Jamie Dimon raves about the strength of the US consumer

J.P. Morgan chief Jamie Dimon praised the strength of the U.S. consumer following the largest U.S. bank’s strong quarterly earnings.

“We continue to see positive momentum with the U.S. consumer – healthy confidence levels, solid job creation and rising wages – which are reflected in our Consumer & Community Banking results,” Dimon said in the company’s quarterly earnings release. “Double-digit growth in credit card sales and merchant processing volumes reflected healthy consumer spending and drove 8% growth in credit card loans, while mortgage and auto originations showed solid improvement, and we continued to attract new deposits, up 3%.”

J.P. Morgan reported better-than-expected second-quarter results before the bell Tuesday, largely attributed to strong consumer spending. The bank posted earnings per share of $2.82 on revenue of $29.57 billion. Wall Street expected earnings per share of $2.50 on revenue of $28.9 billion, according to Refinitiv. The shares traded lower slightly on a worse-than-expected net interest income forecast.

Double digit growth in credit card sales and merchant processing further demonstrated that U.S. consumer spending is healthy. Credit card sales volume rose 11% this quarter and merchant processing volume increased 12%, the bank said.