Tesla CEO Elon Musk expects the U.S. economy to endure a period of “stormy weather” over the next year amid a blend of higher interest rates, tighter lending conditions, and layoff concerns. The latest reports from the first-quarter earnings season and the Federal Reserve’s “Beige Book,” a monthly report of business survey responses, might support his prognostication.
Shares sank almost 10 percent during the April 20 session.
While he refrained from alluding to a recession, he said the economy is going through “uncertain times.” Whenever there’s uncertainty in the marketplace, the “natural human reaction” is to delay a major purchase, especially when consumers are reading news of layoffs, he noted.
Each time the Federal Reserve raises interest rates, it’s the “equivalent to increasing the price of a car,” exacerbating price pressures for automobiles and what customers can afford, he said.
Musk thinks the economy will go through a rough patch for the next year and recover by next spring, although he conceded that was pure speculation.
“Stormy weather for about 12 months and then, provided there are no major geopolitical wildcards that show up, that things start getting sunny around spring next year,” he said.
Musk has repeatedly rung alarm bells surrounding the health of the U.S. economy and financial system.
While speaking in a recent interview with Fox News host Tucker Carlson, Musk described the economic landscape as being in “a dire situation,” noting that the solution to limit the damage would be “for the Fed to lower the rate.”
Credit Conditions
The overall U.S. economy has held steady in recent weeks. Still, companies nationwide have reported banks tightening their lending standards since the banking turmoil last month, according to the latest Federal Reserve survey.Consumers are also expecting a more challenging environment for accessing credit.
“It is still too early to gauge the magnitude and duration of these effects, and I will be closely monitoring the evolution of credit conditions and their potential effects on the economy,” he said.
Fed Chair Jerome Powell told reporters at the post-Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) policy meeting press conference that the aftermath of the Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank failures could trigger a credit crunch that would have implications for the broader economy.
“It could easily have a significant macroeconomic effect, and we would factor that into our policies,” he said.
Forward Guidance
According to a recent FactSet report, S&P 500 companies reported an aggregate year-over-year earnings fall of 6.5 percent during the first-quarter earnings season. This represented the biggest drop since the second quarter of 2020 and was the second consecutive quarter the index saw a decrease in earnings.“Given that most S&P 500 companies report actual earnings above estimates, what is the likelihood the index will report an actual decline in earnings of -6.5 percent for the quarter?” John Butters, vice president and senior earnings analyst at FactSet, wrote in the report.
But market analysts assert that it isn’t so much about what happened in the first quarter. Instead, investors are assessing forward guidance and what’s being said about the April–June period. The post-Silicon Valley Bank developments occurred toward the end of the first quarter, so traders fear that the worst is yet to come.
American Express disappointed investors, as the company braces for credit card debt struggles. The credit card provider reported earnings of $2.40 per share, down 12 percent from the same time a year ago. This was also below the market forecast of $2.66 per share.
American Express shares slumped by about 1.5 percent following the earnings update.
But it’s not all bad news, according to Ipek Ozkardeskaya, senior analyst at Swissquote Bank.
“The good news is [that] the expectations are driven by conversations with corporate executives which love sounding pessimistic so that when the results come in better than expected, the market reaction could be positive despite soft results,” she wrote in a note.
Credit conditions might further deteriorate after next month’s Fed policy meeting. Investors widely anticipate that the rate-setting committee will pull the trigger on one more quarter-point rate increase, lifting the benchmark policy rate to a target range of 5 percent to 5.25 percent.