1357 ET - Wells Fargo CEO Charlie Scharf says the financial health of consumers and businesses remains strong. "Consumers are spending more than a year ago, which includes spending more on gas, but they haven't slowed spending on everything else," he says on a call with analysts. Gas accounted for about 6% of total debit card spend and about 4% of total credit card spend before the war in Iran began, according to Scharf. Now, gas accounts for about 7% and 5% of debit and credit card spend, respectively. "Note that these numbers are higher for low-income households," Scharf adds. "We have seen historically that it often takes consumers several months to reduce their spend levels on other categories to adjust for higher oil prices, and while we don't know the exact timing, we would expect to see the same in the second half of the year." (connor.hart@wsj.com)
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
April 14, 2026 13:57 ET (17:57 GMT)
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