United States Daily Briefing

Consumer prices accelerated to +3.8% year-over-year in April, driven by energy costs that refuse to cooperate with the disinflation narrative. Core services ex-shelter ticked up 0.3% month-over-month, enough to keep September dot-plot cuts off the table. Treasury 10-year held 4.38% into the close — the market's pricing two cuts by year-end, but another print like this and that's toast. Watch for Fed speakers parsing the energy component versus underlying demand pressure.

Earnings season's tail-end delivered mixed signals: Hims & Hers posted an unexpected quarterly loss despite revenue growth, sending shares into after-hours chop, while Plug Power surprised with a top-line beat that lifted the stock on hydrogen infrastructure optimism. The divergence underscores how margin execution — not just growth — is separating winners from laggards in this tape. Guidance commentary around input costs and pricing power will dictate follow-through.

EQR and AVB announced a merger-of-equals targeting $125M in annual synergies, forming the largest publicly traded apartment landlord by market cap. The deal signals consolidation pressure in multifamily as occupancy rates compress and development pipelines freeze. Rent growth deceleration in Sunbelt markets (where both have exposure) makes the cost-synergy story critical — if they can't extract the $125M, the combined entity trades at a discount to pre-deal NAV within six months.