Executives at America's largest companies are talking publicly with investors about the presidential election more so than in recent cycles.-listed firms between Sept. 15 and Oct. 31, according to FactSet. That's the highest number of companies in the broad index mentioning the word during that timeframe, according to CNBC screens of the same period going back to 2004.
, CEO Harry Lawton said its customer was expected to remain"prudent" like past election years. That comes after the farm-focused retailer reported a bump in emergency response sales to start the quarter following Hurricanes Helene and Milton., meanwhile, expects a"trough" in air travel around Election Day, according to operations chief Andrew Watterson.
In addition to Election Day, market participants and business leaders are also closely monitoring the Federal Reserve's monetary policy meeting next week. Tool makerCEO Donald Allan listed both the election and interest rates as reasons to anticipate"choppy markets" into the first half of 2025. Fed funds futures are pricing in a roughly 96% chance of a decrease to the borrowing cost at the November meeting, according to the CME Group's FedWatch tool as of Friday evening. That comes after the central bank in September issued itsCEO Jon Vander Ark said the waste disposal company sees"a little bit of paralysis in an election year," but he's optimistic heading into the end of 2024 and start of 2025.
To be sure, some of the"election" mentions this year were tied to unrelated events like enrollment periods for health care. Other firms ranging from software company"This company has been around a long time," American Express CEO Stephen Squeri told analysts last month."I mean, obviously, we didn't have cards 174 years ago. But we've been around for lots of different elections; lots of different configurations of the House, the Senate and so forth.