The heads of three of the country’s biggest banks see a US economy still powered by businesses and a remarkably strong American consumer.
But they also gave some cautionary notes
The CEOs of JPMorgan Chase (JPM), Bank of America (BAC), and Wells Fargo (WFC) said they still see another strong quarter for their Wall Street and Main Street franchises on Wednesday during Bernstein’s Strategic Decisions Conference in New York. “Things are still extremely, extremely strong,” Wells Fargo CEO Charles Scharf said. Although consumer sentiment is sitting at a record low, “consumer spend is actually even stronger than it was a couple of weeks ago, a couple of months ago.” “Oil [prices] being higher for longer,” can change that,” he added, noting that the price of oil is already set to be “higher than people probably initially expected.” Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan said, “People are spending money, and that’s because, frankly, they’re employed.” Higher consumer spending so far this month isn’t coming at the expense of more loan delinquencies either, he added. Business clients “say they’re not growing inventories … as much as they might otherwise do if they had more confidence in what the next six months were going to look like,” Scharf noted.
But they are “still financially very, very strong.” Bank of America Global Research recently lowered its forecast for US economic growth in 2026 to 2.2%, down from the mid-2% pace it projected at the beginning of the year. But Moynihan said the growth projection is “reasonably strong” compared to the last “15, 20 years.” Small and medium-size businesses are “trying to make sure they’re grounded” after the onset of the Iran war and the Supreme Court’s ruling on tariffs this spring. “Still, they’re borrowing a little more,” Moynihan added. How to protect your money during turmoil, stock market volatility Wall Street remains the major growth story for these lending giants, with each CEO saying their banks are poised to deliver sizable…