U.S. retail sales for June showed unexpectedly robust performance, with overall sales remaining flat above expectations of  -0.3% month-over-month. Excluding autos, sales increased by 0.4%, above flat expectations, while the key control group, which excludes volatile categories like autos, gas, building materials, and food services, surged impressively by 0.9%. Revisions to prior months were positive, with May’s overall sales adjusted from +0.1% to +0.3%, and ex-autos from -0.1% to +0.1%. The control group’s growth for May was unrevised at +0.4%, but April’s figure was revised upward from -0.5% to -0.3%. This data suggests that second-quarter demand appears stronger than initially

The latest December U.S. retail sales surprised observers as the headline index shows sales were weaker than already-weak expectations for December. U.S. retail sales fell 1.1% month over month in December, bringing the year to an end on a weak note. On a month-over-month basis, many categories struggled across the board. Shoppers spent less on vehicles, gasoline and furniture. However, on a year-over year basis, the non-store retailers and food services & drinking categories saw a whopping 13.7% and 12.1% growth, respectively. Thus, on a year-over-year basis, it’s clear that shoppers continue to spend more eating out, and when buying

Amazon’s Q3 2022 revenue increased 14.7% year over year to $127.1 billion, nearly in line with estimates of about $127.46 billion.  Meanwhile, operating income missed expectations and dropped 48% from a year ago. These misses come despite a strong Prime Day globally in July. Exhibit 1: Amazon Q3 2022 Earnings and Revenue Estimates vs. Results Source: Refinitiv I/B/E/S Amazon’s global exposure is also being hit by macroeconomic issues as rising inflation continues to diminish the consumer’s purchasing power. “Primarily in the consumer stores business, it was in international. North America, obviously, it was strong, but it started to slow a

One of the consequences of the coronavirus pandemic has been a shift to consumers “nesting” at home. Consumers were asked to stay at home and became teachers, fixed their homes, ordered takeout, took online workouts, cooking and DIY lessons. This has substantially accelerated the pace and shift to online shopping, which became evident when retailers reported strong digital sales in Q1 2020. Looking forward to anticipated Q2 performance, we used StarMine’s SmartEstimate to determine which companies in the Refinitiv Retail and Restaurant Index are better poised to continue beating earnings estimates. The results tell us that there is a nesting

Will Stitch Fix hit its revenue target for the next quarter? Probably. Do millions of Americans want to receive packages of mystery outfits picked by strangers? That’s harder to say. The latter question is the most important one, though – which explains the terrible performance of the $2 billion retail-tech company’s shares. Stitch Fix, which listed just over a year ago, reported quarterly earnings late Monday that outgunned consensus forecasts. The snag in Stitch Fix’s stocking, which drove the shares down as much as 29 percent on Tuesday, was that active users increased by 22 percent year-on-year, rather than the

NEW YORK (Reuters) – U.S. states could reap billions in online sales tax revenue and buttress their budgets after the nation’s top court ruled on Thursday that e-commerce companies could be forced to collect the money, even if they have no physical presence in a state. The Supreme Court’s ruling in favor of South Dakota and against Wayfair Inc and two other online retailers was a victory for state governments, and a boost for brick-and-mortar stores. The effect is expected to be positive and widespread because 45 states impose sales taxes and until now were barred from requiring those companies