Southern CEO: 'What You Are Seeing Is An Overall Theme Of An Improving Economy'

Southern Co SO reported mixed first quarter results earlier on Wednesday.

Tom Fanning, Southern Company CEO, was on CNBC post the results to weigh in on the earnings.

Theme Of Improving Economy

“Really it was a good quarter. It was above the estimate we gave to the Street,” Fanning said. “I think what you are seeing is an overall theme of an improving economy, particularly it’s interesting from an economic development standpoint.”

“The capital intensity of our backlog is roughly three times normal, so assuming get good results in a worldwide economy and a kind of a good outcome on a currency valuation, I think we could see more capital investment in the Southeast; much stronger than the rest of the United States.”

Metals: Dark Cloud

He continued, “From an industrial standpoint, anything related to housing has been going great guns. Only dark cloud there really relates to primary metals. I think that is a function of low oil prices and a strong dollar.”

Household Income Resulting In Consumption

“Residential, we're starting to see some improvement, which we haven’t seen in the past on household wealth creation. Interestingly, as the income statement of household is getting better people aren't consuming it, they are saving it. So, that’s one of the thing we have to watch in terms of forward economic growth,” Fanning said.