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Hey listeners, it's Friday, March 20th. I'm Alex Oslo for the Wall Street Journal. And this is

what's news and earnings, our look at some of the biggest themes standing out this earnings season.

The holiday quarter is the most important time of year for U.S. retailers. And despite

worries about inflation and the job market, consumer spending largely held up.

We'll look at a range of retailers to see patterns in how Americans are spending from Walmart to discounters to Macy's,

one of the last traditional department stores, which just reported surprisingly strong results.

Some companies are navigating changes in consumer shopping habits better than others, but many of them face the same uncertainties.

There's government policy on tariffs that keeps changing, which affects their costs.

And the Iran War is threatening to send inflation even higher.

Joining me to break down what all this means for the retail industry is WSJ reporter Kelly Kluinen.

Welcome, Kelly.

Thanks for having me.

Kelly, Walmart posted strong sales growth in its most recent quarter, but it also lost its crown as the country's largest company by revenue to Amazon.

How are Walmart and other retailers

trying to keep up in the e-commerce space? Yeah, totally. For quite a while now, Amazon has been

winning business from other retailers with its quick shipping options. This week it even said

that it's rolling out one hour and three-hour delivery services across the U.S. So to compete,

I think a lot of retailers are really just

looking to up their own delivery times, Target, which has been struggling with sluggish sales

...