Kristin Broughton
Appearances
WSJ What’s News
Student-Loan Borrowers Hit by Steep Drop in Credit Scores
Really, this is a headache when it comes to financial reporting. So when they report their earnings every quarter to investors, when the company translates the sales that they generated abroad back into the dollar, the earnings abroad take a hit.
WSJ What’s News
Student-Loan Borrowers Hit by Steep Drop in Credit Scores
We spoke to three for the story. Elf Beauty, a cosmetics company, they recorded their largest ever hit from conversion of British pounds to the U.S. dollar. Medtronic is another medical device company that's technically based in Ireland but has its headquarters in Minneapolis. And then Rockwell Automation, an industrial automation company also based in the Midwest.
WSJ What’s News
Student-Loan Borrowers Hit by Steep Drop in Credit Scores
So it cuts across industries, it cuts across companies. The through line here is if they have operations abroad.
WSJ What’s News
Student-Loan Borrowers Hit by Steep Drop in Credit Scores
Yeah, there really is a question facing companies on, you know, how much they can control because this is just a translation impact. It doesn't reflect their underlying performance. And some companies choose just to take the hit and explain the charge to investors. So that's a course that many companies take. There are things that companies can do. Companies can hedge companies.
WSJ What’s News
Student-Loan Borrowers Hit by Steep Drop in Credit Scores
So they can enter into forward contracts where they agree to a certain exchange rate at a given moment in time to just smooth out the impact of some of those currency hits. They can also use options as another form of hedging. Some of the companies that we spoke to are doing some new things. Medtronic, the Minneapolis-based medical device maker.
WSJ What’s News
Student-Loan Borrowers Hit by Steep Drop in Credit Scores
They have decided to use FX-adjusted pricing in certain emerging markets and also set their sales incentives for some of their employees using FX-adjusted metrics on that as well. It is a financial reporting issue and not something that's reflective of the underlying operations of companies.
WSJ What’s News
Student-Loan Borrowers Hit by Steep Drop in Credit Scores
The dollar has been strong for a couple of years. A lot of the impact is related to interest rate policy, the prospect of greater tariffs, which is beginning to come to fruition, and then just the overall strength of the U.S. economy compared to other economies abroad. Analysts I spoke to expect the dollar to remain strong. There's nothing to suggest at the moment that that would change course.