Stocks ended the week lower after a number of the nation’s most prominent department store and apparel retailers, led by Macy’s (M), offered disappointing sales reports and dismal forecasts on their near-term results.

MACRO NEWS: In the U.S., retail sales rose 1.3% month-over-month in April, versus expectations for an increase of 0.8%. The core reading, which excludes autos and gas, was up 0.6%, versus expectations for an increase of 0.3%. The producer price index was up 0.2% month-over-month, versus expectations for an increase of 0.3%, while the core PPI reading was up 0.1%, matching expectations.

Business inventories bounced 0.4% in March, with sales up 0.3%, following respective declines of 0.1% and 0.3% in February. Initial jobless claims rose to 294,000 in the week ended May 7, versus expectations for 270,000 first-time claims. Import prices rose 0.3% in April, which was below the consensus forecast for them to be up 0.6%, while export prices rose 0.5% last month, which was better than the expectation for them to have been flat with the prior month.

Wholesale sales jumped 0.7% in March, while inventories rose 0.1%, marking the first increases in sales and inventories since September. In China, exports contracted by 1.8% in April from a year earlier and imports declined 10.9%. China’s Consumer Price Index for April was in-line with expectations with a year-over-year increase of 2.3%, while the Producer Price Index came in better than expected with a decrease of 3.4%, versus the consensus expectation for a 3.7% decline.

Additionally, an article in the People’s Daily appeared to warn against hoping for too much added stimulus and voiced the state view that China may suffer from a financial crisis and recession if the government relies too much on debt-fueled stimulus. Then, vice premier Zhang Gaoli reportedly said at a forum in Beijing that China will reduce leverage in the economy and is not resorting to large-scale stimulus but that it will still be able to meet its economic growth target for the year. Previously, China set a target for GDP growth in 2016 of 6.5%-7%… In Europe, euro-area first quarter GDP growth was revised 0.1% lower to 0.5% in the second reading.

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