US Retail Sales Show Resilience Amidst Labor Market Headwinds, While Tech Giants Pour Billions into AI Infrastructure

Key TakeawaysUS retail sales demonstrated unexpected strength in July, rising by 0.5%, with August projected to increase by 0.2%, defying a softening labor market and signaling continued consumer resilience despite economic headwinds.Major technology companies, including Microsoft (MSFT), OpenAI (OPENAI), and Oracle (ORCL), are committing hundreds of billions of dollars to expand AI infrastructure globally, with OpenAI alone signing a staggering $300 billion data center pact with Oracle.The labor market sho ...