Luke Vargas

Coming up, we'll unpack what this week's earnings from retail giants tell us about the state of the American consumer.

That's after the break.

Let's turn to earnings this week from retail giants, which are revealing a tale of two worlds in which manufacturers like Kraft Heinz, Coca-Cola and Unilever face a fragile consumer economy.

And yet all the while, American spending isn't dropping.

Dow Jones reporter Amei Look covers retail earnings for us and says years of rising prices have battered consumers' pocketbooks and made them increasingly cost-conscious.

Joining me now with more is Melissa Minco, the Global Director for Retail Strategy and Insights at CINT.

Melissa, your job is to predict consumer behavior so that your firm can work to build suitable tech products to help out companies like some of the ones we've been talking about.

Melissa, Ame there was outlining a tricky environment for big retailers.

I'm curious how you characterize it.

I mean, this is kind of the enigma, especially of the U.S.

economy, right?

Like a pretty fragile macro outlook, a lot of anxiety.

We've covered here recently about jobs, for instance.

The housing market's got plenty of issues around affordability and just availability.

And yet the spending is continuing.

Is that just a U.S.

phenomenon right now?

Looking at earnings, at least, these companies aren't reporting major losses.

You know, even as consumers, you say they're getting creative here, they're trading down, you know, looking for alternate brands, though that has to have some impact on the bottom line.

I mean, there's a reason many of these companies like people to buy their brand name products, right?