Investors are bracing themselves for a wave of incoming earnings reports this week, including retail giants Walmart and Target. These results are expected to provide insight into the state of the retail market and consumer spending as the U.S. debt ceiling continues to be at the center of discussion.
Retail sales are expected to grow by 0.8% in April, rebounding from a 1% decline in March, data from Bloomberg suggests. Other retailers that are set to report their quarterly earnings throughout the week include Alibaba, TJX, and Home Depot.
Congress is currently hosting talks over the potential raising of the U.S. debt ceiling. Deliberations between President Joe Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy are expected to continue up until the government’s self-imposed deadline when it would run out of borrowing capacity.
According to Bloomberg, Wall Street analysts are expecting Target to report a 1.25% rise in same-store sales over Q1, while Walmart is expected to report a 5% hike in same-store sales.
As we head into earnings, we believe WMT is one of the best positioned in our coverage and our data checks support our view,” analysts at Jeffries wrote in a note to clients.