Would you like fries with that… dossier? WIRED reporter Reece Rogers asked McDonald’s for the data it had collected on him through its loyalty program — and got back 515 pages. The Golden Arches logged when, where, and what he’d ordered over his years of using the app, and noted his affinity for Diet Coke and chicken wraps. It even predicted he’d visit 2.16 times over the next six weeks, spending precisely $29.15.

McDonald’s also gave him an attrition score of zero — likely meaning they didn’t think he’d ever stop being a customer. Rogers asked McDonald’s to delete his data and vowed to stop eating there, “just to prove the algorithm wrong.” Or, perhaps, to alleviate the concern of his colleagues, who were shocked and concerned when they learned of the frequency of his fast-food habit.

The S&P 500 fell almost 0.7% and the Nasdaq 100 dropped just under 1.7% as the global sell-off in government bonds rolled on and semiconductor stocks dipped. 

Home Depot reported cheery earnings results on Tuesday, painting a picture of a resilient consumer defying a difficult home sales market that is showing no signs of improving any time soon. 

The retailer, often seen as a bellwether for the housing market, reported better-than-expected quarterly results and reaffirmed its annual guidance. Here are some takeaways from the report:

Home Depot does well in a world where incomes are going up and mortgage rates are low, the company told WSJ. That’s a ripe environment for buying a fixer-upper, which usually requires frequent trips to Home Depot for materials like drywall, joint compound, that other kind of joint compound that actually works better apparently, paint, paint stripper, different paint, another can of that paint, solvents that remove paint from flooring, a stronger solvent, and new flooring. 

Americans, who are seeing wage growth but facing high borrowing costs and persistently elevated sale prices, are buying homes at historically low rates. Still, according to Home Depot, consumers have found ways to take on financially manageable home improvement projects — albeit at a lower rate than during the pandemic DIY home improvement craze of 2020.

“We saw broad based demand across the business as customers continued to engage in smaller projects,” Richard McPhail, the company’s finance chief, said a statement. (The company’s CEO, Ted Decker, is on medical leave, the company announced last week.)

Home Depot remains at the whims of the housing market, which doesn’t seem to be getting sturdier any time soon. In an interview with CNBC, McPhail described the housing market as “frozen.”

Home prices, while below their 2022 peak, are about 30% higher than they were in 2020. Mortgage rates remain elevated and may get even higher as bond yields — in the US and around the world — hit multi-decade highs amid a global sell-off of government debt.

“The company should benefit as the housing market recovers, although the recovery still appears some time away,” analysts at Telsey Advisory Group wrote on Tuesday. 

— J. Edward Moreno