Retail sales took a dive in the U.S.

Retail store closures are happening left and right, and it looks like they are also being accompanied by declining retail sales. Reuters has reported that U.S. retail sales have fallen for the first time in seven months. This has raised fears that manufacturing-led weakness is permeating the entire economy, and the Federal Reserve is expected to cut interest rates again.

Retail sales dropped 0.3 percent, and households cut back on spending on things ranging from cars to online purchases. It was the biggest drop the U.S. has seen since February, and retail sales and miscellaneous spending are typically slow in winter after the holidays.

Economists are expecting a significant slowdown in consumer spending for the third quarter. The Trump administration has also imposed billions of dollars worth of tariffs on consumer goods, including apparel and footwear, that have driven up prices and are making people less inclined to spend. The Trump administration's trade war with China has led to the recession in manufacturing, and also contributed to a decline in retail and apparel investments.

The Trump administration did announce that they would be delaying additional tariffs on China that would have began this month. However, economists say that all of Trump's tariffs need to be rolled back, otherwise the continuous period of growth the economy has been seeing will come to a screeching halt.

The economy is still seeing growth, but at a much slower pace. The GDP is forecast to grow at a rate of 1.7, and the economy still grew by 2 percent from April to June, but that is a slowdown from the first quarter of the year at 3.1 percent. With the holiday season approaching, many retail companies are dependent upon strong consumer spending, so a slowdown could spell havoc on a retail sector that's already considered as seeing "the retail apocalypse." This could also impact how many employees retailers add to their seasonal payrolls for holiday, leaving potential seasonal employees with much less cash to spend.