US retail sales saw the biggest drop in January in nearly two years, falling 0.9% in the month. Forrester Research retail analyst Sucharita Kodali joins Wealth with Brad Smith to discuss what the decline signals.
"These numbers are very deceptive" since the decline is month-over-month, Kodali says, explaining that "looking at year-over-year numbers, the numbers are actually incredibly strong."
"We saw almost a 5% lift in this January versus January sales in 2024, and even when you normalize that for inflation, that is still growth. And that is part of the reason [why] the economy is still hot. Consumers are still spending."
Watch the video above to catch Sucharita Kodali's sector-specific analysis and more.
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This post was written by Naomi Buchanan.