Retail sales remain strong, but consumers face slowing wage growth and rising credit card debt, limiting their ability to absorb future tariff-driven price hikes.

Retail sales rose less than expected in July as consumers still showed signs of rebounding after a pullback in the spring.

As customer expectations climb and operational complexity grows, forward-thinking CMOs are doing more than keeping pace with change.

The agentic mesh meets current challenges by combining AI agents specializing in visual search, conversational commerce, pricing, fulfillment and loyalty.

Sales at retailers rose solidly in July for the second month in a row, but the increase in spending appeared to be a double-edged sword: Americans are still confident enough in the economy to spend, but they are also paying more because of higher inflation.

Real Retail Sales are holding steady but on an uptrend from April 2024. The past 2mos saw higher revisions. There was a noted boost in Light Weight Vehicle Sales & Parts with the 16.411Mil SAAR coming in 1mil above the forecasted 15.3Mil level.

US stock futures were mixed on Friday as Wall Street tempered its rate-cut hopes and awaited July's retail sales report. Traders were also awaiting Friday's meeting between President Trump and Vladimir Putin,