The Trial Balance is CFO’s weekly preview of stories, stats, and events to help you prepare.
Part 1: Jamie Dimon, NerdWallet’s CEO, and the week ahead
In the aftermath of JP Morgan CEO Jamie Dimon’s notable letter to shareholders, his outlook on the economy has been under the microscope. Over the weekend he sat down with the Wall Street Journal to expound further on his cautious but optimistic approach to his outlook. According to Dimon, the consumer, generally, is in solid shape, with “unemployment under 4%, it’s been there for two years. Housing prices are up, stock prices are up, jobs are plentiful, wages are going up on the low end.” However, Dimon said, a lot of this has been driven by fiscal spending. “The deficit is 6% of GDP … that’s driving a lot of this growth. That will have other consequences down the road – called inflation – which may not go away like people expect.”
Meanwhile, the CEO of NerdWallet, a personal finance company, spoke with CNBC on the impact the lending environment is having on the current economic situation. Chief executive Tim Chen said access to capital right now remains tight for consumers and small businesses due to elevated interest rates. In particular, “the lending environment is tight … there are elevated delinquency levels in credit cards and auto loans.” And even though lenders are doing well financially, the tight access to capital has more to do with the lenders’ appetites, where they “don’t want any more customers,” Chen said. Though “delinquencies are starting to peak, or already have, which could mean things will loosen” over the year.
Dimon cautioned about only thinking about 2024. “When I look at the range of possible outcomes, you can have that soft landing, I'm a little more worried it may not be so soft and inflation may not quite go away as people expect. I'm not talking about this year — I'm talking about 2025 or 2026." The rates may have to go up a little higher… It is a little more like the 70’s to me. Things looked pretty rosy in 1972. They were not rosy in 1973. Don’t get lulled into a false sense of security [because] the today looks ok, so the tomorrow is ok.”
Here’s a list of important market events slated for the week ahead.
Tuesday, April 30
- Conference Board Consumer Confidence, April
- Employment cost index, first quarter
- S&P Case-Shiller home price index (20 cities)
- Chicago Business Barometer (PMI)
Wednesday, May 1
- FOMC interest-rate decision
- Fed Chair Powell press conference
- JOLTS job openings, March
- ISM Manufacturing
- ADP employment
- Construction spending
Thursday, May 2
- Initial jobless claims
- U.S. trade deficit
- U.S. productivity
- U.S. unit-labor costs
- Factory orders
Friday, May 3
- Nonfarm payrolls, April
- Unemployment Rate, April
- U.S. hourly wages
- ISM services
Part 2: Ogilvy’s Global CFO Q&A, U.S. Bank report, and never wanting to be a CFO again
This week, reporter Adam Zaki will publish a Q&A with Ogilvy’s global CFO Stacey Ryan Cornelius. Zaki and Cornelius discuss culture development, digital transformations, and executive collaboration within the legacy British advertising company that was founded by David Ogilvy in 1948, who later became known as “the father of advertising”.
Zaki will also publish stories on U.S. bank data that suggests CFOs and other finance leaders have begun cutting costs over all else (5/1), and why Lori Love, formerly the CFO CleanSpark, never wants to be a CFO again after being the finance leader of the microgrid manufacturer who ventured into bitcoin mining with lots of success, at first. (5/3).
Part 3: 5 Key CFO priorities to navigate unsteady market conditions
With analysts predicting an increasingly volatile operating environment, the pressure is on CFOs to take bolder steps to ensure profitability and maintain efficiency to meet short- and long-term company goals. Jeff Casale, chief executive officer of Board International, offers five ways CFOs can stay ahead of this challenging curve and deliver profitability. (4/30)