
Costco, Darden and KB Home Put Post-Fed Demand to the Test
Costco, Darden and KB Home earnings test post-Fed consumer and housing demand as S&P 500 breadth thins. See the numbers and what Thursday's prints could signal.
Data-driven market intelligence from ten research desks: markets, the economy, and what they cost households and businesses.

Costco, Darden and KB Home earnings test post-Fed consumer and housing demand as S&P 500 breadth thins. See the numbers and what Thursday's prints could signal.

Polymarket's Russian election books turned over about 25 million dollars in a day, called the party winner within a point, and still put 81 percent odds on a seat band the count missed by 16 seats.

Mortgage applications fell 4.1% as the 30-year rate hit 6.95%, leaving buyers facing the worst of both worlds: the highest months of supply in over a decade and payments about $237 a month costlier than last year.

The Baltic Exchange assessed TD3C at WS1,140 on September 18, worth $1,212,503 a day, as Hormuz transits and Black Sea war-risk cover compound into record Atlantic freight.

UBS raised its 2026 AI capex forecast to $998 billion on Sept. 19, and about 90% of the growth through 2027 is memory prices, not more datacenters.

Initial jobless claims fell to 196,000 in the week ending September 12, about 16 percent below the same week last year, and continuing claims dropped to 1.730 million, evidence that firms are barely firing even after the Fed's rate hike.

The 10-year hit 5.01% the day the Fed hiked. Term premium, not the policy path, is driving the long end into Jefferson's Treasury Market Conference speech.

Regular gasoline hit $4.319 a gallon in the week of September 14, a third straight weekly rise that puts September CPI on course for an energy surprise.

The week's defining trade in event markets was the repricing of the October Fed meeting: Kalshi's hike contract ran from 38% to 56% across the September FOMC, and Polymarket landed within two points.

Shanghai-New York spot freight broke $10,000 per FEU for the first time since 2022 while carriers cancelled 11% of sailings into Golden Week. Record Port of LA volumes and a 59.3 ISM Supplier Deliveries reading show the tightness is schedule-driven, not demand-driven.

August payrolls jumped 162,000, but the three-month average is just 71,300. Hiring is slow, layoffs are rare, and the Fed has room to wait.

August CPI ran 3.4%, but the electricity index jumped 5.5% in one month and sits 30.2% above last year. Gas at $4.32, mortgage 6.95%: the household math.