JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon warned Friday the U.S. economy faces “considerable turbulence,” Yahoo Finance reports.
Dimon made the remarks as JPMorgan reported net income rose 9% to $14.6 billion in the first quarter, beating Wall Street’s profit and revenue targets. It was JPMorgan’s best quarter since the COVID pandemic.
“We continue to believe it is prudent to maintain excess capital and ample liquidity in this environment,” Dimon said.
The bank bought back $7 billion of common stock during the first quarter and set aside 75% more provisions to cover future loan losses — the latter a sign that it expects borrowers to face credit problems in the months ahead.
Investment banking “clients have become more cautious amid an increase in market volatility driven by geopolitical and trade-related tensions,” Dimon said in reference to the “potential negatives” of the tariffs that President Donald Trump has imposed on countries around the world.
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Dimon also pointed to the additional risks of sticky inflation, high fiscal deficits and volatility.
Nonetheless, tax reform and deregulation offer “potential positives.”
“As always, we hope for the best but prepare the firm for a wide range of scenarios,” Dimon said. “We have an extraordinary amount of liquidity, with $1.5 trillion of cash and marketable securities.”