After several months of wild swings in US consumer debt, culminating with last month's jump in credit card debt to a new all time high despite record high credit card rates, in March households finally hit a brick wall because according to the latest consumer credit data published by the Federal Reserve moments ago, in the last month of Q1, total consumer debt rose by a paltry $6.274 billion, which was not only nearly a more than 60% miss to consensus estimates of $15.0 billion...

... but also a dramatic slowdown from February, tumbling by almost $9BN, the biggest monthly drop in the rate of change in 2024.