US bank profits rise, but executives raise more tariff warnings

Nupur Anand, Saeed Azhar and Tatiana Bautzer

Fri, Apr 11, 2025, 6:35 AM 2 min read

By Nupur Anand, Saeed Azhar and Tatiana Bautzer

NEW YORK (Reuters) -Profits astatine large U.S. banks bushed forecasts successful the archetypal 4th arsenic banal trading jumped, but executives warned connected Friday that sweeping tariffs could substance risks and measurement connected economical growth.

Equity traders astatine JPMorgan Chase and Morgan Stanley brought successful grounds gross arsenic markets boomed astatine the commencement of the year, portion Wells Fargo earned much fees from clients. But manufacture executives said consumers and corporations were becoming much cautious astir U.S. President Donald Trump's sweeping tariffs, which person roiled markets and could spur ostentation and extremity the system into recession.

"Attention is present shifting to the tempest clouds of tariff uncertainty," said Peter Torrente, a banking assemblage person astatine KPMG successful the U.S. "The magnifying solid is hovering present implicit fiscal argumentation and recognition risk. The wellness of consumers’ finances is being cautiously observed, arsenic tariffs could pb to higher prices, impacting their indebtedness repayment capableness ... Monitoring indebtedness request from companies volition besides beryllium an important country to watch."

While it is excessively aboriginal to recognize the afloat implications of the tariffs, households and businesses were starting to respond to the import levies, executives astatine the biggest U.S. lenders said.

"You're starting to spot possibly a small spot of pivoting from consumers pre-buying worldly that mightiness beryllium getting much expensive," Jeremy Barnum, JPMorgan's main fiscal officer, told reporters. Corporate clients are successful a wait-and-see mode, due to the fact that "this level of argumentation uncertainty is 1 that makes it hard to program for the agelong term."

Corporations that are acceptable to study their results successful the upcoming weeks volition astir apt retreat their net forecasts fixed the uncertainty, JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon told analysts.

The latest warnings adhd to a chorus of Wall Street executives ringing alarm bells astir the imaginable economical harm from the tariffs, including Dimon, BlackRock CEO Larry Fink and billionaire money manager Bill Ackman.

Investors hoping for an extremity to chaotic marketplace swings were reminded with Thursday's stock-market plunge that shifting tariff plans stay a menace to net and the economy.

Corporate and commercialized banking clients "are taking a measurement backmost saying, 'you know, I request to get much clarity, certainty astir wherever things are going,'" Wells Fargo CFO Michael Santomassimo told journalists.

(Reporting by Nupur Anand, Saeed Azhar and Tatiana Bautzer successful New York, penning by Lananh Nguyen; editing by Rod Nickel)