Whirlpool shares on warning about the housing market

Whirlpool is a good barometer of the global economy as consumer spending on things like washers/dryers and other appliances correlates with confidence, interest rates and housing turnover.

The later appears to be a particularly big problem for Whirlpool, which fell 16.5% today in the largest drop since 2020. Now much of that is just giving back the post-election rally but it’s still a worrisome move.

After the election they highlighted some strong sales and improved consumer confidence but looking ahead, they forecast weakness due to elevated mortgage rates and low existing home sales. They see no material improvement in 2025.

“Resilient replacement demand creates a solid foundation for industry volumes, while consumer discretionary demand continues to be negatively impacted by elevated mortgage rates, resulting in weak existing home sales,” said CEO Marc Bitzer.

For Latam it’s similar with an industry growth forecast of 0-3% while they forecast growth of 3-5% in Asia. There was no guidance on Europe.

This was also an interesting comment on pricing and the inflationary environment.

“The market right now is strongly driven by replacement demand and in that environment, it just does not make economic sense to go very deep on promotional investments.”

Combine these comments with the soft pending home sales report today makes for a tough housing environment in 2025.

This article was written by Adam Button at www.forexlive.com.