The Trial Balance is CFO’s weekly preview of stories, stats and events to help you prepare.
Part 1 — Anat Ashkenazi’s challenges amid earnings call debut
As Alphabet prepares for its third-quarter earnings call on Oct. 29, the company’s CFO Anat Ashkenazi, who was hired in early June, will take part in her first earnings call as its finance chief. Her role comes with unique challenges, as Alphabet is currently dealing with several issues affecting its business.
The company is currently involved in an antitrust investigation that could result in a potential breakup, contributing a considerable portion of the 43% of the S&P 500 currently facing similar scrutiny. Alphabet suffered a legal setback when a federal judge ruled shortly after Ashkenazi’s hire that the company was illegally monopolizing the search engine market. Alphabet now faces another antitrust case in the U.K. over a partnership with AI startup Anthropic, presumably to keep pace with competitors in the race to develop generative AI.
Alphabet also faces internal challenges, particularly regarding workplace culture and politics. Recently, the company fired employees who protested business decisions with political implications and attempted to stave off unionization efforts by abruptly terminating employees while they were testifying before Austin City Council members about their unionization attempts. Alphabet has also faced criticism for politically motivated content censorship on its platforms, particularly YouTube.
Part 2 — This week
Here’s a list of important market events slated for the week ahead.
Monday, Oct. 28 — None scheduled
Tuesday, Oct. 29
- S&P Case-Shiller home price index, Sept.
- Consumer confidence, Oct.
- Job openings, Sept.
Wednesday, Oct. 30
- ADP employment, Oct.
- GDP, Q3
- Advanced retail inventories, Oct.
- Advanced wholesale inventories, Oct.
Thursday, Oct. 31
- PCE index, Oct.
- Core PCE index, Oct.
- Initial jobless claims, Oct. 26
Friday, Nov. 1
- U.S. employment report, Oct.
- U.S. unemployment rate, Oct.
- U.S. hourly wages, Oct.
- S&P final U.S. manufacturing PMI, Oct.
- ISM manufacturing, Oct.
Part 3 — AI in M&A, General Petraeus Q&A, Gen-Z centric culture development
This week, CFO.com will publish a story on the organizational value of CFOs versus CEOs (10/29), a story on the transformative role of AI in M&A (10/30), a Q&A with former director of the CIA and general of the U.S. Army David Petraeus (10/31) and how Lexington Capital Holdings has developed a Gen-Z centric culture (11/1).
