Walmart is startling the market:

Walmart on Tuesday reported quarterly earnings that missed Wall Street’s expectations by a wide margin, as the nation’s largest retailer felt pressure from rising fuel costs and higher levels of inventory.

The company’s shares were down more than 10% midday Tuesday.

The main forces governing the market are Fuel, Food, and Housing, since they either determine, or are related to how much money people have and how much things cost. To that end, Retail data such as this is a derivative of the fuel situation, but it serves to confirm perceptions you should already have developed elsewhere.