“The high-income consumer is spending with confidence in many categories, whereas the low-income consumer, we can tell, is more budget-conscious, trying to navigate certain financial distress”

Quarterly earnings from Home Depot, Lowe’s, Walmart and Target this week will offer one of the clearest reads yet on how U.S. consumers are holding up.

Energy and transportation are two areas where costs are rising for stores like Home Depot, Walmart, and Target, but raising prices could turn off an increasingly strapped consumer.