All Reports

I try to stick to one or two paragraphs in my notes, as readers have limited time and attention spans. This note is not that! With asset markets whipsawing on a daily basis as concerns…

I wrote earlier today about ongoing declines in foreign governments’ U.S. Treasury holdings (link) as part of a piece on the worsening structural problems in the Treasury market, which also include huge U.S. budget deficits…

I last wrote about soaring financial leverage yesterday (link) and this morning (link), and as if on cue, FINRA released margin debt data for September. The amount of money investors have borrowed to buy securities…

As the Financial Times reported this morning (link), U.S. Treasurys are headed for their best week since February owing at least in part to growing concerns about the AI trade, as investors have been dumping…

I’ve written extensively about the starring role that record-high financial leverage (at least in many cases) has played in the U.S. stock market advance in recent years. The latest evidence came this morning in the…

The Federal Reserve (Fed) just published its latest Beige Book survey of economic activity (link); the Fed publishes this report eight times per year. Reports on non-manufacturing sectors indicated little growth, with most Fed districts…

I wrote yesterday about large banks’ characterization of the state of the U.S. consumer (“quite resilient” and “very healthy”) vs. what all manner of consumer companies are reporting (link). This morning brought the September real…

Bank of America, the second-largest U.S. consumer lender after JPMorgan Chase, reported its 3Q results this morning. The composition of its loan growth is illuminating. Its average total loans and leases were up 6% YoY…

It’s bank earnings season, which means we again got to hear from large banks about the “quite resilient” and “very healthy” consumer (JPMorgan Chase’s words). Thank goodness for that! Banks’ provisions for credit losses –…

I’ve been writing for well over a year about the growing and extreme disconnect between the financial sector and the real economy, evidence of which continues to pile up. The wealthiest 1%/10% of households, who…

Delta Air Lines missed consensus profit estimates for the first time in two years and cut its 2026 profit outlook as jet fuel costs surge, a day after PepsiCo cut its full-year profit outlook as…

PepsiCo this morning cut its full-year core constant currency earnings per share (EPS) growth guidance from the low end of 4-6% to just 1-2% owing to margin pressure in its North American business. PepsiCo Foods…

I’ve written at length about the disproportionate amount of U.S. commercial banks’ loan and asset growth going to the financial sector rather than to the real economy (households and businesses), most recently yesterday (link). I’ve…

I wrote last week about how commercial and industrial (C&I) and consumer loans in the Federal Reserve’s (Fed) weekly H.8 release (commercial banks’ assets and liabilities) often aren’t what they appear because of the Fed’s…

I wrote yesterday morning in my note on the ongoing and intensifying sales weakness among consumer companies (see Nike’s latest disappointing report last evening for more evidence of the same trend) about the disproportionate share…