Simply hopped off the earnings media name with JPMorgan (JPM) CFO Jeremy Barnum (hat tip to Yahoo Finance banking reporter David Hollerith for getting his query taken earlier than mine).
Right here was our trade:
Me: We received some cautious outcomes from varied shopper firms this week, reminiscent of PepsiCo (PEP), with them calling out some shopper warning. Is there something you are seeing in your debit or credit score information that might counsel shoppers are pulling again, whether or not due to inflation or election issues?
Barnum: Quick reply isn’t any. So we have made a few these factors over time, however I will simply reiterate them right here. So our broad take is that the patron spending in actual phrases is type of flattish. So I am seeing booming spending progress, however we’re additionally not seeing, you recognize, any significant weak spot there. Like with this information, you possibly can at all times take a magnifying glass to it and attempt to go deep, and one of many issues that we have seen a little bit bit within the spending patterns within the decrease earnings segments, you might be beginning to see a little bit little bit of proof, some rotation of spending out of discretionary and nondiscretionary, which is historically, for apparent causes, … understood to be a little bit little bit of an indication of weak spot.
However in a world the place the unemployment charge is 4.1% and GDP progress is slowing a little bit bit, the info that we’re seeing on the patron facet is completely in keeping with that financial setting. And the massive image backdrop, whether or not it is spending or charge-offs or delinquency charges, money buffers, and so on., remains to be in keeping with fairly a wholesome shopper. , it isn’t a priority at this level.
Of word: JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon was curiously not on the decision per the same old. We have been advised it was attributable to a journey battle, as he was flying again from an occasion in Germany. There’s nothing extra to learn into it, Barnum mentioned in response to a reporter’s query on Dimon’s absence.