Five interesting things that Hodges Capital research analysts discovered this week...

#1 RECESSION STORIES: According to Axios, we’re in a bull market for recession explainers right now, but we’re well past the peak in recession stories. In the U.S., there were 6,882 such stories in the week ending July 25, down 68% from 21,576 in the week of June 13, around the time that both gas prices and mortgage rates were peaking.

#2 HOUSING: Home prices in May were 19.7% higher compared with the same month last year, according to the S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller National Home Price Index. This marks the second month of slower increases as the housing market cools due to higher mortgage rates and increasing concern over inflation.

#3 CONSUMER DEBT: In order to make ends meet, 43% of Americans expect to add to their debt in the next six months, especially young adults and parents with young children, according to a study by LendingTree.

#4 PRECIOUS METALS: The gold-to-silver ratio currently sits at about 93 ounces of silver, equivalent to one ounce of gold. This is after the ratio spiked to new highs of 123.3 during the COVID-19 pandemic. The Visual Capitalist notes that the gold-to-silver ratio has hovered between 14 and 100 since 1687.  

#5 QUOTE OF THE WEEK: “Patience is not just the ability to wait; it’s what you do while you’re waiting. We have remained disciplined and implemented our defensive initiatives: not making low-rate loans, not deploying all of our cash in low-rate securities, paying off debt, and managing our loan-to-deposit ratio, among other things. As it appears, the pendulum is about to swing back toward defensive stocks from growth stocks, and when it does, HOMB is sitting in the catbird seat.” - John Allison, Chairman of Home Bancshares

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