April Showers Dampen Retail Sales
By: Retailers reported grim April sales data Thursday, well below views. What’s stopping consumers from flexing their spending muscle? Retail analysts Kimberly Greenberger and Brian Tunick joined CNBC’s Sue Herera on “Power Lunch” to explain.
Tunick, a retail analyst at J.P. Morgan, points to liquidity in the market. “Investors have been making a bet against the consumer now, really for over a year,” he said.
Greenberger, a retail analyst at Citigroup, highlighted the magnitude of the downside and said weather was the main culprit: “We all came into the month with a sort of cautious outlook given the [early] Easter shift and all of the rain and cooler weather we experienced -- but the numbers today surprised us.”
Cold weather in the first half of April reduced consumers’ propensity to buy summer gear, Greenberger explained: “If you don’t need to wear it now, you don’t need to buy it now.”
