Five Figures That Caught Our Eye — Mar 19, 2026
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Hot PPI. A Dow at its 2026 low. The first home price decline in 14 years. And a chipmaker that just guided to more quarterly revenue than it earned in any full year before last year. March, everybody.
Mar 19, 2026
February's Wholesale Inflation Print Was More Than Double the Forecast — and the Oil Shock Isn't Even In It Yet
The Producer Price Index surged 0.7% month-over-month in February — more than twice the 0.3% consensus — pushing core PPI to 3.9% year-over-year, its highest reading in over a year. With Brent crude trading above $110 this morning, February's data doesn't even capture the oil shock. March's PPI print will.
Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics — Producer Price Index, February 2026
Home Prices Just Fell Year-Over-Year for the First Time Since 2012 — and 23 of the Top 30 Markets Are Now in the Red
First American's February Home Price Index showed a 0.2% annual decline — the first in 14 years — with 23 of the largest 30 metro markets now posting year-over-year drops, from Oakland to Tampa to Las Vegas. For the first time since the pandemic started, something in the U.S. economy is quietly getting cheaper.
Source: First American Data & Analytics — Home Price Index, February 2026
Micron's Q3 Revenue Guidance Exceeds Every Full Year in Company History Through 2024 — in a Single Quarter
After nearly tripling its revenue year-over-year in fiscal Q2, Micron guided next quarter to $33.5 billion in revenue — more than the company earned in any single full year before 2025 — with a projected gross margin of 81%. The AI memory supercycle is probably the most extraordinary corporate story in the U.S. economy right now, and it's nearly impossible to see from inside a market that's down on everything.
Source: Micron Technology — Fiscal Q2 2026 Earnings
Bitcoin Is Down 44% From Its October All-Time High — Gold Is Up 80% Over the Same Period
Bitcoin shed another 5% after the Fed decision Wednesday and is sitting near $70,000 this morning — down roughly 44% from its October 2025 all-time high of around $126,000 — while gold trades roughly 80% above where it was a year ago. The theory that Bitcoin is "digital gold" has had a rough few months; real gold, it turns out, works better as a war hedge.
Source: Yahoo Finance / CoinDesk
Qualcomm's $20 Billion Buyback Would Retire Nearly 15% of Its Own Shares — While the Stock Is Down 24% This Year
Qualcomm unveiled a $20 billion repurchase program this week — its largest ever — after its stock shed 24% year-to-date as a global memory crunch squeezed its smartphone chip customers. Buying back 14.5% of your own shares while the market is punishing you is a bold way to say you think the market is wrong. Qualcomm is betting $20 billion that it is.
Source: Qualcomm / Reuters