Disruptions in supply chains and rising prices are also preoccupying America's companies.

According to an analysis by the internationally active Japanese bank Nomura, more recently than ever have expressed negative comments about the situation in their supply chains.

Nevertheless, the examined companies from the US stock exchange index Russell 1000 assessed the consequences for their business very differently.

Mark Fehr

Editor in business.

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Many companies did not even mention price hikes and supply problems in their quarterly conference calls with analysts.

Companies commenting on these issues expected to get through inflation well.

“The mood in companies signals that individual companies are less concerned about inflation than generally feared,” says the study.

24 million sentences evaluated

According to Nomura, many companies see themselves well equipped for inflation because their business model allows them to raise prices. Using voice algorithms, the bank evaluated the logs of conference calls from 1000 companies on the American stock exchange index Russell. The analysis is based on 24 million spoken sentences since 2007. In the conference calls, listed companies provide information on their quarterly figures and answer questions from analysts.

According to the study, between August and November 2021, more companies than ever before since 2007 spoke about inflation. In addition, the proportion of those who viewed inflation with concern is at a high. According to Nomura, that sounds more ominous than it might be. At the same time, the proportion of those companies that say they can cope with inflation or even benefit from it has risen to a record level. In addition, more than half had not yet commented on inflation by the end of November. And at least a third said nothing about supply chain problems. Nomura calls these companies a "silent majority".

The bank also points out that disruptions in international supply chains did not only emerge with the corona pandemic.

The trade war between the United States and the People's Republic of China, which began under US President Donald Trump, has already led to tensions in world trade.

As a result, the number of negative statements about supply chains in analyst conferences had already increased in 2017.

Overall, according to Nomura, companies arguably see supply chain stress as the larger and more complex problem compared to inflation.

Strong brands have high pricing power

Regardless of the Nomura study, it is true that many companies - unlike end users, for example - can pass rising prices on to their customers.

This is possible above all if the market position of the respective company is very strong.

When the products are so sought-after and so unique that buyers accept price increases, inflation becomes a sort of transitory affair for companies that, at least for them, is not a long-term or persistent problem.

In a comment from December, Vermögensverwaltung GAM trusts companies with very strong brands to have this kind of pricing power vis-à-vis their customers.

In this context, GAM named the textile company Levi Strauss, the sports car manufacturer Ferrari, the consumer goods manufacturer L'Oréal and the luxury label Cartier.