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Americans Kept Shopping In April. Maybe That’s Bad
US retail sales were solid in April, closely watched data out Tuesday suggested.
The headline print showed a 0.9% gain (figure below), essentially in line with estimates and certainly better than many feared considering the growing chorus of recession warnings.
The range of estimates from nearly six-dozen economists was 0.4% to 2%.
Prior months' figures were revised notably higher, but that doesn't much matter considering we already know how the broader economy fared during the first quarte
The WalMart results raise questions about the “Americans are flush with savings narrative. It’s the difference between average versus median savings statistics. Mirroring the distribution of incomes.
Yes, contrast with HD (customers = homeowners thus higher-income and wealth effect) beat and raise. Although HD sales are slowing, has pricing power. And with COST (customers = higher-income) 1Q SSS around +10% though jury out on pricing power. Still, none of those charts look good.