Harley-Davidson Seeks New CEO, While Grappling With Sales Slump, Tariffs
Motorcycle maker says Jochen Zeitz plans to retire after five years in the role.
2 min
Wanted: CEO for iconic (but challenged) motorcycle maker.
Harley-Davidson is seeking a replacement for Chief Executive Jochen Zeitz, who the company said Tuesday plans to retire after five years on the job.
Harley said it retained an executive search firm late last year after Zeitz expressed interest in retiring. He will remain in his position until a successor is chosen.
During his tenure, Zeitz has boosted Harley’s profit but has seen sales of the bikes continue to decline . The company last year sold 151,000 motorcycles worldwide, less than half as many as it sold in 2008.
Shares in Harley and other power-sports manufacturers dropped sharply Tuesday as investors’ worries about tariffs and a possible recession mounted. Harley stock closed at $20.82, down nearly 9%.
Zeitz, a longtime board member, took over in 2020 as the Covid-19 pandemic took hold and kept the Milwaukee-based company running , despite factory closings and supply-chain tangles. As CEO he has prioritized profits over volume, cutting money-losing entry-level bikes from the lineup to focus on more expensive cruising and touring models.
The strategy was different than one implemented by his predecessor, Matt Levatich, whose “More Roads to Harley-Davidson” plan called for dozens of new models to broaden the brand’s appeal. Levatich left the company after an activist investor said the approach had led to poor financial performance.
Zeitz has said Harley is faring better than its competitors, as the industry suffers from high interest rates and low consumer confidence. Harley’s prospects have also been shaken in the trade war launched by the Trump administration, with the European Union threatening to impose 50% tariffs on the company’s bikes .
The motorcycle maker said in March that bikes imported into the U.S., which receive a 2.4% tariff at most, should face reciprocal duties to even the playing field.
Harley’s network of dealers often criticized Zeitz as being out of touch with the brand’s distinct culture. He grew up in Germany and had made his name rescuing sportswear company Puma , but as sales continued to decline, some said he didn’t understand what made Harley riders tick.
“This company has a great future under someone else’s direction,” said Mark Forszt , a dealer with six locations in Indiana. “Hopefully they’ll bring someone in with knowledge of Harley-Davidson culture.”
Justin Johnson, operating partner at St. Paul Harley-Davidson in Minnesota, gave Zeitz credit for kick-starting the development of popular new touring models that came out last year.
“That was the fastest I’ve ever seen Harley bring something to market,” Johnson said.
Harley faces numerous challenges, including an aging customer base. Dealers say entry-level models have failed to capture the appeal of their predecessor, the Sportster, which was phased out to comply with tightening air-quality standards.
The company’s electric-motorcycle spinoff, LiveWire , which launched in 2019, has seen losses in excess of $100 million while shipping fewer than 700 bikes in each of the past two years. Zeitz indicated on a quarterly conference call in February that he was losing patience with the project.
Zeitz was thrust into America’s culture wars last summer when conservative activist Robby Starbuck accused Harley of becoming “totally woke” under the CEO’s leadership. That stirred up a whirlwind of social-media criticism, including some from elected officials, and the company backed away from some initiatives.
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Investors are bracing for a bumpier fall stock market due to shifting odds of a Federal Reserve interest-rate increase and other macro challenges.
3 min
The stock market had a decent summer. Investors are bracing for a bumpier fall.
In the past couple of months, equity investors cheered soaring profits at big companies, shrugged off jitters in the bond market and nudged megacap tech shares back near records.
Now, as the post-Labor Day stretch begins, a number of new challenges lie ahead: ever-shifting odds of an interest-rate increase from the Federal Reserve. Sky-high expectations after a stunning earnings season. The persistent threat of higher consumer prices as fighting in the Middle East drags on.
“You’re moving from this earnings-driven market to this macro-driven market with the Fed, inflation and interest rates in focus,” said Keith Lerner, chief investment adviser for Truist Advisory Services. “It tends to be a choppier period.”
Historically, every major U.S. stock index experiences its worst average return in September. The Dow Jones Industrial Average has slid an average 1.1% in the ninth month of the year, in data that dates back to the 19th century. The S&P 500 has seen the same average decline—and for every September dating back to 1928, the benchmark ends the month lower more than half of the time.
Analysts caution against reading too much into those seasonal patterns. But in recent weeks, new reasons for investor caution have emerged. One of the largest: the looming threat of an interest-rate increase from the Fed, which announces its next policy decision on Sept. 16.
Chairman Kevin Warsh’s decision to ditch forward guidance and take more of his cues from markets has muddied the waters for investors when it comes to monetary policy. That has left traders scouring Fed governor speeches and economic-data reports for clues on the central bank’s next move.
“There’s going to be a lot of eyes on those numbers,” said John Luke Tyner, head of fixed income and portfolio manager at Aptus Capital Advisors.
The past couple of weeks offered just one example of how frequently those expectations can change. After Warsh struck a hawkish tone during remarks on Aug. 28, the odds of a hike at the Fed’s next meeting jumped from 35% before the speech to 58%, according to CME FedWatch data.
On Thursday, Fed governor Christopher Waller made a case for leaving rates where they are. Interest-rate futures showed coin-flip odds between a hike and a hold. Then Friday’s robust jobs report amped up rate-hike bets once more, back to a roughly 60% chance of higher rates after the meeting.
“Rates have really been driving the car for equities the last few weeks,” said Ross Mayfield, an investment strategist at Baird.
That uncertainty comes as an unruly bond market could put pressure on stocks. Treasury yields have marched higher for much of the summer, driven by concerns about rising oil prices, growing U.S. budget deficits and a deluge of tech-company bonds now competing for investors’ cash. Last week, the rout went global, pushing yields to multiyear highs in Japan, Germany and the U.K.
Higher bond yields can drag on stock prices and lift borrowing costs for companies and consumers across the economy.
Rising prices remain the top concern for bond traders, and continued fighting between the U.S. and Iran has done little to ease those worries. The national average price of diesel climbed to a record of $5.850 on Friday, according to AAA. That is up from $3.712 a year ago.
Investors will get more insight on the path of prices this week, with the much-awaited consumer-price index report due Friday and a reading on producer prices Thursday.
With another blockbuster earnings season in the books, some analysts have also warned that any boost from the third-quarter reports due in the coming months could be minimal. Back-to-back quarters of standout profits have raised expectations and made it especially difficult to impress traders. Custom-chip company Broadcom, for example, said Wednesday that it more than tripled its earnings and nearly doubled its revenue. Shares slipped 2.7% the next session.
Many analysts note there are plenty of reasons not to panic. The economy is in impressive shape, thanks to a healthy labor market and the rippling effects of the artificial-intelligence investment boom. Profits are booming at America’s biggest companies. The Cboe Volatility Index has dropped to its lowest levels of 2026. Credit spreads are tight, a sign bond investors aren’t concerned about economic conditions that could hurt companies.
But the mood has shifted from the euphoria that felt tangible when the Nasdaq was notching back-to-back records early this summer. The question, Mayfield said, is whether the fundamentals that have bolstered the bull market so far can stretch the rally into 2027.
“There are more anxieties or uncertainties about the backdrop,” he said. “It does feel like a transitional moment.”
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