What's the most pressing concern for big companies this earnings season? Hint: It starts with ‘T.'
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Executives on these earning calls present a stoic front: Most don't sound all that happy about the turn of events, though they don't criticize the president directly for picking trade fights with other countries. The prices on everything from aluminum cans to Dungeons & Dragons box sets could be affected. Just how much gets passed on to clients and consumers will vary greatly, from business to business and product to product.
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Consider Cambridge-based energy company GE Vernova, where chief executive Scott Strazik and chief financial officer Kenneth Parks probably would have preferred fielding questions about order backlogs and
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Instead, they responded to queries about how the Trump tariffs are resulting in an additional $300 million to $400 million in inflationary costs this year for the company, though the executives will continue to try to 'mitigate' the impacts (to use the buzzword of the moment).
If it's any consolation to Strazik and his crew, their former colleagues at
For GE Vernova, the supersized tariff that Trump is imposing on Chinese imports is the biggest headache, though the broader tariffs of 10 percent for numerous other countries aren't helping matters. But for now, at least, GE Vernova is holding firm on its overall outlook for 2025.
On the same day as GE Vernova's earnings, Waltham-based lab equipment supplier Thermo Fisher Scientific warned of a '$400 million headwind' in 2025 from the China tariff, because of the effects on China-sourced parts and China's retaliatory tariffs on products that Thermo Fisher makes in America and ships to that country.
Also that day, Marlborough-based Boston Scientific chief executive Michael Mahoney forecast a $200 million hit to his company from the tariffs this year. As a result, BSX is
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Hasbro, meanwhile, is speeding away from China as quickly as it can, with hundreds of items currently made in China being moved to factories in other countries by the end of this year. Chief financial officer Gina Goetter said Hasbro execs hope to be making fewer than 40 percent of its products in China by 2026.
Hasbro, based in Pawtucket, R.I., is moving hundreds of items currently made in China to factories in other countries by the end of this year.
Jonathan Wiggs/Globe Staff
CEO Chris Cocks seemed happy to report that the Pawtucket company is still making most of its board games, such as Monopoly, at a factory in
Cocks said he is accelerating a $1 billion cost savings plan as a result of the tariffs. And he had just announced he's putting off a decision about whether to move the company headquarters to Boston or stay closer to home in Providence.
Meanwhile, the bad news keeps piling up.
Teradyne's customers in the semiconductor sector are pulling back, preventing the North Reading-based manufacturer from offering any financial predictions beyond the current quarter. Boston Beer executives got peppered with questions about how tariffs are driving up expenses and driving down consumers' thirst for Sam Adams. And at New Britain-based tool maker Stanley Black & Decker, executives said that
Not everyone seems to be worrying, though. Michael Battles at Norwell-based Clean Harbors promised that tariff concerns are 'a winner for us' in part because it could mean more reshoring of manufacturing in the US; that in turn means factories here will have more industrial waste to discard, possibly to Clean Harbors crews. And at Yankee Candle parent Newell Brands, chief executive Chris Peterson boasted that his company is well positioned to benefit from the craziness — he used the phase 'global trade alignment' ― after a 'period of temporary disruption.' That's primarily because the company had already started aggressively moving production out of China to other countries.
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Citi analyst James Hardiman seemed to sum up the tumult perfectly, when he asked the Hasbro executives this simple question on their call: 'How do you even make decisions in this current environment?'
Cocks replied by saying he's assuming the US will get to a 'reasonable and logical trade policy ultimately, once all the negotiations are done.'
Can Hardiman and other analysts take that to the Monopoly bank? That remains to be seen. For now, these earning season comments sure make Trump's trade fights look like a roll of the dice.
Jon Chesto can be reached at
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