The Trial Balance is CFO’s weekly preview of stories, stats, and events to help you prepare.
Part 1: Q3 CFO Survey
This week, reporter Adam Zaki will cover the Q3 2023 CFO survey by Grant Thornton, which found finance leaders are focused on maintaining or achieving profitability, managing supply chains, and maximizing their talent pools. (10/11)
Zaki will also run the final part of the Savannah Bananas series on their business transformation. The piece features takes from president and general manager Jared Orton and vice president of finance Tim Naddy about the team’s plans for continuing growth, culture development, and their strategies to remain relevant. (10/13)
Part 2: This Week
Today is Columbus Day and Indigenous Peoples Day. The stock markets are open, but the bond market, some banks, and the U.S. Postal Service are closed.
Harvard University professor Claudia Goldin is the winner of the Nobel Prize in economics this year, according to the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. The committee for the prize in economics cited her “for having advanced our understanding of women’s labor market outcomes.” According to the press release, “Goldin has trawled the archives and collected over 200 years of data from the U.S., allowing her to demonstrate how and why gender differences in earnings and employment rates have changed over time.”
Sandal maker Birkenstock is expected to start trading on the New York Stock Exchange on Wednesday after announcing its final IPO price. Founded in Germany 250 years ago, Birkenstock aims to raise $1.5 billion, making the IPO the largest in the consumer discretionary sector since electric vehicle maker Rivian in 2021, according to IPO ETF provider Renaissance Capital.
It could be a disruptive week for markets, though, if the war between Israel and Hamas intensifies and Israel launches a ground offensive. Israel has called up 300,000 army reservists. Several major airlines have halted flights to Israel, and the U.S. dollar is strengthening against the euro and other currencies as investors seek a “safe haven.” The human cost of war can hardly be measured in numbers, but so far, Israel and Gaza combined have reported more than 1,200 deaths, according to CNN.
On Thursday the Bureau of Labor Statistics reports the Consumer Price Index (CPI) for September. Economists forecast a small drop in headline and core CPI — with 12-month core falling two-tenths of a percentage point to 4.1%. The Federal Reserve will release the minutes of its September meeting on Wednesday, which could add to the evidence for or against the likelihood of another Fed funds rate hike at either of its last two meetings — November 1 and December 13.
Third-quarter earnings season kicks off toward the end of the week with bank earnings from BlackRock, Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo, and PNC Financial Services hitting the wires. Analysts will be looking for any signs of credit quality deterioration in outstanding loans, among other metrics. UnitedHealth, Delta Air Lines, Domino’s Pizza, Walgreens Boots Alliance, and Wise also release Q3 financial results.
Part 3: Q&A With Rootstock’s CFO Geoff Brannon
A pivotal and unexpected opportunity midway through his career put Geoff Brannon on the path to a CFO position. Brannon, who is now finance chief of Rootstock, a cloud-based enterprise resource planning software provider, discusses his journey to the CFO seat, the most difficult part of his job, and a critical juncture in his career.
“Only when I shifted to the finance side ... did I start thinking about something beyond being a controller. That’s when I began growing my finance muscle with hopes of one day becoming a CFO.” (10/12)