Retail giants Target (TGT) and Macy's (M) both reported second quarter earnings on Wednesday. Target claims it will keep its "measured outlook," and Macy's reported a 3.8% decrease in net sales. What does this mean for the sector and what does it signal about the consumer?

Storch Advisors CEO, Former Toys R Us CEO, and Former Hudson's Bay CEO Jerry Storch joins Market Domination to give insight into retail earnings from Macy's and Target and what it means for the sector moving forward.

Storch says plainly: "I think all these reports have been very consistent. I'd like to say it's an open book exam and the results from the earnings we've seen over the last two weeks are very consistent. The consumer remains stressed. They're leveraged. They're running out of pandemic money. And inflation has been hurting their ability to spend on discretionary items."

In terms of what the data signals about the consumer, Storch points out Walmart's (WMT) recent earnings: "Walmart just last week posted a 4.2% same-store sales gain, more than doubled Target's and on the internet, Target was up around 9%, Walmart was up 22%. So Walmart is absolutely crushing it with their strong value, low-price message, and Target, who's trying to get that back, they lowered a lot of prices, they're emphasizing that, did better than they've been doing, but still lags a lot. So we're seeing a consumer who is looking for value and every piece of data that comes out supports that."

For more expert insight and the latest market action, click here to watch this full episode of Market Domination.

This post was written by Nicholas Jacobino