Weak dollar may help multinationals
TEXT OF INTERVIEW
Bill Radke: Apple is once again the talk of the markets today. The company reported earnings that topped Wall Street forecasts thanks to record iPhone and Mac sales last quarter. Apple says it was not helped by the weakness of the dollar. But a number of companies reporting earnings today might tell a different story. We’re joined by Marketplace’s Jeremy Hobson live in New York. Good morning.
Jeremy Hobson: Morning Bill.
Radke: What companies are we hearing from today?
Hobson: Well a number of multinational corporations, including five companies that make up part of the Dow Jones Industrial Average. Those are Coca-Cola, DuPont, Pfizer, United Technologies, and Caterpillar. Now, they’re all of course very different companies. But as a whole, we might be able to get from them a sense of whether these incredible earnings that we saw from Apple, and that we saw from the big banks last week, spread across other industries as well.
Radke: So Jeremy, Apple says it’s not being pushed along and helped by the weak dollar. What’s different about these companies reporting today?
Hobson: Well, I just spoke with Howard Wheeldon, who is a senior currency strategist at BGC Partners in London. And he says what a lot of people are saying right now about this — that the weak dollar is being very helpful U.S. multinationals — just as weak currencies helped Asian countries export their way out of the financial crisis there a decade ago.
Howard Wheeldon: It is a get-out-of-jail-free card, if I can use such an awful cliche. And it will do for the U.S. this time around. However, there are limits. We suspect that if the dollar does continue to fall, the U.S. will pay a much heavier price.
Always have to end things with a dire warning, Bill. But I think today, if there is a benefit from the weak dollar, these companies are not going to be complaining.
Radke: Jeremy Hobson, thanks a lot.
Hobson: Thank you.
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