All Reports

I’ve written several notes lately about the state of consumer spending, including earlier today. The headline numbers look decent enough, but when one looks at the components of consumer spending from the Bureau of Economic…

I wrote yesterday about the growing share of U.S. consumer spending/personal consumption expenditures (PCE) on mandatory services such as health care, rent and insurance and on (services) categories influenced by the record-high stock market, including…

The U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) released its Personal Income and Outlays report for July (link), which perfectly illustrated where Americans are spending their money (and why). The $36.3 billion increase in current-dollar/nominal personal…

The U.S. Treasury Department made news yet again this morning, telling CNBC (link) that it’s considering dipping into its Treasury General Account (TGA) at the Federal Reserve (Fed) to fund its increased buybacks of 10-…

Several events this month have highlighted the U.S. Treasury Department’s determination, or perhaps more accurately desperation, to hold down long-term bond yields: (1) its rare joint intervention in the Japanese yen market and encouragement of…

I wrote yesterday morning about several large U.S. retailers’ weak/disappointing 2Q comparable (comp) sales/traffic (link). Since then, the off-price/discount retailer Ross Stores (Ross Dress for Less) reported continued substantial growth, with comp sales up 10%…

U.S. Treasury Secretary Bessent, as part of his rare joint intervention in the Japanese yen market, urged the Federal Reserve (Fed) to expand its FIMA Repo Facility and encouraged Japan to utilize it. The idea…

Two weeks ago, the U.S. Treasury Department announced its buyback plans for the upcoming quarter in its so-called quarterly refunding statement. Specifically, the Treasury said it expected to buy up to $38 billion in so-called…

Walmart’s U.S. comparable sales excluding fuel rose 2.6% in the quarter ended July, its slowest U.S. growth rate in more than six years and below the lowest analyst estimate compiled by Bloomberg (link). This even…

In May 2024, current U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent criticized then-Secretary Janet Yellen for relying too heavily on short-term debt to finance the U.S.’s massive budget deficits. Said Bessent, “Secretary Yellen is financing at the…

I last wrote about the U.S. Treasury Department’s buyback program in February (link); the Treasury buys higher-yield (longer-term) debt and replaces it with lower-yield (short-term) debt (link). Liquidity support buybacks, one of the two types…

There was a great deal of press coverage today about rising government bond yields in response to the S&P 500’s third straight losing day, as if equity investors are suddenly concerned about enormous government deficits…

The giant housing retailer Home Depot beat slightly on U.S. comparable sales in 2Q, with its U.S. comp sales up 1.3% compared to the StreetAccount consensus of 0.8%. For the total company, comparable customer transactions…

The U.S. Treasury Department published Treasury International Capital (TIC) data for June (link), which showed yet another decline in foreign governments’ holdings of U.S. Treasurys. Such holdings have fallen by nearly 6% in the past…

An investor recently brought to my attention the fact that a company called Lennox, which is a large producer of HVAC (heating, ventilation and air conditioning) products, missed on sales (residential HVAC sales were far…