By Michelle Price, Nupur Anand
NEW YORK (Reuters) -U.S. consumers remain resilient with solid spending in the third quarter, two of the country’s biggest lenders said on Friday, although there are signs higher inflation has stretched some Americans on lower incomes.
Strong earnings from JPMorgan Chase and Wells Fargo and upbeat comments from their top executives should further ease investor worries that elevated borrowing costs were weighing on consumers and pushing the economy to the cusp of a downturn, even as JPMorgan hiked provisions for soured loans.
JPMorgan’s shares were up nearly 5% in afternoon trading, while Wells Fargo’s were up more than 6%.
“Overall, we see the spending patterns as being sort of solid,” said Jeremy Barnum, chief financial officer of JPMorgan, the country’s largest lender and a bellwether for the U.S. economy, adding spending had normalized from a post-pandemic bounce when Americans splurged on travel and eating out.
Weakening job market data had sparked concerns that Federal Reserve interest rate hikes aimed at taming inflation may tip the United States into a recession or “hard landing.”
But speaking to analysts, Barnum said spending patterns were “consistent with the narrative that consumers are on solid footing and consistent with a strong labor market and the current central case of a kind of ‘no-landing’ scenario economically.”
Wells Fargo Chief Financial Officer Michael Santomassimo told reporters that spending on credit and debit cards, while…
