The Daily Shot Brief – July 7, 2026
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United States
The ISM Services PMI moderated, signaling a slight cooling in the sector’s still-robust expansion.
United States
Before COVID, inflation surprises had little consistent effect on front-end interest rates. Since the pandemic, however, CPI surprises have become a much stronger driver of front-end yields as inflation has taken center stage in monetary policy.
Equities
The spread between single-stock implied volatility (VIXEQ) and index implied volatility (VIX) widened to a record high, signaling exceptionally elevated equity dispersion and suggesting that market risk is increasingly concentrated in individual stocks and sectors.
h/t Mandy Xu, Cboe
Equities
The number of employees at S&P 500 companies has fallen while the forward operating margin has surged.
Equities
Hyperscalers have underperformed chip stocks.
Equities
Mentions of AI disruptions in global earnings call transcripts surged this year.
Food for Thought
US gasoline prices have experienced repeated spikes and declines over the past decade, while the equivalent cost of charging an EV at home has risen gradually by just $0.48 per gallon-equivalent.
