Whirlpool's shares plunged more than 20% after the company said consumer confidence has fallen to "recession level lows" because of the Iran war, tanking demand for its big appliances. The maker of Maytag, KitchenAid and Amana suffered a 9.6% sales drop in the first quarter. That was only slightly steeper than the US appliance industry's 7.4% in the first quarter, with March being down 10%, Chairman and CEO Marc Bitzer said. "This level of industry decline is similar to what we have observed during the glob ...

This week, however, the company said that revenue dropped nearly 10% in its most recent quarter and sales of major appliances in North America tumbled 7%. Whirlpool announced a 10% price hike in April, its largest in a decade, and said that a separate 4% price increase will happen in July to address "multiyear inflationary cost pressures". With the war in Iran and economic concerns putting pressure on consumers and how they spend their money, Whirlpool is having to adjust to Americans delaying big-ticket pu ...