Here's Why Whirlpool Shares Slumped in September

Whirlpool (NYSE: WHR) shares declined by 15.6% in September, according to data provided by S&P Global Market Intelligence. The decline comes down to a combination of investors "selling on the news" of a rate cut and a relatively disappointing bond market reaction to the Federal Reserve rate cut in mid-September. Still, there's a bull case to be made for buying the stock in a dip. Here's the lowdown.Two big external events are impacting Whirlpool this year. The first is the impact of interest rates on the housing market, specifically on home sales volumes. Homeowners typically undertake discretionary spending on major domestic appliances as they prepare their homes for sale or move into a recently purchased home.As such, when mortgage rates rise and put pressure on home sales (see the chart below), Whirlpool's higher-margin discretionary sales will be weakened. Indeed, management noted in its second-quarter earnings presentation that U.S. demand for appliances from discretionary purchases contributed 30% of the total demand from 2015 to 2020. Still, that figure had dropped to just 20% by 2025. Continue readingWeiter zum vollständigen Artikel bei MotleyFool Weiter zum vollständigen Artikel bei MotleyFool