Item 7A. Quantitative and Qualitative Disclosures About Market Risk
ITEM 7A. QUANTITATIVE AND QUALITATIVE DISCLOSURE ABOUT MARKET RISK
Interest Rate Risk. Our exposure to market risk for changes in interest rates relates primarily to our investment portfolio and long-term debt. We usually invest our cash in investments with short maturities or with frequent interest reset terms. Accordingly, our interest income fluctuates with short-term market conditions. As of December 25, 2021, our investment portfolio consisted of time deposits and commercial paper. Due to the relatively short, weighted-average maturity of our investment portfolio and the current low interest rate environment, our exposure to interest rate risk is minimal.
As of December 25, 2021, all of our outstanding long-term debt had fixed interest rates. Consequently, our exposure to market risk for changes in interest rates on reported interest expense and corresponding cash flows is minimal.
We will continue to monitor our exposure to interest rate risk.
Default Risk. We mitigate default risk in our investment portfolio by investing in only high credit quality securities and by constantly positioning our portfolio to respond to a significant reduction in a credit rating of any investment issuer or guarantor. Our portfolio includes investments in marketable debt securities with active secondary or resale markets to ensure portfolio liquidity. We are averse to principal loss and strive to preserve our invested funds by limiting default risk and market risk.
We actively monitor market conditions and developments specific to the securities and security classes in which we invest. We believe that we take a conservative approach to investing our funds in that we invest only in highly-rated debt securities with relatively short maturities and do not invest in securities which we believe involve a higher degree of risk. As of December 25, 2021, substantially all of our investments in debt securities were A-rated by at least one of the rating agencies. While we believe we take prudent measures to mitigate investment-related risks, such risks cannot be fully eliminated as there are circumstances outside of our control.
Foreign Exchange Risk. As a result of our foreign operations, we incur costs and we carry assets and liabilities that are denominated in foreign currencies, while sales of products are primarily denominated in U.S. dollars.
We maintain a foreign currency hedging strategy which uses derivative financial instruments to mitigate the risks associated with changes in foreign currency exchange rates. This strategy takes into consideration all of our exposures. We do not use derivative financial instruments for trading or speculative purposes.
The following table provides information about our foreign currency forward contracts as of December 25, 2021 and December 26, 2020. All of our foreign currency forward contracts mature within 18 months.
December 25, 2021 December 26, 2020
Notional
Amount Average
Contract
Rate Estimated
Fair Value
Gain (Loss) Notional
Amount Average
Contract
Rate Estimated
Fair Value
Gain (Loss)
(In millions except contract rates)
Foreign currency forward contracts:
Chinese Renminbi $ 360 6.5693 $ 6 $ 261 6.8160 $ 8
Canadian Dollar 416 1.2646 (6) 247 1.3165 6
Indian Rupee 162 77.3309 1 97 76.0259 1
Taiwan Dollar 122 27.2725 (1) 58 28.0978 —
Singapore Dollar 71 1.3489 — 50 1.3574 1
Euro 47 0.8444 (2) 35 0.8578 1
Pound Sterling 6 0.7317 — 3 0.7375 —
Malaysian Ringgit — — — 3 4.0456 —
Japanese Yen 1 114.3214 — 1 103.5000 —
Total $ 1,185 $ (2) $ 755 $ 17
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