Retail Sales (+), HPC Q2 Preview, MKC Mgmt Meeting Takes, PRMB Q2 Preview, BC Q2 Preview: US Consumer Sector Specialist Commentary

Research evidence excerpt

Retail Sales (+), HPC Q2 Preview, MKC Mgmt Meeting Takes, PRMB Q2 Preview, BC Q2 Preview: US Consumer Sector Specialist Commentary

Briggs Barton - Specialist Sales - US Consumer AC North America Specialist Sales J P M O R G A N

briggs.barton@jpmorgan.com JPM | US CONSUMER DAILY: Retail

J.P. Morgan Securities LLC Sales (+), HPC Q2 Preview, MKC

Mgmt Meeting Takes, PRMB Q2

Preview, BC Q2 Preview

16 July 2026

Negative Surprise Candidates

• CLX [UW] – While expectations are low, we think CLX is still struggling to regain share.

• PG [OW] – The U.S. consumer in particular has been more cautious than anticipated, and promotional allowance for AMZN

Prime Day earlier will be negative for the quarter

MKC Management Meeting Takeaways

Takeaways from Tom Palmer: “We fielded questions yesterday about MKC -4% yday and we do not think MKC’s

comments and/or tone in meetings would explain this move. There wasn’t a lot of near-term discussion, but MKC’s

messaging about the consumer environment (challenged vs. last year) was consistent with what was discussed on the

recent earnings call, as were the company’s ongoing plans to bolster market share trends. When asked (in multiple

meetings) about the potential impact of a super El Niño impacting ingredient supply (a new focus point for investors, following

the run up in cocoa and coffee prices), MKC indicated that it was not seeing anything unusual in its ingredient basket

The two main topics of discussion were:

• McCormick’s pending merger with Unilever’s food business

• It’s plans to bolster growth in the Consumer segment amidst a more challenging consumer environment.

We thought MKC’s messaging was constructive for both. On Unilever, MKC extolled the strategic and financial rationale for