BAC
The vibe check on consumers is getting worse
Bank of America Institute’s Liz Everett Krisberg joined Squawk Box to talk through the latest Consumer Checkpoint Report, and the headline wasn’t exactly sunshine and rainbows: middle- and lower-income consumers are starting to look squeezed.
That matters because these households are often the first to pull back when budgets get tight. Think of it like the economy’s early-warning system — if the lower rungs of the income ladder start feeling the pinch, retailers, restaurants, travel names, and other spending-sensitive businesses can feel it pretty quickly.
Why investors should care
This kind of real-time spending read can be useful because it shows what people are doing now, not what they said they’d do three months ago on a survey. If consumers are getting stretched, a few things can happen:
- discretionary spending cools off
- higher-income consumers keep the party going a bit longer, masking the slowdown
- lenders, payment networks, and consumer-facing companies start watching delinquencies and ticket sizes more closely
Big picture
No single interview is a recession call, but it does add to the pile of evidence that the consumer story is getting more uneven. Translation: the economy may still be moving, but not everyone is riding in the same car.