BofA Institute (w/e Sep 12) Total Card Spending +5.8% Y/Y (prev. +7.8%). says K-shaped spending looks increasingly like a stale narrative

A deceleration of this size in the year-on-year rate is consistent with the familiar pattern of nominal spending growth cooling as the post-reopening tailwinds and pricing effects fade, though card aggregates conflate goods rotation, services mix and price effects, so the real-spending read is weaker than the headline number suggests. The more consequential line is the pushback on the K-shaped framing: the bank's own high-versus-low-income splits have been the primary evidence for that narrative, and a call that the divergence is narrowing implies either low-income spending holding up or high-income spending softening, which carry different implications for the discretionary and staples peer sets. Historically these institute notes move the consumer complex only briefly unless they align with the hard data calendar; the follow-ons are the next retail sales and PCE prints and whether other bank panels show the same convergence. As a single proprietary series, the signal is suggestive rather than decisive.