Back-to-school shopping means big bucks

The Street

TheStreet’s Conway Gittens brings you the biggest news of the day, including what investors are watching and what Americans are spending on back-to-school shopping.

Transcript

00:00I'm Conway Gittens reporting from the New York Stock Exchange, here's what we're watching

00:03on the street today.

00:04The Dow and the S&P 500 are marching back towards record highs, with markets likely

00:10to see a test of wills in the coming days.

00:13Nvidia, the leading AI chipmaker, is set to release quarterly results this week.

00:17It will either show the AI revolution is still going strong or fuel speculation that technology

00:23is being overhyped.

00:25In other business headlines, 2024 is likely to be the second biggest back-to-school shopping

00:30season on record.

00:32American families are expected to spend $38.8 billion on school supplies, which works out

00:38to roughly $875 per household, according to the National Retail Federation.

00:44That's down from last year's record of $41.5 billion.

00:48The retail group says price-conscious consumers have been on the prowl since early summer.

00:53The back-to-school and college season is an important time for retailers and consumers.

00:59Retailers have anticipated this early demand and are well-positioned to offer a variety

01:04of products at competitive prices.

01:07Shoppers are seeing lower prices on many items compared to last year.

01:11Market research company Circa found prices for sticky notes are 22 percent cheaper, paper

01:16costs 20 percent less, crayons are down 19 percent, and pencils have been slashed by

01:2213 percent.

01:24And there's more good news for parents.

01:26Clothing prices have barely risen year over year, according to the government's Consumer

01:31Price Index for July.

01:33Meanwhile, for the first five months of 2024, children's footwear prices dropped 1.2 percent

01:39from the same time a year ago, according to data from footwear distributors and retailers

01:44of America.

01:45The back-to-school shopping season is closely scrutinized, and it is seen as a barometer

01:50for consumer spending heading into the crucial holiday shopping season.

01:55That'll do it for your daily briefing.

01:57From the New York Stock Exchange, I'm Conway Gittens with The Street.

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