, Toyota Motor, Centene, Amgen, Ford Motor, BP, CVS Health, Fox, McKesson, Disney, Uber Technologies, PayPal, ConocoPhillips, Philip Morris, Duke Energy, Expedia, Take-Two Interactive, Pinterest, Kenvue, PepsiCo, Newell Brands, AMC Networks, FMC, Crown Holdings, Spotify, Hertz, Carrier, Chipotle, Snap, Hilton Worldwide, Wynn, Mattel, Coty, Equifax.
Part 3: Q&A With Axiom’s New CFO Eric Bouchard
After years of leading finance at product companies, Bouchard plunged into the services realm at global legal resources firm Axiom in December. Bouchard spoke with CFO to discuss the intersection of finance and law, how his past roles have prepared him for his new position, working with the sales team, and more.
“As you go from one industry to another, you want to challenge yourself to attack things a little differently. Every business model has its own level of complexity, and you have to be able to handle it.” (2/6)