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Wayfair posted second quarter net revenue of $3.52B, up $246M or 7.5%, and that number is the real event in this release. US revenue rose 8.7% to $3.13B. Orders delivered were up 6% to 10.6M, and average order value rose to $332 from $328. Volume and ticket moving together is unusual in home furnishings at the moment, where most of the public comps are holding revenue flat or buying it back with promotion.

Niraj Shah called it the best sequential Q2 since 2020 and the strongest US growth of the post-COVID period. He also cited specialty retail brands grew close to 20% and Perigold more than 35%. Neither figure appears in the disclosed segment tables, so it sits as management characterization until the 10-Q offers something to check it against.

The customer detail underneath is where the quarter gets more complicated. Active customers reached 21.7M, up 3.3%, while LTM revenue per active customer rose 4.2% to $596. The base is growing slower than the spending inside it. Repeat buyers accounted for 80.2% of orders delivered, slightly below the 80.7% a year ago, a small move that points the same direction.

Operating income of $104M against $17M last year came out of the expense line rather than out of gross margin, which was 30.0% versus 30.1%. Selling, operations, technology and G&A fell to $428M from $465M, with equity compensation dropping to $72M from $101M. Advertising rose in dollars to $392M while falling to roughly 11.1% of revenue from 11.4%.

Net loss for the quarter was $1M. Adjusted diluted EPS was $0.95, and the roughly $140M bridge between the GAAP loss and the adjusted figure is carried by two items: $72M of equity compensation and a $59M loss on debt extinguishment. Wayfair's own non-GAAP language concedes that equity comp will remain a significant recurring expense in the business. Investors can decide how much weight to put on a profitability measure constructed by removing it.

Free cash flow of $301M is the strongest quarterly figure since 2020, which is what the headline says. First half free cash flow was $195M, and $139M of the operating cash came from a swing in payables and other liabilities. The half-year number carries less seasonal help.

Cash and equivalents fell from $1.48B in December to $1.07B, by design. Wayfair settled $701M of long-term debt, issued $395M of new paper, and repurchased $145M principal of the 2028 notes at a $59M loss. Long-term debt now stands at $2.80B.

International shrank again. Revenue of $394M was down 1.3%, or 2.0% in constant currency, with segment adjusted EBITDA of negative $19M for the quarter and negative $29M for the half against negative $8M last year.

Share capture in orders is harder to manufacture than share capture in revenue, and Wayfair has it. What the release leaves open is what the expense line looks like next year, once the equity comp step-down and the lease and severance charges stop doing the heavy lifting.

Apple went into the Northern District of California on Monday asking for a preliminary injunction against OpenAI and two former employees, and filed a motion for expedited discovery the same day. The second filing tells you more than the first. Damages claims can sit on a docket for years without costing a defendant much of anything. Depositions on a compressed timeline arrive while a product is still being designed.

The names Apple wants under oath point the same direction. Tang Yew Tan ran product design for iPhone and Apple Watch. Chang Liu was a senior system electrical engineer. Apple also asked for corporate representatives from OpenAI and from io Products, the commercial arm named as a defendant.

OpenAI said in a blog post late Monday that Apple's request rests on false information and that it has no interest in Apple's trade secrets. That is the only answer available this early.

Apple has to clear an irreparable harm standard in court, which is a different and harder thing than describing a commercial threat. The commercial threat is plain enough. A device with no apps and no operating system takes attention off the iPhone.

OpenAI beat a trade secrets suit from xAI in June.