What we’re reading (12/27)
“Companies Are Outlining Plans For 2026. Hiring Isn’t One Of Them.” (Wall Street Journal). “The corporate playbook for next year? Don’t hire. Companies are looking to stay lean into 2026 while relying on technology to take on more tasks. Forecasters at jobs site Indeed expect relatively minimal hiring growth in 2026 and e-commerce platform Shopify and Chime Financial are already vowing to keep the size of their employee bases roughly flat.”
“Rates Higher For Longer Continues” (Apollo). “Fiscal and inflation worries are putting upward pressure on long-term interest rates across the G3, and these concerns are not going away anytime soon...The bottom line is that long-term interest rates are going to stay higher for longer and investors should plan accordingly.”
“Beyond The 12-1 Rule” (Larry Swedroe). “Not all trading days contain equal amounts of new information. Consider these scenarios: Scenario A: A pharmaceutical company’s stock rises 5% on a random Wednesday with no news and light trading volume. This could be noise, perhaps driven by a large institutional rebalancing or temporary supply-demand imbalances. Scenario B: The same pharmaceutical company’s stock rises 5% immediately after announcing positive Phase 3 trial results during an earnings call. This return is directly tied to fundamental, value-relevant information. Traditional momentum strategies can’t distinguish between these scenarios—both contribute equally to the stock’s ranking. But intuitively, Scenario B contains far more predictive signal about future returns.”
“Bankruptcies Soar As Companies Grapple With Inflation, Tariffs” (Washington Post). “Corporate bankruptcies surged in 2025, rivaling levels not seen since the immediate aftermath of the Great Recession, as import-dependent businesses absorbed the highest tariffs in decades. At least 717 companies filed for bankruptcy through November, according to data from S&P Global Market Intelligence. That’s roughly 14 percent more than the same 11 months of 2024, and the highest tally since 2010.”
“Three In Four Americans Say Groceries Are So Expensive They’ve Been Forced To Cut Down On Other Spending” (Fortune). “More than 2 in 3 respondents (67.6%) said that they’re struggling to pay grocery bills because of inflation and rising food prices, according to a survey by Swiftly, which provides digital and media solutions for brick-and-mortar supermarkets. More than 3 out of 4 (75.2%) responded that they’ve reduced spending in other areas to afford groceries, and in a follow-up question selected what areas they’ve cut spending in the most to pay grocery bills, with entertainment spending the most likely to be cut, followed by spending on travel, clothing, and going out to eat or drink.”
