Research from Water Tower Research, Water Tower Research

Water Tower Research

Water Tower Research is a leading equity research firm that provides research on micro, small and mid cap companies.

Water Tower Research was founded by Wall Street veterans after witnessing a fundamental shift in the investment research industry with the result being a declining knowledge base among investors, a lack of awareness and a shrinking pool of fundamental research being conducted on companies across the small-cap and micro-cap spectrum. The same issues are now increasingly occurring in the mid-cap space. This sea change within the investment community is impacting not only the companies themselves but also current shareholders and potential investors. With significantly less active sell-side sponsorship by Wall Street, a substantial information gap has developed between companies and various constituents in the financial community. The net result is fewer channels for insight and information to flow between companies and investors.

Research from Water Tower Research

Equity Research Firm

Thematic (Sector/Industry)

United states Consumer discretionary / Thematic (Sector/Industry)

<ul><li>Furniture and furnishings stocks were down, along with the rest of the market, as Moody’s downgraded US debt on concerns over expanding deficits and higher interest rates, exacerbated by concerns that the administration’s proposed budget could significantly increase total federal debt, and continued concern over the fate of tariffs and US trade policy.</li><li>The WTR Commercial/Contract Furniture Index declined 4.5%, the Residential Manufacturers &amp; Suppliers Index fell 2.6%, and the Home Goods Retailers Index was down 8.5% in a week where the broader indices (2.7%) and the R2K (3.1%) were down by low single digits.</li><li>Less for more when it comes to housing according to the WSJ (1). Houses in the US are starting to get at least a bit smaller on the margin in the post-pandemic period (Figure 1), perhaps signaling the end (or at least a pause) in the trend toward larger homes that has been in place throughout the post-war era as families increasingly moved out of the cities and into the suburbs.</li></ul>

Furniture and furnishings stocks were down, along with the rest of the market, as Moody’s downgraded US debt on concerns over expanding deficits and higher interest rates, exacerbated by concerns that the administration’s proposed budget could significantly increase total federal debt, and continued concern over the fate of tariffs and US trade policy.The WTR Commercial/Contract Furniture Index declined 4.5%, the Residential Manufacturers &amp; Suppliers Index fell 2.6%, and the Home Goods Retailers Index was down 8.5% in a week where the broader indices (2.7%) and the R2K (3.1%) were down by low single digits.Less for more when it comes to housing according to the WSJ (1). Houses in the US are starting to get at least a bit smaller on the margin in the post-pandemic period (Figure 1), perhaps signaling the end (or at least a pause) in the trend toward larger homes that has been in place throughout the post-war era as families increasingly moved out of the cities and into the suburbs.

Furniture/Furnishings Weekly - Housing Affordability, Home Size on the Decline