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Middle-income households’ negative view of their personal finances plummets to new low

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America’s middle class is feeling the squeeze like never before, according to new data.

Primerica’s latest Financial Security Monitor report for the third quarter found 55% of middle-income households now rate their personal financial situation negatively, a 6-point jump from the previous survey.

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A new survey from Primerica shows a majority of middle-income Americans have a negative view of their household finances (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images / Getty Images)

“For the first time in a year, a majority of middle-income households are feeling negative about their personal finances,” said Glenn Williams, CEO of Primerica. “In fact, this latest report represents the highest negative rating we’ve seen since we began fielding the survey exactly four years ago.”

Middle-income households’ view of the economy has deteriorated, too, over the past three months. A significant majority, 73%, said they have a negative view of the nation’s economic health, up one point from the prior reading.

JAMIE DIMON WARNS OF ‘CRITICAL ISSUES’ THAT COULD AFFECT US ECONOMY

The findings also indicated growing uncertainty about the economy, with 34% saying they are unsure about the economy’s direction, a sharp increase of 15 points from last quarter.

The survey polled households making between $30,000 and $130,000 annually, and 40% of respondents cited inflation as their top worry, up 8% from the previous quarterly survey.

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High inflation on everyday necessities like food and gas over the past few years is increasingly taking a toll on most U.S. households’ budgets. (Daniel Acker/Bloomberg via Getty Images / Getty Images)

The Labor Department on Thursday said the consumer price index (CPI) — a broad measure of how much everyday goods like gasoline, groceries and rent cost – rose 0.2% in September from the prior month and was up 2.4% from a year ago. 

High inflation has created severe financial pressures for most U.S. households, which are forced to pay more for everyday necessities like food and rent. Price hikes are particularly devastating for lower-income Americans, because they tend to spend more of their already-stretched paycheck on necessities and therefore have less flexibility to save money.

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“Families continue to list inflation as their No. 1 concern, with the stress it brings spilling over into worry about being able to afford everyday essentials like food or groceries and going to the doctor as well as managing their rising credit card debt,” Williams said.

Primerica’s latest quarterly survey shows middle-income households are increasingly concerned about their credit card debt (Photo Illustration by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images / Getty Images)

Concerns about credit card debt among middle-income Americans is also on the rise, according to the findings. Forty-four percent said they are more worried about their credit card debt than they were a year ago, which is a 9% jump from last quarter and the highest level of concern since the question was first introduced in March 2023. 

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“The results of our survey reflect the accumulating financial stress middle-income families are facing,” Williams told FOX Business. “Recent cost of living increases are slowing and we have to remember many fell behind financially and are still recovering.”

FOX Business’ Eric Revell contributed to this report.

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Chase CEO Jamie Dimon says markets are too complacent

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Jamie Dimon, CEO of JPMorgan Chase, leaves the U.S. Capitol after a meeting with Republican members of the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee on the issue of de-banking on Feb. 13, 2025.

Tom Williams | Cq-roll Call, Inc. | Getty Images

JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon said Monday that markets and central bankers underappreciate the risks created by record U.S. deficits, tariffs and international tensions.

Dimon, the veteran CEO and chairman of the biggest U.S. bank by assets, explained his worldview during his bank’s annual investor day meeting in New York. He said he believes the risks of higher inflation and even stagflation aren’t properly represented by stock market values, which have staged a comeback from lows in April.

“We have huge deficits; we have what I consider almost complacent central banks,” Dimon said. “You all think they can manage all this. I don’t think” they can, he said.

“My own view is people feel pretty good because you haven’t seen effective tariffs” yet, Dimon said. “The market came down 10%, [it’s] back up 10%; that’s an extraordinary amount of complacency.”

Dimon’s comments follow Moody’s rating agency downgrading the U.S. credit rating on Friday over concerns about the government’s growing debt burden. Markets have been whipsawed the past few months over worries that President Donald Trump‘s trade policies will raise inflation and slow the world’s largest economy.

Dimon said Monday that he believed Wall Street earnings estimates for S&P 500 companies, which have already declined in the first weeks of Trump’s trade policies, will fall further as companies pull or lower guidance amid the uncertainty.

In six months, those projections will fall to 0% earnings growth after starting the year at around 12%, Dimon said. If that were to happen, stocks prices will likely fall.

“I think earnings estimates will come down, which means PE will come down,” Dimon said, referring to the “price to earnings” ratio tracked closely by stock market analysts.

The odds of stagflation, “which is basically a recession with inflation,” are roughly double what the market thinks, Dimon added.

Separately, one of Dimon’s top deputies said that corporate clients are still in “wait-and-see” mode when it comes to acquisitions and other deals.

Investment banking revenue is headed for a “mid-teens” percentage decline in the second quarter compared with the year-earlier period, while trading revenue was trending higher by a “mid-to-high” single digit percentage, said Troy Rohrbaugh, a co-head of the firm’s commercial and investment bank.

On the ever-present question of Dimon’s timeline to hand over the CEO reins to one of his deputies, Dimon said that nothing changed from his guidance last year, when he said he would likely remain for less than five more years.

“If I’m here for four more years, and maybe two more” as executive chairman, Dimon said, “that’s a long time.”

Of all the executive presentations given Monday, consumer banking chief Marianne Lake had the longest speaking time at a full hour. She is considered a top successor candidate, especially after Chief Operating Officer Jennifer Piepszak said she would not be seeking the top job.

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Stocks making the biggest moves midday: UNH, TSLA, BABA

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Klarna doubles losses in first quarter as IPO remains on hold

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Sebastian Siemiatkowski, CEO of Klarna, speaking at a fintech event in London on Monday, April 4, 2022.

Chris Ratcliffe | Bloomberg via Getty Images

Klarna saw its losses jump in the first quarter as the popular buy now, pay later firm applies the brakes on a hotly anticipated U.S. initial public offering.

The Swedish payments startup said its net loss for the first three months of 2025 totaled $99 million — significantly worse than the $47 million loss it reported a year ago. Klarna said this was due to several one-off costs related to depreciation, share-based payments and restructuring.

Revenues at the firm increased 13% year-over-year to $701 million. Klarna said it now has 100 million active users and 724,00 merchant partners globally.

It comes as Klarna remains in pause mode regarding a highly anticipated U.S. IPO that was at one stage set to value the SoftBank-backed company at over $15 billion.

Klarna put its IPO plans on hold last month due to market turbulence caused by President Donald Trump’s sweeping tariff plans. Online ticketing platform StubHub also put its IPO plans on ice.

Prior to the IPO delay, Klarna had been on a marketing blitz touting itself as an artificial intelligence-powered fintech. The company partnered up with ChatGPT maker OpenAI in 2023. A year later, Klarna used OpenAI technology to create an AI customer service assistant.

Last week, Klarna CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski said the company was able to shrink its headcount by about 40%, in part due to investments in AI.

Watch CNBC's full interview with Klarna CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski

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