Blackrock CEO Larry Fink surprised the width of Trump's rates: "Beyond everything I imagined ..." | Company Business News

Larry Fink, CEO of Blackrock Inc. “The livestock US tariff announcements went beyond everything I could think of in my 49 years in finance,” Fink said with analysts on Friday after the company reported financial results in the first quarter. The president imposed the steepest rates in a century on April 2, which abandoned markets to sell all over the world. On April 3 and 4, the S&P 500 index had its steepest two-day dive since the start of the pandemic in March 2020. “It’s not Wall Street against Main Street,” Fink told analysts on Friday. “The downturn in the market affects millions of ordinary people’s retirement savings.” The US is either very close to a recession or already in one, Fink said in a CNBC interview after the analyst call. He said he was shocked by the reaction of ten -year -old Treasury in the wake of Trump’s rates. Trump partially backed up on his trade war on Wednesday and asked a 90 -day break on “reciprocal rates” while retaining 10% duties on most countries. But Trump did not falter on China, with 145% rates on imports from that country. In the short -term, inflationary pressure and anxiety are dominated according to fink. Investors have placed a highlight of about $ 950 billion in cash accounts at Blackrock from April, money that can eventually be invested in stocks, bonds and private markets, he said. “Yes, in the short term we have an economy that is in danger,” Fink said. But he added that artificial intelligence and the emerging demand for infrastructure provide ‘transforming investment opportunities’. Fink also raised the outlook that investors will assign more money to Europe in the future. (Updates with quotes from CNBC interview that start in the fifth paragraph.) More stories like these are available on Bloomberg.com © 2025 Bloomberg LP first published: 11 Apr 2025, 10:59