AP
- Walmart and Home Depot warned that sales growth is likely to slow as shoppers look to save money.
- Customers are still spending, but they're making more trade-offs and looking for better deals.
- "There's a lot of unknowns right now, we're simply taking a cautious outlook," Walmart's CFO said.
The days of the free-spending US consumer may be in the rearview, but it's still not yet clear what lies ahead, executives from Walmart and Home Depot told investors during their respective earnings calls Tuesday.
Between inflation, rising interest rates, layoffs, and other uncertainties, the stresses on household bank accounts are mounting, which could spell trouble as consumer spending represents roughly 70% of the US economy.