TJX

The weather was hot in July, but consumers went cold, leading to disappointing retail sales that came in below or at the low end of most forecasts. The high temperatures may have been one culprit, helping boost sales of marked-down summer clearance items.

June sales overall were just slightly below estimates. But while variations among retailers were fairly broad, few are offering better guidance for the second quarter. That leaves investors with little to get excited about.

Many retailers have raised guidance for their upcoming first-quarter earnings reports and saw modest gains in April sales. But stores warn that May could be a weak month due to a late Memorial Day this year. And concerns remain over the health of consumer demand.

Sales of cars and gas helped push up March's retail sales figures, but there are also clear signs that shoppers have begun to spring for nonessentials such as clothes and housewares. The Commerce Department's retail and food services sales tally for March rose to $363.2 billion, up 7.6% from a year earlier.

The following is a round-up of news likely to affect stock prices today: Citigroup (C), Goldman Sachs (GS), J.P. Morgan Chase (JPM), Morgan Stanley (MS) and Bank of America (BAC) are just five of 18 banks that masked the level of risk they took over the last five quarters by lowering their debt...

Heavy snowstorms took out a chunk of February's sales, but retailers still managed to post stronger numbers. Shoppers appear to be coming back -- however slowly and carefully -- and spending again on non-essentials like clothes and housewares. Merchants showed a 4% increase in comparable sales...

Your local mall may look less like a ghost town this time next year. Expect to see more stores opening in 2010 to replace those lost during the recession. And some of the shopping centers will take on an increasingly international flavor, as a variety of European chains are expanding rapidly into...