Retail sales topped economist expectations for September, according to the US Census Bureau, rising 0.4% month-over-month. Sucharita Kodali, Forrester Research retail analyst, joins Wealth! to discuss what the latest data signals about the health of the US consumer.

Kodali explains that non-store retailers like Amazon (AMZN) are seeing the most gains. She notes that apparel has "recovered from its pandemic depths," while home-related retailers are struggling as interest rates remain relatively high.

Overall, Kodali points to a "very cautious" consumer on average. Yet, she highlights a "tale of two types of consumers." First, there are affluent consumers who are often invested in the stock market, which is at its highest levels. These consumers are continuing to spend, and usually spend on categories like dining out.

Second, there are lower-income consumers who are struggling and pulling back on their spending: "That's why you see stores, like, for instance, the dollar channel [stores] struggling a little bit in this economy."

"So the consumer certainly is still cautious. And when you look overall at year-to-date spend levels, they are about in line with inflation, which means that units being purchased is not higher," she concludes.

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This post was written by Melanie Riehl