All Reports

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…

Yet another large consumer staples company, this time Procter & Gamble, commented on inflationary pressures this morning. The company noted that oil prices are $12.50/barrel higher than what’s embedded in its fiscal year 2027 earnings…

This morning brought updates from several U.S. packaging companies presenting at a large industrials conference; their message was much the same as what we heard from the large consumer conference taking place this week. Sonoco…

The U.S. Treasury Department said it will purchase up to $6 billion of long-term Treasurys in the first operation of its expanded buyback program, triple the amount initially communicated to investors. The announcement so impressed…

He’s the house now, after all.

General Mills said yesterday it thinks its full-year cost inflation could be at the upper end of its previous 4-5% guidance, partly because of rapidly rising freight costs. The company said its logistics costs are…

At the same consumer conference at which Constellation Brands yesterday warned on higher U.S. trucking costs and some commodity cost pressures and General Mills noted that its (spot) logistics costs are up about 40% vs….

I’ve written extensively about the U.S. Treasury Department’s growing reliance on short-term bills to fund its yawning deficits, and that was before Treasury Secretary Bessent’s increased buyback announcement and other floated tactics in recent weeks…

On the same day that Constellation Brands’ comments about higher U.S. trucking costs and some commodity cost pressures sent its stock down 5.6% (link), General Mills commented on the same topics, and the theme was…