Encountering Turbulence

"Economic uncertainty is a big deal, and we have really seen some weakness in March."

Summary: Mastercard said that consumer spending remains resilient but other companies don't seem quite as optimistic. Several airlines pulled back growth expectations. Many blamed the macro environment.

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Macro

Mastercard sees resilient consumer spending
"As I look at trends and I look through quarter-to-date February, we see pretty steady consumer spending trends when adjusted for the leap year effect. So there's fact and then there's what the perception of the market is as it relates to what might happen on a going-forward basis. Always hard to predict what will happen on a going-forward basis. But what I can tell you is, from what we are seeing from a trend standpoint, quarter-to-date, February, stable consumer spending trends." — Mastercard (MA 0.00%↑) CFO Sachin Mehra

So did other financial services companies
"We don't see any signal right now that you've got deterioration at this point. And with short-end rates a little higher for a little longer and inflation maybe being a touch sticky, who knows? Like we have our eyes on all these things, but we really are not seeing deterioration out there at the moment, so knock on wood." — Truist Financial (TFC 0.00%↑) CFO Michael Maguire

"We’re not seeing any change really in the trajectory of consumer spend, nor are we seeing changes in the verticals or the industries where consumers are choosing to spend. I think that’s something we’re keeping an eye on." — Affirm (AFRM 0.00%↑) CFO Rob O’Hare

Many retailers saw weakness in February though
"In February, our first quarter trend started out weaker than we had planned or expected. Now I think that's consistent with what you've heard from other retailers who've reported." — Burlington Stores (BURL 0.00%↑) CEO Michael O'Sullivan

"As we look at the underlying trends, what's really changed, I think, is the slowdown in consumer demand that we've seen over the past couple of months. That was obviously the big topic of conversation at CAGNY. As we're looking at a consumer that is a little bit more cautious dealing with issues like perception of higher inflation, what's going on with layoffs, what's going on with the Hispanic consumer, et cetera." — Colgate Palmolive (CL 0.00%↑) Chief Investor Relations Officer John Faucher

“The first quarter faces particularly tough comparison base, and it's currently characterized by a further weakening of consumer confidence in key markets such as the U.S. and China” — Hugo Boss (BOSSY) CEO Daniel Grieder

Airlines are seeing weakness
"We anticipated an 8% growth rate in terms of top line. We're going to come in at a 4% growth rate. So it hasn't snuck on backwards. But it's not growing as fast as we were anticipating...the outlook has been impacted by the recent reduction in consumer and corporate confidence caused by increased macro uncertainty, driving softness in domestic demand." — Delta (DAL 0.00%↑) CEO Ed Bastian

"Economic uncertainty is a big deal, and we have really seen some weakness in March. So that has led to the guide that we issued earlier today, and you've seen this...This is disappointing." — American Airlines Group (AAL 0.00%↑) President Robert Isom

"We are lowering our RASM guide today by 3 points to an increase in the 2% to 4% range year-over-year...2 points are primarily due to softness in bookings and demand in large part due to the macro environment." — Southwest Airlines (LUV 0.00%↑) CEO Bob Jordan

"There's certainly -- we have also seen weakness in the demand market. It started with government...we've seen some bleed over to that into the domestic leisure market. Good news is that international, long haul, Hawaii, premium, all remain really strong. But we have seen government and some low-end consumer leisure weakness, which also appears consistent to me with a lot of other data that they look at." — United Airlines (UAL 0.00%↑) CEO Scott Kirby

There's something going on with economic sentiment
"It became pretty quickly obvious to us to know there was more than just the consumer sentiment coming out of the incidents. There was something going on with economic sentiment, something going on with consumer confidence. And we were seeing that very much in the close-in bookings. We were able to hold our advanced bookings at a decent clip, but it was the close-in that we were having a very difficult time closing." — Delta Air Lines (DAL 0.00%↑) CEO Ed Bastian

Business leaders are pausing
"Every CEO I talked to right now is talking about, it just doesn't feel as good as it did in the fourth quarter...There's no question in this quarter and a lot of it is because of the reorientation, the destabilization, understanding what's going on...People are pausing, consumers are pausing, M&A is pausing, corporations are pausing, everybody is pausing and you start -- you're going to start seeing that in the economic results. And the question is, will we start seeing elevated inflation starting in the second quarter when it starts rolling into -- through the economy?" — BlackRock (BLK 0.00%↑) CEO Larry Fink

Markets are looking for policy certainty
"The level of uncertainty is a little bit higher, and that has kept some things on the sidelines. The more we can have certainty on the policy agenda as we move forward, the better that’s going to support capital investment and growth." — Goldman Sachs (GS 0.00%↑) CEO David Solomon

“I don’t think the average American consumer who wakes up in the morning and goes to work…changes what they’re going to do because they read about tariffs. But I do think companies might. Uncertainty is not a good thing” — JPMorgan Chase (JPM 0.00%↑) CEO Jamie Dimon

Good thing is inflation softened in February
"The all items index rose 2.8 percent for the 12 months ending February, after rising 3.0 percent over the 12 months ending January. The all items less food and energy index rose 3.1 percent over the last 12 months. The energy index decreased 0.2 percent for the 12 months ending February. The food index increased 2.6 percent over the last year." — U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics

In the end, the US will get by
"I mean, a lot of noise. We'll get beyond -- we'll get by this. The United States will get by all the, I would say, social tensions between two opposing groups. We'll get by that. It's not as bad as it was in the 60s here in the United States. And I'm tired of having people say, have you ever seen anything like this before? And the answer is, yes, and we get by it. And we move forward." — BlackRock (BLK 0.00%↑) CEO Larry Fink

International