U.S. stocks and exchange traded funds (ETFs) are in negative territory this morning as new reports indicate that American consumers are still clinging tightly to their wallets.

Job security, a decline in income and simply an overall attraction to saving cash led to sluggish sales for merchants in July.  It appears that mall-based merchant chains were hit the hardest as consumers focused on necessities.  The International Council of Shopping Centers-Goldman Sachs tally fell 5% in July compared with the year-ago period.  Despite the news, the SPDR S&P Retail (XRT) was up nearly 1% in morning trading.

The Labor Department said that new jobless claims fell to a seasonally adjusted 550,000 for the week ending Aug. 1, down from the 588,000 in the previous week and lower than the 580,000 expected by analysts.

Black gold has dipped below $71/barrel as traders become worried about demand. Inventories increased by nearly 2 million barrels last week.  The news sent the United States Oil Fund (USO) down 1.3% in morning trading.

In the real estate arena, mortgage rates dropped, putting the average for a 30-year mortgage to 5.22%.  This drop in rates may lead to an increase in demand for homes, as well as a jump in the number of people looking to refinance their loans.

Overall, all three major U.S. indexes are down in morning trading.  The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 0.1%, the S&P 500 gave up 0.3% and the Nasdaq declined by 0.5%.

For more stories on the retail sector, visit our retail category.

Kevin Grewal contributed to this article.

Tags: Commodity ETFs, Dow Jones Industrial Average, NASDAQ, Oil, Real Estate, Retail, S&P 500, Sector ETFs, USO, XRT