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The Street
The Street
Rebecca Mezistrano

Gen Z is deep in credit card debt

TheStreet’s Conway Gittens brings the latest business headlines from the floor of the New York Stock Exchange as markets open for trading Friday, May 17.

Related: Stock Market Today: Wall Street may hit pause on searing May rally; GameStop buckles

Full Video Transcript Below:

CONWAY GITTENS: I’m Conway Gittens reporting from the New York Stock Exchange. Here’s what we’re watching on TheStreet today.

Stocks are coming off a historic session with the Dow crossing 40,000 for the very first time. This optimism comes amid hopes that interest rates have peaked. Markets are pricing in a nearly 50 percent chance the central bank slashes interest rates in September. Traders are also digesting a better than expected earnings season with nearly 80 percent of companies in the S&P 500 beating Wall Street estimates.

In other news - Gen Z-ers have a credit card problem. According to a new report by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, roughly 15% of Gen Z credit card borrowers have maxed out their cards. For comparison, only 4.8% of Baby Boomers and 9.6% of Gen X-ers have maxed out their credit cards.

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The New York Fed says part of the problem is that Gen Z borrowers have a much lower credit limit. The median limit for that generation comes in at $4,500 - primarily because they haven’t had enough time to build credit histories and credit scores that would allow for a higher limit. The media limit for millennials tops $16,000 and nearly $22,00 for Gen X.

But credit card issues aren’t just a Gen Z problem. The New York Fed says all credit card delinquencies are increasing at a staggering pace, with missed payments increasing by more than 50% in 2023. And severe credit card delinquencies, those which are 90 days or more overdue, are up roughly 11% thus far in 2024.

That’ll do it for your daily briefing. From the New York Stock Exchange, I’m Conway Gittens with TheStreet.

Related: Veteran fund manager picks favorite stocks for 2024

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