Shares of Target fall 7% as the company highlights consumer weakness | Forexlive

What is happening with the US consumer?

Last week, the market breathed a sigh of relief after Walmart maintained its annual sales forecast. The CFO said February was softer than expected, March was back to normal and April was very strong.

But could the signal have been that higher-end consumers who usually shop at Target trading down?

TGT is down 7% after missing Q1 revenue estimates. The company also cut its full-year sales outlook.

Some of that may be because of the DEI dance the company is doing but I find it hard to believe that consumers actually care. The company blamed most of the decline on the economy.

Sales were down nearly 3% compared to a year ago. The company now expects a low-single digit decline in sales this
fiscal year, compared to a previous forecast of net sales growth of
about 1%.

CEO Brian Cornell said that “ongoing pressure in our discretionary business, plus five consecutive
months of declining consumer confidence, tariff uncertainty and the
reaction to the updates we shared on belonging in January.”

Also remember that consumers haven’t even been hit by tariff price hikes yet. The company said that price hikes are a “last resort” but didn’t rule them out.

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