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KATHERINE ROSS: The Federal Reserve may be sucking up all the air in the room as investors eagerly await a rate decision. But, there's another key event happening just this week. Lawmakers on Capitol Hill will have the chance to grill CEOs from JP Morgan's Jamie Dimon to Bank of America's (BACXL) Brian Moynihan.
The testimony will happen on Wednesday and Thursday, giving the Senate Banking Committee and the House Financial Services Committee a chance to glean information on consumers outside of the speech expected by Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell.
So let's take a look at what the CEOs who will make appearances have said specifically about the economy ahead of the hearings later this week: Dimon has been outspoken on the economy, saying that the U.S. is facing a hurricane back in June. However, he wasn't sure just how bad it would be, and Citi CEO Jane Fraser said in June that the U.S. will be hard pressed to avoid a recession. But, the silver lining is that severe economic downturn was not the base case for the bank. She was previously in wait and see mode. And in August, Moynihan said that Americans who are struggling already feel like they are in a recession, despite what the White House is saying. But he did not explicitly say that the U.S. was in recession. And finally, back in June, Wells Fargo (WFC) CEO Charles Scharf said that the economy was not ready for the rate hikes.
Now, keep in mind that his comments came before that second 75 basis point hike and the Fed does still plan to keep its hiking up. And outside of data, any further commentary on the state of the economy from these four executives will be key, especially in comparison to Powell's commentary. After all, Elon Musk and Cathie Wood are already warning about deflation.
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