All Reports

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) released October real (inflation-adjusted) earnings in conjunction with the CPI data. Real average weekly earnings – which reflect hours worked unlike real average hourly earnings – were unchanged…

U.S. commercial banks have filed their 3Q Call Reports, which are regulatory filings in which banks report their assets, liabilities, income and other information. Banks’ unrealized losses increased by nearly 50% in 3Q per data…

Many U.S. consumer companies reported their 3Q results last week, so it’s time for some updated tables. The story remains the same: consumer staples companies, retailers and restaurant chains alike continue to experience sales growth…

Given major disclosures from the three largest North American containerboard producers in their 10-Q filings this week (they all received grand jury subpoenas), I looked at some other paper & packaging companies’ 10-Q filings. A…

A fourth North American containerboard producer, Cascades, confirmed to Bloomberg (link) that it also received a grand jury subpoena in September as part of the U.S. Department of Justice’s (DOJ) criminal price-fixing investigation. That makes…

The third-largest North American containerboard producer, Packaging Corp. of America, just disclosed in its 10-Q filing that it received a grand jury subpoena from the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ)’s Antitrust Division in late September…

I wrote earlier about the U.S. Treasury Department’s latest update regarding its debt issuance, which suggested the possibility of increasingly heavy short-term bill issuance in the foreseeable future despite growing price sensitivity to such issuance…

The largest North American containerboard producer, International Paper (IP), just filed its 10-Q; it received a subpoena from the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) just as did the second-largest producer Smurfit Westrock (link). IP received…

The second-largest North American containerboard producer, Smurfit Westrock, filed its 10-Q this morning, and it was doozy. There were two items of particular note. The DOJ issued the company a subpoena. On September 22, the…

The U.S. Treasury Department released its Quarterly Refunding Statement this morning (link), which included a language change suggesting that the Treasury will rely even more heavily on short-term bills than it already is. As I…

DS Smith filed its SEC Form 20-F last week in connection with International Paper’s (IP) planned spin-off of the business; the company will host an investor day tomorrow morning ET. IP is evaluating a potential…

I hope you enjoyed your weekend, including the extra hour of sleep! My last two notes were about the fallacy of the “resilient” U.S. consumer (link and link), and shortly after the second, Bloomberg published…

I wrote yesterday about the fallacy of the “resilient” U.S. consumer (link). Along the same lines, I track the results of the world’s largest consumer staples companies. The U.S. has been a weak spot for…

I’ve written at length about what’s been propping up nominal consumer spending growth in recent years: high inflation, spending by the rich (who’ve benefited enormously from record-high stock prices), and spending on essential items such…

There are daily reminders of the widespread use of circular financing among AI companies, the most recent of which was in Anthropic’s S-1 filing yesterday. Amazon and Google are simultaneously major Anthropic shareholders and customers….