CNBC’s Jim Cramer on Wednesday told investors to take bank executives’ gloomy economic commentary with a grain of salt.
“Don’t panic the next time you hear one of these bank CEOs say something scary — they don’t know the ramifications of their words,” he said, adding, “Sure, we have a lot of problems, but they’re not financial apocalypse problems.” .”
The S&P 500 slipped for a fifth trading session on Wednesday as investors pondered the possibility of a recession.
Adding to investor concerns, JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon said Tuesday that inflation is eating away at consumer wallets and could trigger a recession.
The chief executives of Bank of America and Wells Fargo also warned that the economy is slowing as Americans cut spending.
“Memo to America’s bankers: Don’t try to scare us. Don’t try to get us to sell everything,” Cramer said. “Don’t be a Grinch telling us a hurricane might be coming.”
He urged CEOs to remind investors what’s right in the Fed’s fight against inflation, and gave an example of what he thinks one of the CEOs should have said:
“There will come a day when the Fed will be done tightening, although that may be the case if the S&P 500 is a fair bit lower. But I don’t know if I want to take the risk of possibly missing this one [next] big rally. Hey, maybe buy small,” he said.
Disclaimer: Cramer’s Charitable Trust owns shares of Wells Fargo.
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