The combination of the July U.S. retail sales report and Walmart executives’ comments is a strong indication of the health of U.S. and global consumers. The company has better data than any U.S. statistics agency and is often candid about its observations.

Here are some quotes from the now concluded conference call:

• Doug McMillon (CEO): “So far, we have not seen any overall weaker consumer sentiment.”
• John David Rainey (CFO): “I know everyone is looking for information that might point to further weaknesses among our members and customers. We are not involved in that.”
• Rainey: “Our forecast for the second half of the year is more of a continuation of what we’ve seen here in the first few weeks of August. Things have been remarkably consistent.”
• Rainey: “We are seeing increased engagement across all income groups. Most of the growth continues to come from higher-income households, even as we are increasing sales and market share among middle- and low-income households.”
• US CEO John Furner: “Back to school has started strong in the last few weeks. I and a number of other employees have been in stores across the country to see how prepared they are for school and college to start. About 50% of our customers say they still have a lot of shopping to do. We have over 2 million school lists uploaded to the website, so we still have a lot of power ahead of us. So it’s a good start.”

Walmart raised its sales forecast for the fiscal year ending in March, and comments suggested the company remained cautious.

Rainey: “The economic and geopolitical backdrop in which we operate may be more uncertain than usual, and we are not entirely immune to the resulting volatility. And while we have not seen additional signs of positive consumer sentiment in our business, other economic data as well as the global situation suggest that it is prudent to remain appropriately cautious in our outlook.