Jamie Dimon, the JPMorgan Chase JPM, -1.75% chairman and chief executive, got everyone’s attention when he warned there’s an economic hurricane coming, from rate hikes, the war in Ukraine and inflation.
Brian Moynihan, the chairman and chief executive of Bank of America BAC, -1.43%, had a chance to respond, at the very same Bernstein Strategic Decisions Conference where Dimon intoned his weather-themed pessimism. “We’re in North Carolina,” he said. “You’ve got hurricanes that come every year.”
In a bit of a rambling response, Moynihan made the point that the Fed’s challenge to hike rates is because of a strong underlying economy. What makes the Fed’s job tough right now is “actually a good thing — low unemployment and good wage growth and good consumer spending,” he said, according to a transcript from S&P Global Market Intelligence.
He was asked by Autonomous Research analyst John McDonald, who also quizzed Dimon, about the pressure bank stocks have seen. JPMorgan and Bank of America shares have each dropped 18% this year. Investors in the sector have been waiting quite literally for a decade to see interest rates rise, which would help margins, and now that they have, “the party seems over before it started,” McDonald said.
Moynihan said he understands the worries about recession, as he said credit costs will likely increase. But he said there isn’t the volatility around outcomes that investors may fear.
“Our [net interest income] grew strong from the fourth quarter to the first quarter, actually starting, second to third quarter last year,” he said. “We look at that year-over-year, it’s $2 billion more NII per quarter before the rate structure is actually coming through the system,” he said. He said the consumer is now catching up after activity was led by the commercial side.
The buzz
The posterchild of meme stocks, GameStop GME, -2.68%, reported a narrower-than-forecast loss while inventories surged.
Hewlett Packard Enterprise HPE, +1.15% slumped after-hours after earnings and sales missed estimates. Chewy CHWY, -5.28% rallied after the online pet-products retailer reported a surprise profit in its fiscal first quarter.
C3.ai AI, -1.96% shares plummeted 22% after the software company guided for smaller revenue in the coming year than Wall Street expected.
The ADP private-sector payrolls report is due for release, with weekly jobless claims and factory orders data also on the docket. Cleveland Fed President Loretta Mester will be speaking as well.
The OPEC oil cartel is expected to keep to its production plans, amid reports Saudi Arabia is ready to replace any lost output from Russia.
The U.K. market is closed as Queen Elizabeth II celebrates her Platinum Jubilee.
The markets
U.S. stock futures ES00, +0.37% NQ00, +0.51% pointed higher after two days of losses for the S&P 500 SPX, -0.75%.
Oil futures CL.1, -2.48% dropped.
Top tickers
Here were the most active stock-market tickers as of 6 a.m. Eastern.
| Ticker | Security name |
| GME, -2.68% | GameStop |
| TSLA, -2.36% | Tesla |
| AMC, -10.67% | AMC Entertainment |
| NIO, +1.04% | Nio |
| AMZN, +1.23% | Amazon.com |
| MULN, +1.43% | Mullen Automotive |
| AAPL, -0.09% | Apple |
| NVDA, -1.89% | Nvidia |
| FB, -2.58% | Meta Platforms |
| BABA, -2.78% | Alibaba |
The chart
Will house prices finally cool off? Running at 21% year-over-year, they are bound to, and there’s some initial signs that it’s happening. The four-week average of the share of homes for sales with price drop has picked up, according to data analyzed by Redfin.
Random reads
Beer pong, and some of the other unusual ways that people are celebrating Queen Elizabeth’s Platinum Jubilee.
French diplomats have gone on strike.
A first: a 3-D printed ear, made with a patient’s own cells.
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