U.S. credit card debt hit a record-high in Q3

TheStreet’s J.D. Durkin brings you the biggest news of the day, including how the market fared and why U.S. credit card debt is at an all-time high.

Transcript

00:00 I'm JD Durkin reporting from the floor of the New York Stock Exchange and stocks were in the green

00:04 to close out the day's session. The Dow closing up 60 points, the tech-heavy Nasdaq closed just

00:09 under 1% higher, while the S&P 500 closed up 0.2%. Stocks are trying to keep up a bit of momentum as

00:16 Wall Street looks toward its longest rally in roughly two years. Wall Street is also looking

00:22 ahead to commentary from Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell Wednesday after the central bank

00:27 held rates steady just a week ago. Currently investors are pricing in a 90% chance that the

00:33 Fed holds rates steady in December and 80% chance that policy easing, meaning cuts to rates, could

00:40 come as soon as June. In other news, credit card debt in the United States is officially at an

00:45 all-time high. According to a new report from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, credit card

00:50 balances rose to $1.08 trillion in the third quarter, a $48 billion increase from Q2, and a

00:58 whopping $154 billion jump from this time last year. The year-over-year spike is the largest

01:05 we've seen since 1999. And not only is the debt climbing, Americans are constantly struggling to

01:11 pay it down. The study found that the rate at which households are becoming delinquent is at

01:15 its highest point since 2011. According to a separate report by the Consumer Financial Protection

01:21 Bureau, nearly 10% of all credit card users find themselves in "persistent debt," meaning they're

01:28 charged more for interest fees each year than they spend paying down the debt itself. Both Mastercard

01:33 and Visa saw double-digit revenue increases in Q3 of this year. That'll do it for your daily

01:39 briefing. From the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, I'm JD Durkin with The Street.

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