Big Banks Maintain "The Sky Is Not Falling" Amid Trump Tariff War

Big banks are offering a cautiously optimistic view of how their customers are faring amid President Trump’s escalating tariff war — and so far, the message is that things aren’t as bad as feared, David Hollerith reported for Yahoo Finance.

Combined, JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, Citigroup, Morgan Stanley, and Goldman Sachs reported $35 billion in net profits. I Photo: Business Wire

“The message has really been that the sky is not falling,” said Saul Martinez, a bank analyst at HSBC.

Over the past week, five of the country’s largest banks posted first-quarter increases in both profits and revenue, driven in part by strong trading activity spurred by market volatility from the rollout of Trump’s first tariffs in February and March.

Combined, JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, Citigroup, Morgan Stanley, and Goldman Sachs reported $35 billion in net profits — a 13% increase from the same quarter last year. Trading revenue alone rose 17% to more than $36 billion.

Many banks said their consumer customers were still spending, loan defaults remained manageable, and businesses were not showing signs of distress despite the uncertainty about the months ahead.