Goldman Sachs revealed its latest financial results and future prospects on Monday. In a clever feat of linguistics, the executives prevented the word “customers” from uttering once.
Instead, in an hour-long call with the analyst, bank CEO David M. Solomon spread out a bouquet of e-music representations, saying there was a “change in the landscape,” “uncertainty about how things intimate go,” and “changes in the composition that influenced the interaction between the US and the global economic system.”
When asked directly about how investment banking business is being carried this month, Solomon said, “I would say there was only a handful of people who changed perspectives on April 2, but they're going to be about changing perspectives before April 2.”
It was the day when President Trump announced a wide range of global tariffs, crashed the stock market and created uncertainty across the international economy.
As one of the world's largest elite investment banks, Goldman has found Trump's tariff policies to be in the middle of unlocked markets and economic turmoil.
But based on Monday's comments, Goldman Sachs' leadership has not only shunned emergence that criticizes Trump, but also shunned all the details of him and his policies.
The pointlessness from Goldman was particularly jarring given that several Wall Street chiefs, including Jamie Dimon, head of Jpmorgan Chase and Larry Fink of BlackRock, were more direct in their assessment of the confusion. Other Wall Street Titans have publicly accused Trump of pushing the economy on the brink of recession by rolling out tariffs on Trump.
The major banks began reporting their latest revenue last week. This is a quarterly ritual that has become new and important amid the market turmoil that follows the escalating trade war between the United States and its trading partners. Banks have historically been considered barometers of the economy as a whole.
Goldman has long enjoyed a close relationship with Washington. Washington once gave it the nickname “Government Saxophone.” And there's a reason why bank executives don't want to touch the stove. The Bank of New York reported revenue and profits exceeded expectations for the quarter ended March 31st. Profit was $4.6 billion, up 17% from the same period last year. That stock rose about 2% on Monday, along with the stock's overall rise.
International lenders have fallen 12% overall this year as they are caught in the recession threat that discourages consumers and businesses from blocking borrowing and cooperation from banks such as Goldman.
Goldman's business arrangements and promotion of stock trading has grown strongly. U.S. stock markets peaked in the quarter after Trump announced widespread tariffs in early April. This helped offset the decline in investment bank fees as transaction production slowed amid the uncertainty caused by tariff policies in Trump's dealing with.
Solomon said on Monday that Goldman is experiencing a “huge” volume in currency trading, but it wasn't surprising given Trump's tariffs have led to a sharp sinking of the US dollar price.
In his prepared remarks, Solomon said, “It is commendable for its focus on trade barriers and strengthening the US competitiveness.”
Shortly before the revenue was announced, a Goldman executive gave an explanation to a group of reporters under a deal that he would not be named. As the interview began, the spokesperson was cut to discourage questions about the trade war.
