The stock market hit a new all-time high, but President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping got all the attention today as they met for highly anticipated talks surrounded by big-name tech CEOs. We’ll tell you what to expect from their discussions. Also, traditional TV is turning to AI for real-time ads and rents are falling — along with beer sales. 

Retail sales rose 0.5% in April from March, and they’re up nearly 5% from last year, according to the latest Census Bureau data. That was true even when stripping out sales in volatile categories like cars and gas.

As sales are growing, so too are business inventories, which were up 0.9% in March compared to February.

Those headline numbers look decent on the surface. But in case you needed the reminder: Prices are high.

They’re also rising fast, according to this week’s inflation data. The jump in the headline numbers is really about stuff getting more expensive, and not about more stuff getting sold. That means hard choices for consumers.

“Opting out for some items while they're purchasing others and just being extremely edited in the way that they're shopping,” said Jessica Ramirez, co-founder and managing director of the Consumer Collective.

That could mean a summer road trip instead of a long-distance flight, Ramirez said. But even the basics are putting a dent in wallets and bank accounts.

“Fifty-nine percent of consumers say they are dipping into savings to cover their everyday expenses,” she said.

That puts a big question mark on how much consumers will be able to keep spending in the months to come. If retail sales do fall off, the stores don’t want to be left holding the bag. So they’re not exactly packing their storerooms, said Jason Miller, a professor of supply chain management at Michigan State University.

“ Retailers have dialed in inventories relative to where their demand is right now,” he said, adding that it should hold true over the summer. “We can expect caution from retailers over the coming months because they're just not sure where that consumer is going to be at.”

President Donald Trump’s tariffs reduced the flow of Chinese goods into the U.S. to a trickle, but American manufacturing didn’t benefit, Posen told Kai Ryssdal on today’s “Marketplace.” Inflation is accelerating and the country is still dependent on China for some key products. Trump is in China meeting with President Xi Jinping to discuss trade, Taiwan and the Iran war. Posen shared more insights on what to expect from the talks.