More companies than ‘normal’ are withdrawing guidance for the quarter as uncertainty about tariffs looms, UBS analyst says
Virtual: You were lost in the forest, on a dark and stormy night, with no gas in your car and not a person on the horizon. Your phone is dead.
Basically: You have no idea where you are going. Like, really. Therefore, when the Cherubic Forest creature comes by seeking trends, you can definitely not provide any instructions.
Then suddenly … or … the definitions fall from the sky.
We may have taken some technical freedoms with this last thing, but you get this idea. Malians in metaphorical forests at the present time, and it is not surprising that an increasing number of companies withdraws the aspiration guidance.
“I definitely understand the instinct,” Jack McCulu, founder of the Board of Financial Director, told CFO Brew. “There are a lot of variables. If some things are going on the right path, you may have a great year, but if only two of them do, this is a different result.”
Increasingly, it appears that the financial manager assumes that these variables will not line up in their favor. “Some percentage of companies – more than usual – you will only say [they] “You have no vision to provide separate quarter guidance,” David Livkovitz, head of US shares at UBS Global Wealth Manegement, told Mooringstar.
Until recently, things were heading along. FactSet analyzed the comments on EPS’s annual instructions for 23 S&P 500 companies that reported the results of the first quarter of their life until April 10, and found that 70 % commented on EPS instructions, with 14 companies providing instructions for the whole year.
But some cracks have already started to appear. On April 8 and 9, two heavy striking in various industries – Delta and Walgrens – with directives. It is recognized that Walgrens was doing its own work: the company withdrew the guidance because of its next acquisition. But Delta was the warning bell, noting the “current uncertainty” as a reason to withdraw its directives in the full year of 2025.
In the same week, Bellauscura, the medical devices industry, withdrew its instructions due to the customs tariff on China, where the company said that a “large percentage” of its components is manufactured. Soon after, more and more companies followed their example.
On April 10, Logitech International, the computer maker, pulled the 2026 instructions “given the ongoing uncertainty of the customs tariff environment.” Frontier Group, the parent company of Frontier Airlines, said it could not reaffirm its previous guidelines due to the unconfirmed economic environment.
On the same day, Carmax abandoned “the timing of its financial goals due to the potential impact of the wider total factors.” In a profit call, CEO Bill Nash took a practical position. “Why did he set a goal there really speculation, you don’t know exactly where this environment will go?” He said. “We only think this is the wise thing.”
The next day, the British playmaker’s collection brought down its expectations because the popular compancybehind company such as “Peppa Pig” and “Telletube” expects the impact of definitions on China in the Q2.
Unfortunately, many of us are somewhat lost at the present time. We do not want to move through a dark and storm forest either.
This report was originally published by Financial drink.
This story was originally shown on Fortune.com
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2025-04-19 18:15:00
