By Nupur Anand, Saeed Azhar and Tatiana Bautzer
NEW YORK, July 15 (Reuters) - U.S. banking giants said consumers remained in good shape even after U.S. President Donald Trump's tariff policies roiled markets, but executives warned of potential weakness ahead.
"The consumer basically seems to be fine," JPMorgan CFO Jeremy Barnum said in a call with analysts. The bank set aside $2.85 billion for credit losses in the second quarter, roughly 6.5% less than a year earlier.
JPMorgan Chase JPM.N, Citigroup C.N and Wells Fargo WFC.N posted second-quarter profits that beat analysts' forecasts, helped by a rebound in dealmaking and resilient consumer spending.
"Consumers and businesses remain strong as unemployment remains low and inflation remains in check, credit card spending growth softened very slightly in the second quarter, but is still up year over year," Wells Fargo CEO Charlie Scharf told analysts.
Higher-than-expected repayments in auto loans and credit cards prompted Wells Fargo to reduce its charge-offs, or debts that are unlikely to be recovered. The bank also reduced the amount of money set aside to cover potential loan losses.
Still, executives also expressed concern about how consumers will weather the impact of higher tariffs on imported goods.
U.S. consumer prices increased by the most in five months in June amid higher costs for some goods, suggesting tariffs were starting to have an impact on inflation, the Consumer Price Index showed on Tuesday. It increased 0.3% last month, in line with expectations.
Citigroup anticipates spending will soften in the second half of the year, CEO Mark Mason told reporters.
"Consumer health remains very strong," he said. "We do anticipate further consumer (spending) cooling in the second half as ... tariff effects play through."
The bank's credit costs rose to $2.9 billion in the second quarter, mainly from net credit losses in U.S. credit cards.
(Reporting by Nupur Anand, Tatiana Bautzer and Saeed Azhar in New York; writing by Carolina Mandl in New York, editing by Lananh Nguyen and Nick Zieminski)
((carolina.mandl@thomsonreuters.com; +1 (917) 891-4931;))
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