From Peter Boockvar:
Positives,
1)Initial jobless claims rose 9k w/o/w to 200k and that was 6k above expectations but still remaining very low. The 4 week average remains the same at 195k as a print of 200k dropped out. Continuing claims remained low, falling to 1.697mm from 1.717mm.
2)On the macro, ZipRecruiter mentioned “we are growing again despite a low, hire, low fire market.”
3)With the help of another dip in mortgage rates, down for a 4th straight week to 7.21% on average, purchase applications rebounded by 7.5% w/o/w and refi’s were higher by 4.5%.
4)From CoreWeave: “Revenue is growing rapidly. Margins are rising faster than planned. Customer demand remains extremely strong, and our newest contracts are among the most profitable we have ever underwritten. Our original fleet of cloud infrastructure is re-contracting at premiums, producing cash flow in excess of what we assumed when we made those early investments. And our funding is anchored by secured lending, customer prepayments, and operating cash flows.
5)From Nebius: “Demand is strong. Our customers are committing to us for longer, at higher prices, and they are paying more upfront. Prices keep rising.
6)From Cisco: “Our strong start to fiscal year ‘27 demonstrates the criticality of networking and security together as agentic AI accelerates.”…We believe we are still early in the networking super cycle driven by AI deployments with enterprise adoption just beginning.”
7)From Legence: “Conversations with our data center customers post-election indicate a continuation of their plans to build.”
8)From Ferguson: “Our diversified exposure across large capital projects, public works, municipal and water and wastewater treatment helped us offset ongoing weak new residential construction.” Their commercial/mechanical business rose 17% and “This momentum was driven by our disciplined execution on large capital projects such as data centers, pharma, biotechnology and general manufacturing.”
9)From Cummins: “Growth was driven primarily by improved demand in North America heavy and medium duty truck markets and continued strength in global power generation, particularly from data center customers.”
10)From Maersk: “At a macro level, market demand in ocean remained resilient, driven by strong export activity from the Far East and imports into Africa, Latin America and North America, in particular. A growing share of the incremental volume growth is coming from verticals with green shoots and AI related technology, which are growing two or three times the speed of the overall market.”
11)From Richemont: “in the first half, group sales grew by 17% at constant exchange rates with broad based strength across business areas and regions. This included a remarkable 19% growth at the Jewelry Maisons, a robust double digit rise at specialist watchmakers, and a solid high single digit performance at the other business area, which includes fashion and accessories Maisons…In addition, most regions posted double digit growth, led by Japan, the Americas, and Asia Pacific. Impacted by the ongoing conflict in the region, sales in the Middle East and Africa experienced a modest decline overall.”
12)From Bloomin’ Brands: “we’re cautiously optimistic on the consumer. There’s some macro choppiness. But what we’re seeing with the consumer is casual dining is still an affordable luxury. Consumers, they’re resilient financially, they are cautious and they continue to be discerning about when, where, and how often they dine out.”
13)From Starwood Property Trust: “I want to step back a little bit and talk about the real estate asset class as a whole because with all the chaos of the interest rate markets and the volatility of political politics, real estate is healing. The underlying asset classes are getting better and better, and at an increasingly better pace.”
14)From Camden Property Trust: Good for them, not so much for renters, “On a macro level, things are also improving as apartment completions in the Sunbelt markets have fallen to a 7 yr low with peak supply firmly in the rearview mirror. Rising interest rates, commodity prices, and labor shortages are further hampering new construction starts to mid 2010s levels or below, meaning we should have a long runway with continued low levels of future supply. Apartment absorption remains robust with year-to-date figures exceeding expectations across many markets…Market rental prices and vacancy trends are also improving. Effective rents for new units have recovered from their lows, though they remain below peak levels in most markets, and rent growth momentum is increasing.”
15)In China, October consumer price inflation remained benign, up .7% headline and .8% core and is a good thing for a consumer there that is still reluctant to spend.
Negatives,
1)It’s a sad moment to see the downfall of one of the greatest entrepreneurs of our generation.
2)October headline CPI rose .4% m/o/m and by .3% core with both one tenth above expectations. Helping to drive the top line was the .7% m/o/m gain in energy with a 1% rise in gasoline, 2% increase in fuel oil and a .9% jump in electricity prices. Gasoline prices are receding since this print but electricity prices we know helped in part to drive the election results. ‘Food at home’ saw prices up .4% m/o/m and by .5% for ‘food away from home.’ Services prices ex energy rose another .3% m/o/m with OER also up by .3%. On the core goods side, prices rose .2% after a .3% gain in September.
3)Including the revision to September, the October PPI stats were right in line with expectations with a .3% headline and core increase from 1.4% and .8% respectively in the month before. But, the y/o/y gains are 6.5% and 5%, remaining hot and running about 250 bps above consumer price inflation. Core goods prices (ex food/energy) rose .5% m/o/m and 5.2% y/o/y led by organic chemical pricing which jumped by 3.9%. Service prices were up .2% m/o/m and 5% y/o/y.
4)Existing home sales in October totaled just 3.75mm, a similar pace seen 30 years ago with 80 million less people living in the US. The NAR said simply, “Home buying is difficult when mortgage rates have climbed to their highest levels since 2000.” The positive was that the median home price rose just .4% y/o/y, allowing wage growth to exceed the gains and thus a step closer to improving affordability.
5)From the Dallas Fed’s Banking Survey: “Loan volume continued to grow at the same pace as the prior period. Credit standards and terms tightened, and loan pricing increased broadly. Despite the higher interest rate, loan demand increased further. Overall loan performance weakened slightly after having improved for the last two surveys. Bankers reported a decrease in general business activity on net. Outlooks are mixed. Survey respondents expect an increase in loan demand but a decline in business activity six months from now, as well as a deterioration in loan performance.”
6)In the NY Fed’s Consumer Expectations Survey, one year inflation expectations held at 3.9%. Elsewhere they said this, “Labor market expectations were mixed with unemployment and job loss expectations deteriorating, while job finding expectations improved. Expectations of an increase in unemployment reached the highest level since April 2020. Conversely, job finding expectations reached their highest level since November 2025. Income and spending growth expectations were broadly stable while delinquency expectations deteriorated.”
7)The October NFIB Small Business Optimism index was little changed m/o/m at 97.8 vs 97.9. The bottom line from the NFIB, “There was little change in optimism among small businesses in October as owners navigated enduring challenges, though there were some encouraging developments. Even with inflation pressures continuing to strain operations, more Main Street owners reported their businesses in good or excellent health, and actual sales improved. Looking ahead, continued strength in consumer spending will support economic growth, while persistent inflation, labor shortages, and policy risks will weigh on the small business outlook.”
8)From Nebius: “Building at this scale is hard, and delays are part of our industry right now. We are not immune. For example, some of our co-location sites, including New Jersey, are behind schedule.” And, “CapEx for 2026 is now expected to be around $27 billion, up from $20 billion to $25 billion previously.”
9)From Cisco: Answering a question about the sequential downtick in AI orders, “So, while I don’t expect there’s normal linearity in this business at all, I think you’re right, it’s going to be lumpy. And there’s going to be some quarters that are going to be big, others that are going to be smaller.”
10)From Brightview Holdings: “The slowdown in development was driven by three key factors. A sharpening decline in the residential construction end market, delays on several large jobs and delayed bid awards as customers navigate a volatile macro environment underpinned by higher interest rates and inflation. Since 2024, our development revenue related to residential projects has softened in line with the broader slowdown in residential construction.”
11)From Yeti: “Looking ahead, we anticipate the consumer environment will remain cautious and put pressure on demand in Q4.”
12)From On Holdings: “Throughout our markets, we held full price discipline despite online traffic being a little softer in a promotional environment.”
13)From Bloomin’ Brands: “The only thing I would say in terms of sensitivity, which we flagged in previous quarters, there’s a little bit of sensitivity on check with households that are under that $75,000 range. And it’s a little bit on the older guests where we’re seeing some check management.”
14)From Papa John’s Pizza: “North America continues to be challenged, driven primarily by the same factors we discussed last quarter, including an intensely promotional environment and softer new customer acquisition…clearly the K shaped economy is what everybody’s been talking about. Some of the consumer sentiment, consumer trends that we talked about in the 2nd quarter continued into the 3rd quarter.”
15)From Under Armour: “By region, North America revenue declined 7%, reflecting continued traffic pressure in our direct-to-consumer business and softer wholesale sell-through. Growth in select apparel franchises helped, but did not fully offset broader demand pressure.” Revenue also fell in EMEA and APAC but rose in Latin America due to FX, though was down ex this.
16)Japan said its October PPI jumped by 7.1% y/o/y, above the estimate of 6.5% and up from 6.8% in September.
17)In China, October PPI rose 5.7% y/o/y as higher commodity prices, among others, impact them as it is everyone. That was up from 5% y/o/y growth in September and 4 tenths above the estimate.
18)In the 10 months of 2026, China’s trade surplus is already at $1 trillion after today releasing its October data where exports rose 35% y/o/y and imports jumped by almost 42%.
Position: None