and celia hatton on what happens when a billion chinese start eating like americans. captioning sponsored by cbs this is the "cbs evening news" with scott pelley. >> pelley: good evening. when the head of the world's largest retail chain sends up a caution flag, well, it certainly got our attention today. wal-mart stores account for more than 11% of this country's retail sales, but c.e.o. mike dukes says that his customers are stretched, struggling, and worried about jobs. it shows in wal-mart's second- quarter sales, down nine-tenths of one percent-- their ninth straight quarterly drop. and add the that another report out today that says sales at u.s. chain stores overall fell 1.5% last week, the third straight weekly decline. we asked jim axelrod to find out how a cutback in consumer spending is threatening the recovery. >> reporter: from televisions to townhouses, consumer fear of the future is stalling sales. >> the pace of sales is slower than we ordinarily would like to see them. >> reporter: new jersey developer russ luppino could have broken ground on this $12

celia hatton reports. >> reporter: yu chen has been trading chinese stocks for 20 years.eek, he's the value of his investments drop 15%. he believes he knows why. when the recession hit, the u.s. printed too much money to try to solve its problems, he says. many in china feel the same way. on the streets of beijing, few have a clear opinion on the state of america's credit rating. but many are quick to accuse the u.s. of dragging china into what could be the next round of a global recession. china's government-controlled media is growing with complaints about america's debt problem. a weekend editorial in china's xinhua news agency stated the days when the debt-ridden uncle sam could leisurely squander unlimited overseas borrowing apeers to be numbered. china's own credit rating agency dagong is equally pessimistic, downgrading its u.s. credit rating twice in less than a year. from a-plus down to "a." as america's economic ideals don't fundamentally change, it will not increase its ability to repay its debt, and the situation will only get worse, the agency's chairman say