Church & Dwight Co., Inc. (CHD)

Church & Dwight is the leading global producer of baking soda. Its portfolio extends beyond its legacy category to include laundry products, cat litter, oral care, deodorant, and nasal care, all sold under the Arm & Hammer brand. Its brands also include Batiste, OxiClean, Hero, and TheraBreath, which, together with Arm & Hammer, account for around 70% of its annual sales and profits. The firm also added Touchland and its hand sanitizer business to its fold in fiscal 2025. Even as it expands its product reach, Church & Dwight still derives around 80% of its sales from its home US market.

Church & Dwight is the leading global producer of baking soda. Its portfolio extends beyond its legacy category to include laundry products, cat litter, oral care, deodorant, and nasal care, all sold under the Arm & Hammer brand. Its brands also include Batiste, OxiClean, Hero, and TheraBreath, which, together with Arm & Hammer, account for around 70% of its annual sales and profits. The firm also added Touchland and its hand sanitizer business to its fold in fiscal 2025. Even as it expands its product reach, Church & Dwight still derives around 80% of its sales from its home US market.

Church & Dwight, founded in 1846, is the leading U.S. producer of baking soda. Headquartered in Ewing, New Jersey, the company manufactures and markets personal care, household, and specialty products and has 7 'power brands' that represent about 70% of its revenue and profits. The company's brands include Arm & Hammer, Trojan, Oxiclean, First Response, Nair, Oragel, Xtra, Touchland, Hero, Batiste, and Zicam. The company has approximately 5,550 employees.

Stocks weathered another inflation report on Wednesday, as investors gobbled up certain AI names that recently have been smacked. Some of the stocks that ripped Wednesday are very well known among the momentum crowd, as NBIS rocketed 34%, LITE 14%, BE 12%, CIEN 11%, DELL 10%, HPE and COHR 8%, STX 7%, and TER, SNDK, and FORM 6%. Despite the massive ongoing dispersion among individual stocks and the constant worries about geopolitics, energy prices, inflation, future FOMC action, the entire yield curve lifting, etc., the overall market has been eerily quiet over the past six days. Since the July 29 hedge fund blowup, when the Volatility Index (VIX) shot up 13.5% to about 21, the so-called options fear gauge has declined in eight of the past 10 days. The VIX fell almost 5% yesterday to 14.6%, its lowest close since late 2025. The VIX measures the implied volatility of out-of-the-money put and call options on the S&P 500. Its aim is to measure the expected 30-day volatility of the SPX. Going back to 2021, the VIX has averaged about 19. The index generally has been between 12 to 25, with some spikes in 2022, 2023, April 2025, and March 2026. It stayed elevated for months only during the 2022 bear market. The weekly Bollinger Band width is near the lowest level going back to 2021. A low VIX generally occurs during a period when the S&P 500 is crawling higher -- and can stay depressed for months, if not longer. The Nasdaq 100 Volatility Index (VXN) has dropped from 31 on July 29 to 21 -- but remains above the lows from 2024 (between 15 and 16).