That's what Yahoo Finance is saying. At first, I was surprised because I never considered Nike to be a company whose financial results provide economists with information on whether the economy is doing well or not.

During the middle of this year, Target and Walmart reported earnings that displayed a bloated inventory issue. Many other retailers like Nike displayed similar conditions. To see whether that issue is being resolved broadly across retail, better to look at Target or Walmart's earnings instead of Nike's in my view.

With Nike sourcing 55% of its revenues from wholesale (i.e. revenues from $FL and other shoe sellers), I can see why economists will call Nike a "bellwether" company. If Target canceled over a billion dollars worth of inventory, it wouldn't be surprising if Nike sees its revenues decline because its wholesale clients like Footlocker stopped ordering shoes from Nike

It will be intriguing to see how Nike performs after they report earnings. Seeing that the stock continues to make a new 52-week low repeatedly over the past couple days, I wouldn't be surprised if the stock plunges even more.

Source: https://finance.yahoo.com/news/nike-stock-in-focus-after-fedex-ford-earnings-whiffs-145050374.html