Finance

Lynn Martin, NYSE President, speaking on CNBC’s Squawk Box outside the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland on Jan. 22, 2025.
Gerry Miller | CNBC

 The great American entrepreneur Henry Ford once said, “The only real security that a man can have in this world is a reserve of knowledge, experience and ability.” In surveying the recent volatility in global financial markets from my perch as president of the New York Stock Exchange, I believe this notion remains as true today as it did 100 years ago.
After 233 years, the New York Stock Exchange remains the beating heart of the global financial system. In recent weeks, the faces of our trading floor have been seen on the front pages of newspapers from New York to Tokyo. Our real-time market data is on constant display across television news and social media.

From my conversations with investors — ranging from everyday retail traders to the world’s largest asset managers — I thoroughly understand the challenges posed by the recent market turmoil.
Separate from the ups and downs of our markets, though, Americans should feel assured by another trend from recent weeks: The infrastructure and operational practices underpinning our markets are the envy of the world and have met the challenge posed by recent volatility.
U.S. markets come from humble beginnings. The New York Stock Exchange was started in 1792 by a group of twenty-four stockbrokers who met outdoors under a buttonwood tree. That has evolved from a structure which was once dominated by people shouting “buy” or “sell” to one that today blends the best of human judgment interacting with state-of-the-art technology.
Since April 3, our designated market makers have taken manual control of the opening and closing auctions at more than two times their usual rate to mitigate the market’s extreme volatility. This flexibility, unique to our model, has fostered greater engagement from market participants, with NYSE’s opening and closing auctions growing more than 20% to handle over 32 billion dollars in trading activity per day.
We’ve also seen trades settle and clear more efficiently than the last time our systems were battle tested. Following the Covid-19 market sell-off, the exchange industry accelerated the time to settle trades from two days to one — increasing certainty and diminishing risk.

With dramatic swings in the Dow, S&P 500 and other major indices, U.S. exchanges are absorbing a record number of transactions and volume. At the New York Stock Exchange, we have struck a record volume of trades on our exchanges three times in the last seven days — peaking on April 9 with over 30 billion shares exchanged hands.
On April 7 and April 9, we processed more than 1 trillion incoming orders to buy or sell shares in a single day, with a median processing time of around 30 microseconds. Said differently, efficient certainty of execution has never been more crucial from a risk management perspective and the ecosystem has risen to the occasion.
Amid great uncertainty, our markets have provided investors with the freedom to digest global events, make investment decisions and execute trades with unrivaled speed and accuracy.
It is no accident that our system is working. It’s a system we have built and refined over more than two centuries. We make constant, immense investments in our technology. We push our teams to innovate. We prepare for every crisis imaginable.
In moments of uncertainty like these, we are constantly guided our north star of protecting the integrity of the U.S. market infrastructure. We rely on our reserve of knowledge and our experience to ensure the market’s strength and resiliency and the collective efforts from the financial industry maintain the U.S.’s position as the largest and most robust financial market in the world.
When it comes to risk management, and what it takes to run the largest and most robust markets in the world, Henry Ford got it right. More

In 1990s Japan the worst days of a market crisis brought about a “triple yasu” loss: a fall in stockmarkets, a rise in bond yields and a declining currency. It is now America that must stomach this noxious combination. Although President Donald Trump’s tariff pause provided a brief respite, the triple yasu has made an unwelcome return. Most alarming lately have been movements in the bond and currency markets. In total since April 1st the dollar has fallen by more than 4% against a basket of major currencies, at the same time as yields on ten-year Treasury bonds have risen by 0.3 percentage points (see chart). More

In 1990s Japan the worst days of a market crisis brought about a “triple yasu” loss: a fall in stockmarkets, a rise in bond yields and a declining currency. It is now America that must stomach this noxious combination. Although President Donald Trump’s tariff pause provided a brief respite, the triple yasu has made an unwelcome return. Most alarming lately have been movements in the bond and currency markets. In total since April 1st the dollar has fallen by more than 4% against a basket of major currencies, at the same time as yields on ten-year Treasury bonds have risen by 0.3 percentage points (see chart). More

SO FAR THIS year China has imported ten American films, including the zany “A Minecraft Movie”. But there is a limit to how much American drama anyone can stand. After President Donald Trump’s latest plot-twist—lowering the “reciprocal” tariff on most countries to 10%, while raising it on China to 125%—the China Film Administration stepped in. It said it would cut the number of Hollywood productions screened in the mainland. After all, Mr Trump’s tariffs would diminish the Chinese audience’s “favourable perception of American films”, it said. More

JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon said Friday that he expects estimates for corporate earnings to fall amid the uncertainty created by President Donald Trump’s trade negotiations.
“Analysts have generally reduced their S&P estimate earnings by 5%,” in recent days, Dimon said. “I think you’ll see that come down some more.”

JPMorgan Chase CEO and Chairman Jamie Dimon gestures as he speaks during the U.S. Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee oversight hearing on Wall Street firms, on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C.
Evelyn Hockstein | Reuters

JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon said Friday that he expects estimates for corporate earnings to fall amid the uncertainty created by President Donald Trump’s trade negotiations.
In a call with reporters to discuss first quarter earnings, JPMorgan CFO Jeremy Barnum said he didn’t see a reason to pull the bank’s guidance, which is contingent on how the economy and interest rates play out.

His boss, Dimon, then interjected, speaking about the broader corporate world: “I would just add companies, some have taken away their guidance. I expect to see more of that.”
“Analysts have generally reduced their S&P estimate earnings by 5%,” in recent days, Dimon said. “I think you’ll see that come down some more.”
Companies will be reporting earnings over the next several weeks, giving managers an opportunity to update investors on their outlook during a period of heightened uncertainty. Markets have whipsawed since Trump announced a sweeping set of tariffs on America’s trading partners last week, and have remained volatile as U.S.-China tensions have escalated.
The uncertainty is causing clients to pull back from acquiring companies and making investments as they adopt a wait-and-see attitude, Dimon and Barnum said.
Anecdotal examples suggest that “people are being cautious,” Dimon said. “You know, people are pulling back on doing deals, not just big ones, but middle market companies are being very cautious about investment.”
This story is developing. Please check back for updates. More

A Wells Fargo Bank branch is seen in New York City on March 17, 2020.
Jeenah Moon | Reuters

Wells Fargo on Friday reported an increase in quarterly earnings on the back of stable income from investment banking and wealth management.
Here’s what the bank reported for the first quarter compared with what Wall Street was expecting, based on a survey of analysts by LSEG:

Adjusted earnings per share: $1.39, 16% higher year over year and beating the $1.24 estimate.
Revenue: $20.15 billion versus $20.75 billion expected

Shares of Wells Fargo dipped 1% in pre-market trading after the results.
Net interest income, a key measure of what a bank makes on loans, fell 6% year over year to $11.50 billion. Non-interest income, which includes investment banking fees, brokerage commissions and advisory fees, rose 1% to $8.65 billion from last year’s $8.54 billion.
CEO Charlie Scharf highlighted the uncertainty in the economy brought on by the Trump administration’s actions to reorient global trade, calling for a timely resolution.
“We support the administration’s willingness to look at barriers to fair trade for the United States, though there are certainly risks associated with such significant actions,” Scharf said in a statement. “Timely resolution which benefits the U.S. would be good for businesses, consumers, and the markets. We expect continued volatility and uncertainty and are prepared for a slower economic environment in 2025, but the actual outcome will be dependent on the results and timing of the policy changes.”
Wells Fargo bought back 44.5 million of its own shares, worth $3.5 billion, in first quarter.
The San Francisco-based lender set aside $932 million as provision for credit losses, which included a decrease in the allowance for credit losses. More

Global equity markets have been incredibly volatile recently, amid ongoing uncertainty stemming from U.S. tariffs.
That’s spelling trouble for venture capital, with major tech unicorns already delaying plans to go public due to tech stocks plunging.
The industry was already under immense pressure amid a dearth of tech IPOs and M&A deals.

A VIX volatility index chart on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York, US, on Wednesday, March 19, 2025. Federal Reserve officials held their benchmark interest rate steady for a second straight meeting, though they telegraphed expectations for slower economic growth and higher inflation.
Photographer: Michael Nagle | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Already under pressure amid last week’s multitrillion-dollar stock market rout, the venture capital industry now faces an even tougher outlook amid ongoing uncertainty stemming from U.S. tariffs.
A dearth of initial public offerings or mergers and acquisitions — coupled with the trend that startups are now staying private for longer — has put immense strain on VC funds. Venture capitalists can typically only realize gains on their investments when a company goes public or is sold, allowing them to cash out.

Mere days after U.S. President Donald Trump announced plans to impose so-called reciprocal tariffs on a swathe of countries, it emerged that two major tech unicorns — fintech firm Klarna and ticketing platform StubHub — were delaying plans to go public due to a sharp plunge in global equity markets. Notably, both companies had filed initial public offering prospectuses in recent weeks.
“No one can go out with this turbulence,” Tobias Bengtsdahl, a partner at VC firm Antler’s Nordics fund, told CNBC on a call last week. “When the market plunges like it has now … you have to do the same prediction on the private markets.”

Tough outlook for VC

As private markets don’t move in the same way public markets do, it becomes more difficult for tech startups to go out and raise capital — whether from the stock market or venture capital — as they could end up seeing their valuations go down.

“We don’t change the valuations of our startups just because the stock market goes down,” Antler’s Bengtsdahl said. Venture-backed startups’ valuations only tend to change when they’re raising a new equity round.
“That has a huge impact on funds raising right now and startups raising from multi-stage investors,” he added.

That could soon make it more difficult for startups — and especially growth-stage firms — to raise venture capital. Later-stage firms tend to be more exposed to swings in public markets than early-stage startups, given they’re closer than most to reaching the IPO milestone.
Private markets are less liquid than public markets, meaning investors can’t sell shares easily. The main way private equity owners sell part or all of their stake in a company is via an IPO or M&A — also known as an “exit.” The other alternative is to sell shares to another investor on the secondary market.
“[General partners] will be under pressure from [limited partners] to make sure these exits happen,” Alex Barr, partner and head of private market fund management firm Sarasin Bread Street, told CNBC last week, adding that IPOs remain a “very fickle beast to manage.”
General partners are investors who manage a venture fund, whereas limited partners are institutional investors — like pension funds and hedge funds — or high-net-worth individuals who pour money into funds.

Limited partners invest in a venture fund in the hope that they’ll generate sizable returns over its lifetime, which can span as long as 10 years. Early-stage funds invest in the hope that a few startups in their portfolio will generate the kind of returns outcomes like Uber and Spotify reaped for their private backers.

Hope for Europe tech?

On the bright side, the uncertainty could be a chance for Europe’s private tech startups to shine, according to Sanjot Malhi, a partner at London-based venture capital firm Northzone.
“The short-term pause in IPO activity is a natural response to recent market turbulence, and we can expect to have more clarity on company positions once some sense of stability is restored,” Malhi told CNBC.
He nevertheless added that, “if talent and liquidity find the U.S. environment less hospitable, that flow has to go somewhere, and Europe has a chance to benefit.”
Christel Piron, CEO of startup investor PSV Foundry, told CNBC that the “silver lining” from uncertainty created by tariffs is how “Europe is moving closer together amid the turbulence.”
“We’re seeing more founders choosing to stay and scale here, driven by a growing sense of responsibility to help build a resilient European tech nation,” Piron said.

There could also be other routes to exit for venture capital funds, according to Northzone’s Malhi — including acquisitions or even so-called “down rounds” where startups raise funds at reduced valuations.
“If the global IPO window does narrow in the longer term, then we would still expect a strong M&A landscape, as stakeholders seek ‘problem-solving’ exits,” he told CNBC.
“If that is the case, we may also see an increase in later-stage fundraises, as companies look to bridge the capital gap until they can find such opportunities, albeit at potentially lower valuations.”
Further down the line, investors are holding out hope for big tech IPOs to return later into Trump’s presidency. VCs had counted on the Trump administration resulting in a reinvigorated IPO market.
“A lot of people feel Trump has promised them open up the IPO market and open up the M&A market,” Antler’s Bengtsdahl said.
“It’s now 6 months into his term,” he added, noting the market can tolerate the new administration’s failure to meet this pledge in its early days. “But people are demanding that it happens within his term.” More

JPMorgan Chase on Friday reported results that topped estimates on higher-than-expected revenue, helped by booming equity trading activity.
While JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon touted his company’s solid results in the quarter, he also struck a note of caution on the broader economy.
“The economy is facing considerable turbulence (including geopolitics), with the potential positives of tax reform and deregulation and the potential negatives of tariffs and ‘trade wars,’ ongoing sticky inflation, high fiscal deficits and still rather high asset prices and volatility,” Dimon said.

Jamie Dimon, CEO of JPMorgan Chase, leaves the U.S. Capitol after a meeting with Republican members of the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee on the issue of debanking on Thursday, February 13, 2025.
Tom Williams | Cq-roll Call, Inc. | Getty Images

JPMorgan Chase on Friday reported results that topped estimates on higher-than-expected revenue, helped by booming equity trading activity.
Here’s what the company reported:

Earnings: $5.07 a share
Revenue: $46.01 billion vs. expected $44.11 billion, according to LSEG

The bank said that first-quarter profit rose 9% to $14.64 billion, or $5.07 a share. Excluding a one-time gain of 16 cents per share tied to its First Republic acquisition, JPM earned $4.91 per share, compared with the LSEG estimate of $4.61.
Revenue rose 8% to $46.01 billion, helped by higher asset management and investment banking fees and strong trading results.
Shares of the firm rose about 2% in premarket trading.
While JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon touted his company’s solid results in the quarter, he also struck a note of caution on the broader economy. Markets have whipsawed violently since President Donald Trump escalated global trade tensions last week.
“The economy is facing considerable turbulence (including geopolitics), with the potential positives of tax reform and deregulation and the potential negatives of tariffs and ‘trade wars,’ ongoing sticky inflation, high fiscal deficits and still rather high asset prices and volatility,” Dimon said.

“As always, we hope for the best but prepare the Firm for a wide range of scenarios,” he added.
The lack of certainty in the business environment for many companies was expected to cast a pall over some investment banking activities, including IPO listings and merger advice.
But it was also expected to provide a good environment for Wall Street trading desks to print money.
Wells Fargo and Morgan Stanley are also out with quarterly reports report Friday. Morgan Stanley similarly reported surging trading activity.
Goldman Sachs, Bank of America and Citigroup report next week.
This story is developing. Please check back for updates. More