As Rest of Retail Stagnates, Ecommerce is Hot. And what Walmart Said about this Phenomenon by Wolf Richter • May 17, 2024 • 105 Comments Walmart US online sales +22%. It credits “convenience” of ecommerce for its success in attracting higher income customers.
Who Fell Behind on their Credit Cards: Delinquencies, Balances, Burden, Available Credit, and the “Maxed Out” by Wolf Richter • May 16, 2024 • 99 Comments Only 18% of credit-card holders maxed out their cards, less than before the pandemic, but fell behind at a higher rate.
Beneath the Skin of CPI Inflation, April: After Some Zigs, a Zag. But 6-Month Core CPI Hits 4.0%, 6-Month Core Services CPI Hits 6.0%, Both Highest since mid-2023 by Wolf Richter • May 15, 2024 • 118 Comments Month-to-month data is volatile. We’ll look at the trends.
Here Come the HELOCs in Household Debt: Mortgages, Delinquencies, and Foreclosures by Wolf Richter • May 15, 2024 • 116 Comments If residential mortgages get messy, banks are largely off the hook this time.
Household Debt, Delinquencies, Collections, and Bankruptcies: The Free-Money Era Is Over for our Not So Drunken Sailors by Wolf Richter • May 14, 2024 • 60 Comments Everything got more expensive over the years, the population grew, so debts rose, but income rose too.
PPI Inflation Acts Up in a Nasty Way: It Spikes after Big Downward Revisions by Wolf Richter • May 14, 2024 • 82 Comments Services knocked it out of the ballpark. Not helpful for the Fed-favored core PCE price index later in May, which includes some of those services.
There’s a Boom in Distressed Debt Exchanges to Deal with Leveraged-Loan Defaults by Wolf Richter • May 13, 2024 • 33 Comments An alternative to a restructuring in bankruptcy court.
Funny How Wall Street Tries so Hard to Get Homeowners to Pay Interest & Fees on their Own Money by Wolf Richter • May 12, 2024 • 174 Comments Second-lien mortgages to the rescue of the battered mortgage industry.
Junk-Bond Issuance Nearly Doubles YTD, amid Feverish Demand in La-la-Land and Ultra-Loose Financial Conditions by Wolf Richter • May 10, 2024 • 104 Comments Companies, seeing Higher-for-Longer, take advantage of it to lock in historically narrow spreads and still low yields.
Vacation-Rental SPAC Vacasa Restructures. Shares -97% in 2.5 Years as Public Company by Wolf Richter • May 10, 2024 • 59 Comments Consensual Hallucination wiped out investors, but Wall Street got the fees.