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Blackstone President Jonathan Gray has warned that the US economy faces the risk of a recession, unless Donald Trump can rapidly hit the trade agreements, becoming the latest Wall Street chief to put pressure on the administration.
The US president announced last week a 90-day steep tariff suspension that the White House had imposed on most US trading partners, paving the way for dozens of countries.
Gray, who oversees the daily operations of the Investment Group, said: “I would expect an economic slowdown. How important economic slowdown will be directly related to the length of tariff diplomacy.”
He added: “The risk of recession is directly related to the length of uncertainty”, saying that a quick solution for trade talks would be “positive for the economy and markets”.
Blackstone chief Stephen Schwarzman said the uncertainty about tariffs “dramatically influenced the feeling of investors” negatively. “We believe that the rapid solution is essential to mitigate risks and keep the economy in the path of growth,” he said in a call with analysts.
Trump’s climb came after aggressive tasks brought out the days of market unrest. The US president, who has said that more than 70 countries are relying to negotiate trade agreements, talks with Japanese officials on a possible agreement this week.
Comments from Gray and Schwarzman came after Jpmorgan Chase Jamie Dimon’s chief executive said he hoped that the White House would soon reach a “deal in principle” with US trading partners.
The stock and bond markets have been stabilized since the US tariff pause, but the White House has increased tasks in China and also held an initial 10 percent tax from all countries.
Gray said the ranks in the markets had created investment opportunities for Blackstone, which has 1.2Tn $ in assets.
“(You) you have to predict that we are in a period of instability and uncertainty elevated, but in some cases, we are seeing prices start reflecting it and this can create opportunities for us to invest,” he said.
Blackstone reported on Thursday the first trimester results to defeat Wall Street’s expectations, with its distributed metric profits favored by analysts as a representative for money flow-increased 11 percent to 1.4bn $.
The company collected $ 62 billion from investors in the quarter, its largest load in nearly three years, with its credit and insurance business attracting $ 30 billion.
Blackstone also collected $ 11 billion for its funds from rich individual investors. About a quarter of the group’s total assets are now managed on behalf of individual investors, from almost nothing a decade ago.
This month Blackstone announced a plan with Vanguard and Wellington management to create funds that will invest in public and private wealth and wealthy investors. Blackstone is betting on this business group will help increase growth.
Both Gray and Schwarzman said Blackstone is likely not to keep businesses in the toughest financial markets, something that would slow down its performance tariff revenue.
“More unstable markets mean that we are less likely to sell in the near deadline,” Schwarzman said on the phone.
