What you are about to read/see, in my opinion, is a classic example of how the mainstream media/financial channels try to distract and miss-lead the general public.
The headline coming from the mainstream financial channels regarding retail sales is this: "US Retail Sales Soar in July to Seven Month high." Click here: http://www.marketwatch.com/story/us-retail-sales-soar-in-july-to-7-month-high-2017-08-15
The real fact of the matter is retail is getting crushed, and you can see this in real time by looking at ticker XRT (which is the retail sector ETF) for which I have been short for the past several days and is currently down nearly 2%. (I posted this position to my website TradersChoice.net several days ago-congratulations to those of you who got in on it). Click here: https://www.traderschoice.net/money-page--stock-picks.html
This is exactly the kind of a distraction that the mainstream financial channels do not want you to be aware of.
The mainstream commentators and article writers exist simply to cheer-lead, and do not put out any real actionable data.. it is a sad state of affairs filled with with misinformation and distractions.
Gregory Mannarino @marketreport