The Dollar Ate Our Profit Is Lament of Delta, Mattel, Whirlpool
- Greenback up 17 percent in third quarter from a year earlier
- Companies link earnings, sales shortfalls to currency swings
This article is for subscribers only.
U.S. companies that blamed billions of dollars of lost revenue in the first half of the year on the greenback’s meteoric rise are signaling that the trend isn’t getting any better.
Delta Air Lines Inc. said this month that losses on revenue denominated in yen cost the company $55 million. Toymaker Mattel Inc. said foreign-exchange headwinds were the primary cause of its weak third-quarter earnings. And Whirlpool Corp. said Oct. 23 that the stronger dollar will reduce 2015 revenue by more than $2.5 billion. Two out of three companies in the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index that reported earnings through Oct. 22 mentioned the strong dollar or currency-related woes in conference calls with analysts and investors.