Our team looks at a lot of research throughout the day. Here are a handful that we think are good summations of investor activity, from rate-cutting regimes to earnings season, inflation to consumer health, and stock buybacks. Have a great weekend!
Dave: Markets expect the Fed to cut rates on September 17; can it help bring long-term rates down?
Source: Strategas as of 08.18.2025
John Luke: and should we expect stocks to react differently than they have in past cut/pause/cut regimes?
Brad: Earnings have been beating expectations at a really high rate
Data as of 08.19.2025
Brad: with sales growth right there with it
Source: Strategas as of 08.18.2025
Brad: Another characteristic of Q2 earnings season was strength across all major sectors except energy and real estate
Source: Strategas as of 08.18.2025
Dave: and severe beatdowns for those companies that couldn’t deliver on expectations
John Luke: A key feature of the economic resilience has been strong spending by higher income consumers
Data as of 08.15.2025
Brad: and overall, supported by wage growth that has recently moved ahead of the pace of inflation
Source: Strategas as of 08.19.2025
Beckham: Younger workers have been mostly immune from recent layoffs
Source: Bespoke as of 08.21.2025
Brad: and despite a weaker quarter of employment, businesses are seemingly more confident of hiring in the months ahead
Source: Strategas as of 08.19.2025
Joseph: Homebuilding has played a consistently smaller role in the overall US economy for decades
Data as of July 2025
Arch: with nothing to suggest that this trend is about to reverse
Data as of 08.19.2025
Brian: Corporate bonds continue to offer little premium to government bonds
Data as of 08.21.2025
John Luke: perhaps a function of the continued improvement in business fundamentals
Brett: Markets are all-in on cutting rates, though we’ll want to see if the July spike in producer prices flows through to consumer prices
Source: JP Morgan as of 08.20.2025
Ten: as goods prices have stabilized after 2+ years of offsetting rising services prices
Source: Apollo as of 08.21.2025
Jake: We might have entered a quiet period for corporate buybacks, but stocks have been able to find buyers on each of the summer dips
Data as of 08.15.2025
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