Friday’s revision to income and spending data has caused confusion.  We’ve prepared a 10-minute podcast to review the investment implications.  Some of the changes can be disregarded as noise, but there are three important takeaways.  First, the latest iteration of personal income is highly disconnected from labor market data.  Second, this is not the first time savings rates have been meaningfully revised, nor will it be last.  Investors should move on from using the savings rate as an investable data point.  Household balance sheets are…

Yesterday, we caught up with Carol Tome, the CEO of UPS.  We covered a lot of ground … as UPS typically does!  We talked about the state of the global supply chain, the shift between goods and services, the de minimis rule, tariffs, UPS’ relationship with Amazon, the labor market, driverless vehicles, drones, AI, and more.  Click the link to view our 20-minute interview.  So far, we’ve hosted the CEOs of Delta, Home Depot, and UPS.  There’s more to come.  Sign up for our podcast…

We’ve been getting a lot of questions from clients about the low-end consumer, so we assembled a deck of charts to walk through the pros and cons of betting on the low-end.  There are a lot of variables to consider, and we walk through a chunk of them on this podcast, including job-finding prospects, wage growth, SNAP benefits, tariffs, interest rates, and stock price performance.  As always, feel free to reach out with questions.

We hosted a webinar reviewing the changing landscape for the US consumer.  We are entering a new phase and see weaker spending growth ahead.  This has significant implications for portfolio weightings.  We have lightened up on our exposure to leisure stocks and are instead recommending clients over-weight rate-sensitive durables like housing, autos, and RVs.  We assess the odds of a recession emerging and take questions from clients.

Today we caught up with Ted Decker, the CEO of Home Depot.  We talked about the health of the consumer, the state of the housing market, the “lock-in” effect, AI, and more.  I asked how long the hangover in COVID-friendly categories like BBQ grills, outdoor furniture and washing machines might last.  He compared the dynamic to a hurricane, which made a lot of sense to me.  Home Depot has seen plenty of hurricanes over time, and they’re using those experiences to inform buying decisions.  This…

Conversations with CEO/CFOs:  We added a new feature to our “Up-to-Data” podcast series. This week’s issue features a 30-minute conversation with Ed Bastian, the CEO of Delta Airlines.  Ed has led Delta’s employees, customers and shareholders through some turbulent times.  In the process, he and the rest of the Delta team have built trust with customers (empathy), employees (no furloughs), and shareholders (no dilution).  We talk about the state of the consumer, the outlook for growth in the airline industry, the potential for AI to…