Reuters Sustainable Finance Newsletter - Quarterly reporting, Wall Street's latest test vs Trump

T. Rowe Price

01/10/2025 16:51

By Ross Kerber

Oct 1 (Reuters) -
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If the U.S. is moving into a new era of state capitalism, some of the change will be determined by how much Wall Street pushes back on initiatives from President Donald Trump and his administration. A case in point is their recent suggestion to drop a quarterly reporting requirement for U.S.-listed companies, reviving an idea from Trump's first term.

I wrote my column this week about how funds will position themselves on the idea compared to their statements in 2019, which you can read about below. I've also included links to our coverage of a deal Trump made with Pfizer, a record leveraged buyout and layoffs at Exxon.

Please follow me on LinkedIn and/or Bluesky. You can reach me via ross.kerber@thomsonreuters.com

Quarterly reporting, Wall Street's latest test vs Trump

Critics of Corporate America say too many companies have bent the knee to U.S. President Donald Trump. Now a revived regulatory proposal creates an experiment to show how much Wall Street will stand up for its past priorities.

This week the head of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission said the agency would fast-track Trump's push to shift required corporate earnings reports to semiannually rather than quarterly.

We've seen this movie before, during the first Trump administration, when the SEC took comments about a similar move and some of the strongest pushback came from fund firms and industry groups.

Soon we'll see if the same institutions stand up for their past priorities again or triage them away, given the pressure they face on many other political fronts. You can click here to read my full column this week.

Company news

Exxon Mobil XOM.N will lay off 2,000 workers globally, including 1,200 in Norway and the EU, the latest round of cuts as energy companies face a slump in global crude prices.

In exchange for tariff relief, Pfizer PFE.N will cut drug prices for the Medicaid program and for new medicines, Trump said, and said he expects other drugmakers to follow suit.

Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund, Jared Kushner's Affinity Partners and private equity firm Silver Lake came together to buy popular videogame developer Electronic Arts EA.O at a $55 billion valuation, which would be the largest leveraged buyout ever.

On my radar

Activist investor groups As You Sow and the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility asked securities regulators to rescind an approval of Exxon's proxy voting program for retail investors, saying it may "unfairly advantage management."

A U.S. district judge in Texas said American Airlines  must ensure an employee retirement plan doesn't pursue certain "ESG-oriented investment management and objectives." But American won't have to pay damages, according to the ruling, which follows a January decision the company had violated federal law.

 (Reporting by Ross Kerber; Editing by David Gregorio)

 ((ross.kerber@thomsonreuters.com; (617) 412 0093;))