All Reports

I wrote yesterday about AutoZone’s worse-than-expected domestic sales growth in its just-reported fiscal 4Q26, which was consistent with what many other large U.S. retailers reported in the second quarter (link). I also wrote that the…

The large auto parts retailer AutoZone missed on domestic same-store sales growth in its fiscal 4Q26 this morning (1.6% vs. FactSet consensus of 3.6%), the latest in a long line of large U.S. retailers to…

I haven’t written about the composition of U.S. bank lending in a while because the trends haven’t changed: a disproportionate share of loan growth continues to come from loans to the financial sector, specifically nondepository…

I’ve written extensively about the fact that the U.S. Treasury market has become increasingly price-sensitive in recent years, most recently yesterday (link). That shift is evident in the ongoing decline of long-term Treasury prices/rise in…

The U.S. Treasury released Treasury International Capital (TIC) data for July yesterday (link), and the Financial Times reported in recapping the data that China’s U.S. Treasury holdings fell to their lowest level since August 2008…

I’ve written in recent days/weeks about the intensifying truck driver shortage in the U.S. and the inflationary impact it’s having on consumer, packaging and other companies that use trucks, one of many sources of cost…

I published a note with comments from consumer staples companies presenting at the Barclays Global Consumer Staples Conference last week (link). This week are the Goldman Sachs Global Retailing and Morgan Stanley Laguna Industrials conferences,…

I wrote yesterday afternoon about ballooning margin debt, one of the many indications of historically high financial leverage (link). As if on cue, Charles Schwab reported its monthly activity highlights this morning (link); its investors…

In my note last evening on the repurchase agreement (repo) market and more broadly on ballooning financial leverage and the unusually loose terms on which that leverage is being provided (link), I mentioned the recent…

I wrote a week ago about a piece in the Financial Times (link) that provided a history of the repurchase agreement (repo) market and highlighted its enormous importance in financial markets. The piece pointed out…

I wrote last week about consumer staples companies’ comments at the Barclays conference, particularly regarding demand weakness, rising/high oil prices and rising/high freight costs. Below are among the most eye-catching ones, in alphabetical order (all…

The U.S. Treasury Department released its August statement, which is particularly relevant given falling long-term U.S. Treasury prices/rising yields and Treasury Secretary Bessent’s numerous unsuccessful attempts to cap/reduce long-term yields. The federal budget deficit hit…

The Federal Reserve (Fed) just published its quarterly Financial Accounts of the United States (Z.1), formerly known as the Flow of Funds (link). Unsurprisingly given that the U.S. stock market keeps hitting new highs while…

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reported this morning that real (inflation-adjusted) average weekly earnings were up 0.2% sequentially and 0.3% YoY in August. Since just before COVID (a period of six and a…

Kroger, one of the five largest U.S. retailers by sales, missed consensus on identical sales ex-fuel in 2Q26 (0.2% vs. StreetAccount of 0.8%) and cut its full-year identical sales ex-fuel guidance for the second time…