AT&T's Three Takeaways of the Post-Covid Future
The sprawling media and telecommunications company’s earnings show the pandemic’s imprint on the consumer and economy.
A picture is emerging of the post-pandemic American consumer.
Photographer: Kena Betancur/AFP via Getty Images
Quarterly earnings reports are backward-looking by design, but this earnings season’s numbers feel especially stale in the context of a pandemic that brings new information by the day and even more unknowns. Rather than dissecting three-week-old profit metrics, what everyone really wants to know — business leaders and everyday Americans alike — is how long the coronavirus will disrupt our lives, and what if any of it will be permanent.
For that there are no clear answers yet. However, earnings conference calls are providing some of the deepest insights into the post-Covid future, even as CEOs remain understandably reluctant to provide any specific forecasts. Just like last quarter, wireless giant AT&T Inc.’s call was particularly insightful, in part because its disparate lines of business make for a fairly wide-angle view of the economy. It was John Stankey’s first address as CEO of AT&T, a post he took on July 1.