Bank of America says robust credit card spending signals consumer strength

Bank of America Corp. BAC, -0.24% said Thursday its 67 million consumer and small business clients hiked their aggregate credit and debit card spending by 13% in April. David Tinsley, senior economist for the Bank of America Institute, said the data “continues to paint a healthy picture of the U.S. consumer.” Credit card spending rose 22% over the prior year and debit card spending rose 6%. Overall transactions rose 8% year-over-year. Airline and travel agency spending increased by 60% and spending on event ticket agencies increased by 140%. Shares of Bank of America are down 15.6% in 2022, compared to a loss of 13% by the S&P 500 SPX, -0.57%.