This is how the “Wall Street” wolves live the financial tremor: urgent meetings, called customers and concern for their bonds

In interviews, More than half a dozen investment bankers and money administrators said that days had spent talking with customers who manufacture everything, from cars to thermal cups and sportswear, helping them deal with the rapid and dramatic consequences of Trump’s movements in commerce.

In Citi, Goldman Sachs, Bank of America, Lazard and other places, in conversations that extended during this week, several bankers said they had developed strategies on how to respond to an avalanche of calls from corporate clients while they were privately worried about their own bonuses this year.

Goldman Sachs and Bank of America declined to comment. Lazard did not immediately respond to requests for comments outside working hours.

The advice that gave several bankers to their corporate clients was: avoid predicting too much, given the uncertainty of the White House.

Investor panic for falls in the markets

Customers were concerned about employment, economy and credit, said a senior executive of the financial sector: “We receive calls and people say: ‘My God, what’s happening?'”

The wave of conversations after racks with clients, some of whose details had not been reported before, shows how Trump’s decision to raise US tariffs at its highest level in more than a century has sent shock waves to the corporate world.

The uncertainty about Trump’s political leadership is paralyzing the decision -making of companies and could have dire consequences for the economy, according to analysts. Trump’s pause does not eliminate that uncertainty.

“Even if the administration decides to reduce the climb of global commercial wars and focus their attention on other political areas, we are not yet safe,” said Christian Hoffmann, director of Fixed Income at Thornburg Investment Management in Santa Fe, New Mexico. “Uncertainty remains exceptionally high.”

Wall Street

When explaining his pause, Trump said people had been “jumping a little from the line.” He told reporters: “They were getting nervous, do you know?”, Using a golf term to refer to spasms on the wrists.

Although Trump had telegraphic plans to increase tariffs for months before the November elections, the severity and speed with which he increased the taxes took investors by surprise.

“There was a genuine disbelief that this was happening,” said Sema Shah, the leading global strategist of the main Asset Management in London, about his conversations morning after the announcement of the tariffs.

Trump’s rapid escalation caused mass dislocations in global markets, particularly in the United States, where foreign investors saw new risks in investments that were previously sure, such as treasure bonds and the dollar, two anchors of the global financial system.

An institutional investor in New York headed said that the highest hierarchy personnel gathered last week and again after the weekend to discuss how volatility was affecting their portfolio.

The investor, who requested anonymity to speak frankly, said that the risk team had thoroughly examined all its investments to compare them with capital reductions suffered during previous crises, providing potential losses in their capital positions of 10% or 20%. They debated if they should have covered themselves against the tariff risk, but decided that it would have been too expensive, he added.

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Stephen Gilmore, Investment Director of Calpers, said that the 500 billion dollars retirement fund for California public workers was well positioned, but “we are not immune to these market challenges,” and added that the commercial war could affect its investment returns, which will be reported on June 30.

“The new tariffs and other policy changes are generating a volatility that reminds of the world financial crisis and the early stages of the Covid-19 pandemic,” Gilmore told Reuters in a statement.

Trump’s announcement on April 2 was immediately derailed or delayed several initial public offers and other agreements, according to interviews with more than a dozen investment bankers, private capital investors and portfolio managers.

A private capital investor in London who planned to sign the documentation to acquire a medium -sized technology company in Europe said he canceled the agreement last Thursday.

The New York Stubhub ticket distributor executives, the Swedish purchase firm now and then paid Klarna and the Financial Technology company Chime, all of which they planned to make presentations for investors this week, observed the markets and waited before deciding, at the end of the week, delaying their IPO at least a week or two, according to Reuters.

A lawyer specialized in mergers and acquisitions, who requested anonymity, commented that they had begun the year thinking that it would be strong, with an accumulated demand for OPV and other transactions. “But when the VIX reaches the levels of the era of the COVID-19, you cannot close operations,” he said, referring to an indicator of volatility known as the Wall Street fear indicator.

Investors were already preparing for disappointment when the big banks begin to publish their results of the first quarter on Friday. The Global Investment Bank commissions fell 4.9%, to 21,470 million dollars, in the quarter compared to the previous year, according to Dealogic.

The bankers are concerned that this month’s agitation erosione even more revenues -and possibly bonuses next year -four bankers said.

“The problem is that there is a trusted shock when investing in the United States,” said Mabrouk Chetoouane, director of Global Market Strategy of the French Assets Manager Natixis Investment Managers. “The US president is unpredictable for investors. The rules can change overnight.”

(Reuters – Information from Svea Herbst -Bayliss, Binnie Island, Ross Kerber and Dhara Ranasinghe; Additional information from Milana Vinn, Tatian Paritith Bansal and William Mallard)