All Reports

WM, formerly known as Waste Management, reported its 2Q results today, which included a 1.8% decline in its collection and disposal volume and a reduction of its full-year volume expectations (link). The volume decline was…

I received word that International Paper, the largest North American (N.A.) containerboard producer, announced an $80/ton price increase on linerboard and medium and $130/ton on white linerboard, effective September 1. IP’s announcement follows Packaging Corp.’s…

The Federal Reserve (Fed) will decide next week whether to raise interest rates, with markets pricing in a 38% change of a quarter point hike on Wednesday (link). On the one hand, there’s every reason…

Even though consumer spending accounts for 68% of U.S. GDP, it’s had increasingly little bearing on the level of the S&P 500 in recent years thanks to tech companies’ growing dominance and to the increasingly…

I wrote last week (link) about the ongoing explosion of margin debt provided by broker-dealers, which is growing at historically high rates and disproportionately to any relevant measure one can think of (U.S. GDP, U.S….

I’ve written over the past couple of years (link) about U.S. banks’ rapidly growing preference for lending to other financial institutions (nondepository financial institutions/NDFIs) and for the purpose of buying securities (margin loans) in lieu…

I wrote yesterday about the ongoing explosion of margin debt provided by broker-dealers: it hit a new record of $1.5 trillion in June, up nearly 50% YoY and growing wildly disproportionately to the U.S. economy…

As cartoonishly good as the big U.S. banks’ 2Q results were (thanks to trading and investment banking activity) to borrow a phrase from Jonathan Weil of the Wall Street Journal (link), just as cartoonish has…

As Jonathan Weil of the Wall Street Journal reported this morning (link), all five big banks that reported their 2Q results yesterday topped revenue and earnings estimates, and some of the numbers were “cartoonishly good.”…

I recently wrote about the ongoing shift in the U.S. Treasury market from price-insensitive holders such as foreign governments and the Federal Reserve (Fed) to price-sensitive holders such as hedge funds (link). I concluded that…

Predictably (link), the biggest U.S. banks reported blowout results in equity trading and investment banking (Wall St. activities) this morning, with their equity trading revenue nearly doubling versus a year ago in some cases. Meanwhile,…

Delta topped consensus 2Q earnings estimates and guided above consensus for 3Q, bearing in mind that the airline caters to high-income customers. Delta’s CEO said on CNBC (link) that “our consumers are at the top…

I just wrote about PepsiCo’s 2Q operating profit miss and about intensifying category weakness among consumer companies owing to rising inflationary pressures (link). I neglected to mention that Costco’s June same-store sales growth was lower…

I’ve been writing for well over a year about deteriorating discretionary sales in the U.S. (most recently here, just over a week ago), evident in a wide range of consumer companies’ results as well as…

I wrote yesterday (link) about the ongoing reclassifications/restatements of bank loan data following a reporting change that bank regulators made effective in 4Q24. The reporting change required more granular reporting of banks’ loans to nonbanks/nondepository…