On Wednesday, Eli Lilly, the largest holding (15%) in XLV, the State Street healthcare sector ETF, reported earnings well above expectations, and its shares initially rose by 10%. Its fourth-quarter adjusted EPS of $7.54 easily beat the consensus estimate of $6.98. Further boosting Eli Lilly shares, its revenue surged 43% to $19.29 billion, almost $1.5 […]
Over the last couple of weeks, we have shared evidence that supports the reflationary narrative and some that defies it. Today, we share the latest ISM Manufacturing data, which lends credence to the reflationary narrative. The ISM Manufacturing survey showed a big improvement in sentiment, as shown below. The gauge shot up 4.7 to 52.6, […]
Private credit funds were all the rage in 2024 and 2025 as institutional and high-net-worth retail investors sought more risk and higher returns. Over the last few months, that trend has started reversing. The FT reports that private credit investors pulled more than $7 billion from some of the biggest private credit funds in the […]
The wait is over, and President Trump has nominated Kevin Warsh to head the Federal Reserve. To better appreciate Warsh’s views on monetary policy and what they may entail for markets, we summarize a recent Wall Street Journal editorial he wrote, The Federal Reserve’s Broken Leadership. Our market-related thoughts are below the bullet points. From […]
On the heels of strong fourth-quarter earnings reports, Microsoft is opening down 8%, while Meta is trading up 10%. Microsoft topped expectations for earnings and revenues. However, there is some concern about its total cloud revenue. They reported cloud revenue of 26% versus expectations of 28-29%. That said, their leading cloud computing product, Azure, grew […]
Over the last year, energy stocks have traded well despite crude oil prices languishing. For instance, over the last six months, XLE, the energy ETF, has risen 14%, while crude oil prices have fallen by 12%. The two largest components of XLE, Exxon and Chevron, which account for 40% of the ETF, are up 30% […]
Bloomberg recently published “Wall Street Grapples With A New Risk: A European Buyers Strike.” The article notes that stock indexes in Europe, Japan, Canada, and South Korea are all beating US equities in both nominal and dollar terms. As a result, some European pension funds and other foreign buyers are trimming their exposure to US […]
On Monday, we discussed how the Truflation inflation gauge points to a sudden price decline, which clouds the reflation outlook. Today, we share recent consumer sentiment readings that counter the disinflation story and support the reflation narrative. On Friday, the University of Michigan reported that its consumer sentiment index improved in January to a five-month […]
With a 4.4% increase in economic growth in the third quarter and expectations that it could be higher in the fourth quarter, the so-called reflation narrative appears primed to dash out of the gates in 2026 at its current strong pace. The problem with assuming the reflation narrative will hold in 2026 is that it […]