Wall Street is Behind the Curve on Foreign Exchange Impact

As with other S&P 500 constituents Tuesday morning, Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMY) and Pfizer (PFE) are both feeling the pain as it becomes clear analysts are underestimating the impact of the strong dollar. 2015 earnings guidance for both pharma giants came in below what Wall Street hoped to see: BMY guides for 2015 earnings per share of $1.55 – $1.70, compared to $1.71 consensus; PFE estimates 2015 EPS of $2.00 – $2.10, versus $2.17 consensus. 

Across the market on Tuesday multinational companies are blaming missed earnings and lower-than-expected 2015 guidance on foreign exchange effects and cheap oil. Caterpillar (CAT), Proctor & Gamble (PG), DuPont Co (DD) and United Technologies (UTX) all tumbled in early trading, and the S&P 500 was down 1%. Wall St. is clearly behind the ball on the FX impact, which means that we may see more analyst revisions in the near future as the street plays catchup.