The Trial Balance is CFO’s weekly preview of stories, stats, and events to help you prepare.
Part 1: Stretto’s CFO, Employee Financial Wellness, and IPOs
Looking ahead this week, contributor Sandra Beckwith will publish a conversation with Peter Bonfiglio, CFO of Stretto. Beckwith and Bonfiglio discuss the details of a career that combines finance, technology, law, and more. (Feb. 29)
Reporter Adam Zaki will also publish two stories this week: one on new data from SoFi regarding employee financial wellness, and a second on key indicators experts and financial leaders must pay attention to when launching an IPO in the current market. (Feb. 28 and Mar. 1, respectively).
Part 2: This Week — Warren Buffett’s Annual Shareholder Letter
Warren Buffet’s annual letter to shareholders, published over the weekend, was, as usual, sobering. Buffett is somewhat pessimistic about acquisition candidates for Berkshire Hathaway, which at the end of 2023 had a record $167 billion in balance sheet cash. Shareholders shouldn’t expect eye-popping performance this year, wrote the Oracle of Omaha, because “there remain only a handful of companies in this country capable of truly moving the needle at Berkshire, and they have been endlessly picked over by us and by others.” In addition, “outside the U.S., there are essentially no candidates that are meaningful options for capital deployment.”
Still, the equity markets are in rally mode. The S&P 500 rolled to a 1.7% gain last week, and the top bulls on Wall Street have a new target for the index: 5,400. That would be an 8% upside from Friday’s close, according to Bloomberg. The median forecast is still about 5,000, 88 points below where the index sat on Monday morning.
There’s plenty to potentially arrest the rally this week, including the ongoing battle over federal appropriations bills. Congress must pass four of the bills by Friday to avoid a potential shutdown of some government operations.
On the data front, durable goods orders, consumer confidence, personal income and outlays, personal consumption expenditure (PCE) inflation, and the first revision to fourth-quarter GDP are all on the calendar. On average, economists are expecting core PCE — the Federal Reserve’s preferred measure of inflation — to inch down to 2.8% year over year, compared with 2.9% previously.
The Securities and Exchange Commission’s small business capital formation advisory committee holds an open meeting on Tuesday. Among the discussions will be recommendations for changes to the definition of accredited investor. In addition, Brian Johnson of Wilmer Hale and Elizabeth Reeds of Goldman Sachs will lead a conversation on “how decreased IPO activity and market shifts are impacting smaller companies.”
Also on Tuesday, the Federal Reserve’s Vice Chair for Supervision Michael S. Barr gives a presentation on counterparty credit risk at the New York Fed’s Conference on Counterparty Credit Risk Management. Then, on Friday, Fed Governor Christopher J. Waller will discuss a report called “Quantitative Tightening Around the Globe: What Have We Learned?” at the annual Monetary Policy Forum in New York. That conference, held by Chicago’s Booth School of Business, also includes a panel on AI & the labor market.
The Financial Accounting Standards Board holds a meeting on Wednesday. The board will begin re-deliberations on the measurement of credit losses on purchased financial assets.
The four-day MWC (Mobile World Congress) Barcelona Conference runs this week. Keynote speakers include Accenture CEO Julie Sweet, China Mobile Chairman Yang Jie, and Dell Technologies CEO Michael Dell. AI-enabled smartphones will grab the headlines.
It will be another quiet week on the IPO front. IPO filings from Reddit and Astera Labs have everyone looking toward mid-March when those two hoped-for blockbusters may list.
Earnings this week: Workday, Domino's Pizza, Zoom Video, Lowe's, American Tower, AutoZone, eBay, Salesforce, Royal Bank of Canada, Baidu, HP, Snowflake, Anheuser-Busch InBev, Toronto-Dominion zBank, Dell Technologies, Autodesk, Plug Power, fuboTV, Beyond Meat, AMC Entertainment, Monster Beverage, Zscaler.
Part 3: The 6 a.m. CFO — Donna Ebeling
Donna Ebeling, CFO of IT and technology consulting firm York Solutions, shares how she manages work-induced stress, the importance of being open-minded to change, and how she stays engaged with her team.
“I find you cannot replace face-to-face meeting time. That time is truly priceless. I may overhear an issue happening in real time or the team has an idea they want to bounce off me. Those opportunities do not happen when we are in a remote setting.” (2/29)