The SMID Point

Research evidence excerpt

The SMID Point

Industry

US Airlines - Chart of the Day: Positioning Update Shows Net Length Little

Changed

We’ve been updating our positioning analysis more frequently during EPS season

as investors look for regular updates during a catalyst rich period. Recall, this

analysis is performed by Citi’s quant team and relies on a combination of historical

relative valuation, short interest, public sentiment, macro exposure, and historical

price momentum. Despite recent softness in airlines primarily on rising

oil/renewed Iran conflict concerns, positioning has changed very little from when

we flagged a clear positive lean across the industry (see Is Everyone Net Long

Airlines Now? ). Relatively speaking, DAL, JBLU, ALK, and SKYW are the airlines

that investors are less positive on. UAL and ALGT stand out as leaning most net

positive, with AAL not far behind. Fundamentally, it’s hard for us to argue with the

stocks investors are most positive on because they happen to be some of our top

picks

John Godyn | Max Lesnik

US Building Products—Card Insights - Spending Remains Solid in July

In our weekly, we examine a subset of Citi US credit card data for read-throughs to

repair & remodel (R&R) activity; we analyze real estate services, construction

materials, forest products, homebuilding, and R&R retail spending. We consider

the categories in aggregate to be a rough representation of US R&R, albeit

weighted toward DIY over Pro. Card spending in the 4 weeks ended 7/11/26

decelerated -40bp to +5.3% Y/Y on an tougher comp of +90bp; comps generally

get tougher through the summer as Y/Y spending accelerated over the course of

summer ‘25. We stress the weekly data is volatile, and we view much of the recent

spending growth reflecting producer price hikes, rather than higher consumption