Wall Street kicked off the income season in an unusually unusual economic context. When financial institutions such as JPMorgan Chase (JPM), BlackRock (Blkk) and Wells Fargo (WFC) reported the first quarter results today (April 11), their CEOs took advantage of the opportunity to have an impact on the chaotic market of the Trump administration’s tariff policies.
“The economy is facing considerable turmoil,” JPMorgan's Jamie Dimon said in a statement on the bank's first-quarter earnings.
Banks say their customers are driving the uncertain economic environment created by tariffs and are taking a waiting strategy. “I traveled in Europe last week last week when the U.S. tariff announcements were beyond my 49-year financial imagination,” BlackRock CEO Larry Fink told analysts today.
Market panic shrank earlier this week after Trump announced a 90-day pause for most of his taxes. Although there is still a 10% “benchmark tariff”. China is the only country that is unfortunately spared. Instead, the president has raised the total tariff on Chinese imports to 145%.
“The China issue is a major issue,” Dimon said on JPMorgan's revenue call today. “This is a major change we have never seen in our lives.” He added that he was more concerned about the impact of national security than the economic impact related to tariffs.
Dimon said the U.S. faces a 50/50 recession opportunity this year as the 10% universal tariff remains the same and the standoff with China continues.
Fink is even more alert to odds. “I think we're very close if not in a recession,” Blackrock told CNBC today after reporting first-quarter revenue.
The bank's CEO urged the United States to sign a trade agreement with the votes as soon as possible. Wells Fargo head Charles Scharf today expressed support for the Trump administration’s “willing to see the barriers to fair trade,” although he told analysts today that a “timely solution” would benefit businesses, consumers and markets.
“It's not Wall Street and the Main Street,” Fink said, noting that retirement and college savings accounts for average Americans are vulnerable to stock hits.
Although JPMorgan, BlackRock and Wells Fargo will not import physical items from China and other tariff countries, they can still be captured along with crosshairs in the U.S. trade war in the rest of the world.
Dimon acknowledged that being a U.S. company doing business abroad is a tricky moment. “I do think some clients or some countries will be different from banks in the United States, and we just need to solve this problem,” he said.
Fink noted that his company plans to open more offices outside the U.S. to continue to operate “over” in different regions. He said: “We are Mexico in Mexico, Canadians in Canada, Dutch in the Netherlands, British in Britain, Ireland, Ireland, Japan in Japan, this is not new.”
