“With the debt payment looming, time ran out.” That succinct summary ended a Wall Street Journal article titled: Saks Global Files for Bankruptcy, Undone by Debt and a Luxury Slump. A year ago, Saks Fifth Avenue’s parent company purchased its chief rival, Neiman Marcus, for $2.65 billion. The goal was to establish dominance and ultimately […]
Yesterday’s Commentary noted the recent strength in transportation stocks. For example, the transportation ETF (XTN) has outperformed the S&P 500 by more than 9% over the last 25 trading days. The leading stocks within the ETF over this period include. ARCB (trucking), MATX (shipping), WERN (freight shipping), and FedEx (shipping). Some of the recent gains […]
Over the weekend, Jerome Powell revealed that the Department of Justice (DOJ) has opened a criminal investigation into his June testimony to Congress regarding the roughly $2.5 billion renovation of Federal Reserve headquarters. The DOJ has served subpoenas to the Fed and threatened a criminal indictment relating to that testimony. Such action by the DOJ […]
President Trump is using Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to help make housing more affordable. According to a TruthSocial post, the President claims Fannie and Freddie have a combined $200 billion in cash. Accordingly: I am instructing my Representatives (Fannie and Freddie) to buy $200 billion dollars In mortgage bonds. The hope is that increased […]
The JOLTs data released on Wednesday paint a picture of labor market stagnation. The graph below shows that the number of job openings has fallen to levels similar to those right before the pandemic. While the number of openings seems somewhat stable, layoffs are slowly increasing, while new hires are near a 15-year low. Similarly, […]
Bill Dudley, a respected economist and President of the New York Fed during the Financial Crisis, penned a Bloomberg editorial outlining six challenges facing the Fed in 2026. Given his deep background in economics and intimate knowledge of the Fed, it’s worth providing a brief summary of his views. Independence is at the top of […]
Yesterday’s Commentary discussed the potential impact of regime change in Venezuela on the energy sector. Today, we extend the analysis and examine other reasons for the invasion. The following theories are based on a Substack commentary from Tracy Shucart, an economist and resources trader. For starters, Tracy makes it clear that oil is not the […]
Venezuela holds 20% of the world’s proven oil reserves. Not only are they the largest, but as shown in the Statista graphic below, they hold approximately seven times that of the United States. Despite its large reserves, Venezuela has fallen well short of its ability to supply the world. US sanctions and the significant deterioration […]
Tesla EV deliveries totaled 1.64 million vehicles in 2025, leaving the company behind China’s BYD, which delivered more than 2.2 million EVs for the year. The result marks a second consecutive annual decline in Tesla EV deliveries, reinforcing the growing pressure on the company’s core automotive business. Fourth-quarter deliveries fell sharply year over year, underscoring […]