Tesco and Marks & Spencer report disappointing Christmas sales
While FX markets have been focusing on dollar strength so far today, the same UK consumer rhetoric is continuing in the background. I've mentioned it before, and this is something that markets will eventually pay attention to when it starts feeding into economic data points.
We've already had a first glimpse of that here on Monday where UK 2017 consumer spending fell for the first time in five years.
Today, Tesco released its holiday sales and it showed a 1.9% increase, a huge miss compared to the 2.8% estimate. Tesco attributed the weakness to poor sales in general merchandise and tobacco.
Meanwhile, Marks & Spencer reported that home and clothing sales fell 2.8% - though it's pretty much a continuation of its recent trend decline.
But still, those numbers aren't really painting a positive picture about the spending pattern of UK consumers. Strong inflation, weak wage growth - leads to eroding household savings and disposable income for consumers.
Shares in Tesco and Marks & Spencer in the meantime are not faring too well after the numbers were released:
