Derivative Instruments and Hedges

Our risk management and foreign currency derivatives and hedging policy specifies the conditions under which we may enter into derivative contracts. See Notes 1 and 7 to our consolidated financial statements included in our 2018 Annual Report and Note 8 of this Quarterly Report for additional information on our derivatives. We enter into foreign exchange forward contracts to hedge our cash flow risks associated with transactions denominated in currencies other than the local currency of the operation engaging in the transaction.

Foreign exchange contracts with third parties had a notional value of $288.1 million and $280.9 million at March 31, 2019 and December 31, 2018, respectively. At March 31, 2019, the length of foreign exchange contracts currently in place ranged from four days to 18 months.

We are exposed to risk from credit-related losses resulting from nonperformance by counterparties to our financial instruments. We perform credit evaluations of our counterparties under foreign exchange contracts agreements and expect all counterparties to meet their obligations. We have not experienced credit losses from our counterparties.

The fair values of foreign exchange contracts are summarized below:



	March 31,		December 31,
(Amounts in thousands)	2019		2018
Current derivative assets	$	906	$	535
Noncurrent derivative assets	—		5
Current derivative liabilities	2,878		3,285
Noncurrent derivative liabilities	104		2

Current and noncurrent derivative assets are reported in our condensed consolidated balance sheets in prepaid expenses and other and other assets, net, respectively. Current and noncurrent derivative liabilities are reported in our condensed consolidated balance sheets in accrued liabilities and retirement obligations and other liabilities, respectively.

The impact of net changes in the fair values of foreign exchange contracts are summarized below:



	Three Months Ended March 31,
(Amounts in thousands)	2019			2018
Gain (loss) recognized in income	$	(1,281	)	$	(1,104	)

Gains and losses recognized in our condensed consolidated statements of income for foreign exchange contracts are classified as other expense, net.

In March 2015, we designated €255.7 million of our €500.0 million Euro senior notes discussed in Note 7 as a net investment hedge of our investments in certain of our international subsidiaries that use the Euro as their functional currency. We used the spot method to measure the effectiveness of our net investment hedge. Under this method, for each reporting period, the change in the carrying value of the Euro senior notes due to remeasurement of the effective portion is reported in accumulated other comprehensive loss on our condensed consolidated balance sheet and the remaining change in the carrying value of the ineffective portion, if any, is recognized in other expense, net in our condensed consolidated statement of income. We evaluate the effectiveness of our net investment hedge on a prospective basis at the beginning of each quarter. We did not record any ineffectiveness for the three months ended March 31, 2019 and 2018.