Financial Instruments

ASC 815 “Derivatives and Hedging” requires an entity to recognize all derivatives as either assets or liabilities and measure those instruments at fair value. Derivatives that do not qualify as a hedge must be adjusted to fair value in earnings. If a derivative does qualify as a hedge under ASC 815, changes in the fair value will either be offset against the change in the fair value of the hedged assets, liabilities or firm commitments or recognized in other accumulated comprehensive income until the hedged item is recognized in earnings. The ineffective portion of a hedge's change in fair value will be immediately recognized in earnings.

Foreign Exchange: The company uses foreign currency forward, foreign exchange swaps and option purchase and sales contracts to hedge its exposure to changes in foreign currency exchange rates. The company’s primary hedging activities are to mitigate its exposure to changes in exchange rates on intercompany and third party trade receivables and payables. The company does not currently enter into derivative financial instruments for speculative purposes. In managing its foreign currency exposures, the company identifies and aggregates naturally occurring offsetting positions and then hedges residual balance sheet exposures. The fair value of the forward and option contracts was a gain of $0.4 million at the end of the third quarter of 2018.

Interest Rate: The company has entered into interest rate swaps to fix the interest rate applicable to certain of its variable-rate debt. The agreements swap one-month LIBOR for fixed rates. The company has designated these swaps as cash flow hedges and all changes in fair value of the swaps are recognized in accumulated other comprehensive income. As of September 29, 2018, the fair value of these instruments was an asset of $26.5 million. The change in fair value of these swap agreements in the first nine months of 2018 was a gain of $13.6 million, net of taxes.

The following table summarizes the company’s fair value of interest rate swaps (in thousands):



	Condensed Consolidated Balance Sheet Presentation	Sep 29, 2018		Dec 30, 2017
Fair value	Other assets	$	26,485	$	10,266

The impact on earnings from interest rate swaps was as follows (in thousands):



		Three Months Ended						Nine Months Ended
	Presentation of Gain/(loss)	Sep 29, 2018			Sep 30, 2017			Sep 29, 2018		Sep 30, 2017
Gain/(loss) recognized in accumulated other comprehensive income	Other comprehensive income	$	5,389		$	(294	)	$	16,347	$	(1,937	)
Gain/(loss) reclassified from accumulated other comprehensive income (effective portion)	Interest expense	$	(7	)	$	(81	)	$	229	$	(887	)
Gain/(loss) recognized in income (ineffective portion)	Other expense	$	214		$	28		$	101	$	13

Interest rate swaps are subject to default risk to the extent the counterparties are unable to satisfy their settlement obligations under the interest rate swap agreements. The company reviews the credit profile of the financial institutions that are counterparties to such swap agreements and assesses their creditworthiness prior to entering into the interest rate swap agreements and throughout the term. The interest rate swap agreements typically contain provisions that allow the counterparty to require early settlement in the event that the company becomes insolvent or is unable to maintain compliance with its covenants under its existing debt agreements.