JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon said Monday that tariffs announced by President Donald Trump last week will likely boost prices on both domestic and imported goods, weighing down a U.S. economy that had already been slowing.
Dimon, 69, addressed the tariff policy Trump announced on April 2 in his annual shareholder letter, which has become a closely read screed on the state of the economy, proposals for the issues facing the U.S. and his take on effective management.
“Whatever you think of the legitimate reasons for the newly announced tariffs – and, of course, there are some – or the long-term effect, good or bad, there are likely to be important short-term effects,” Dimon said. “We are likely to see inflationary outcomes, not only on imported goods but on domestic prices, as input costs rise and demand increases on domestic products.”
“Whether or not the menu of tariffs causes a recession remains in question, but it will slow down growth,” he said.
Dimon is the first CEO of a major Wall Street bank to publicly address Trump’s sweeping tariff policy as global markets crash. Though the JPMorgan chairman has often used his platform to highlight geopolitical and financial risks he sees, this year’s letter comes at an unusually turbulent time. Stocks have been in freefall since Trump’s announcement shocked global markets, causing the worst week for U.S. equities since the outbreak of the Covid pandemic in 2020.
His remarks appear to backtrack earlier comments he made in January, when Dimon said that people should “get over” tariff concerns because they were good for national security. At the time, tariff levels being discussed were far lower than what was unveiled last week.
Trump’s tariff policy has created “many uncertainties,” including its impact on global capital flows and the dollar, the impact to corporate profits and the response from trading partners, Dimon said.
“The quicker this issue is resolved, the better because some of the negative effects increase cumulatively over time and would be hard to reverse,” he said. “In the short run, I see this as one large additional straw on the camel’s back.”
‘Not so sure’
While the U.S. economy has performed well for the past few years, helped by nearly $11 trillion in government borrowing and spending, it was “already weakening” in recent weeks, even before Trump’s tariff announcement, according to Dimon. Inflation is likely to be stickier than many anticipate, meaning that interest rates could remain elevated even as the economy slows, he added.
“The economy is facing considerable turbulence (including geopolitics), with the potential positives of tax reform and deregulation and the potential negatives of tariffs and ‘trade wars,’ ongoing sticky inflation, high fiscal deficits and still rather high asset prices and volatility,” Dimon said.
Dimon also struck a somewhat ominous note considering how much U.S. stocks have already fallen from their recent highs. According to the JPMorgan CEO, both stocks and credit spreads were still potentially too optimistic.
“Markets still seem to be pricing assets with the assumption that we will continue to have a fairly soft landing,” Dimon said. “I am not so sure.”
This story is developing. Please check back for updates.
Director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Russell Vought attends a cabinet meeting at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., April 10, 2025.
The inspector general’s office told Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and Sen. Andy Kim, D-N.J., that it was taking up their request to investigate the moves of the consumer agency’s new leadership, according to a June 6 letter seen by CNBC.
“We had already initiated work to review workforce reductions at the CFPB” in response to an earlier request from lawmakers, acting Inspector General Fred Gibson said in the letter. “We are expanding that work to include the CFPB’s canceled contracts.”
The letter confirms that key oversight arms of the U.S. government are now examining the whirlwind of activity at the bureau after Trump’s acting CFPB head Russell Vought took over in February. Vought told employees to halt work, while he and operatives from Elon Musk‘s Department of Government Efficiency sought to lay off most of the agency’s staff and end contracts with external providers.
That prompted Warren and Kim to ask the Fed inspector general and the Government Accountability Office to review the legality of Vought’s actions and the extent to which they hindered the CFPB’s mission. The GAO told the lawmakers in April that it would examine the matter.
“As Trump dismantles vital public services, an independent OIG investigation is essential to understand the damage done by this administration at the CFPB and ensure it can still fulfill its mandate to work on the people’s behalf and hold companies who try to cheat and scam them accountable,” Kim told CNBC in a statement.
The Fed IG office serves as an independent watchdog over both the Fed and the CFPB, and has the power to examine agency records, issue subpoenas and interview personnel. It can also refer criminal matters to the Department of Justice.
Soon after his inauguration, Trump fired more than 17 inspectors general across federal agencies. Spared in that purge was Michael Horowitz, the IG for the Justice Department since 2012, who this month was named the incoming watchdog for the Fed and CFPB.
Horowitz, who begins in his new role at the end of this month, was reportedly praised by Trump supporters for uncovering problems with the FBI’s handling of its probe into Trump’s 2016 campaign.
Meanwhile, the fate of the CFPB hinges on a looming decision from a federal appeals court. Judges temporarily halted Vought’s efforts to lay off employees, but are now considering the Trump administration’s appeal over its plans for the agency.
Check out the companies making the biggest moves in premarket trading: Boeing –The airplane maker lost 7.5% following the crash of an Air India Boeing Dreamliner Thursday. The plane, carrying 242 passengers and crew, crashed shortly after takeoff from Ahmedabad, India. The cause of the crash is not immediately clear. Shares of jet engine maker GE Aerospace shed 4.6%. Oracle — The cloud computing stock surged nearly 9% after fourth-quarter earnings and revenue beat analyst estimates. Adjusted earnings of $1.70 per share topped the $1.64 a share expected by analysts polled by LSEG. Revenue was $15.9 billion versus the $15.6 billion consensus estimate. GameStop — The meme stock and video game retailer sank almost 16% after announcing it will sell $1.75 billion of convertible senior notes , with proceeds earmarked for “general corporate purposes, including making investments,” potentially including buying bitcoin. CoreWeave — Shares of the cloud infrastructure added more than 1% after Reuters reported that it CoreWeave will provide computing capacity as part of the recent deal between OpenAI and Alphabet . CureVac — The stock clinical stage biotech company jumped 30% after Germany’s BioNTech agreed to acquire it in an all-stock deal valued at $1.25 billion. Shares of BioNTech were fractionally lower. Voyager Technologies — The space tech stock popped 4.5% premarket. Voyager closed its first day of trading on Wednesday at $56.48, more than 82% above its initial public offering price of $31. Oklo — Shares dropped 6.6%, after the advanced nuclear reactor company planned to raise $400 million in a public offering, one day after Oklo surged more than 25% on a contract win to supply power to an Air Force base. Chime Financial — The online banking services provider priced its initial public offering at $27 per share Wednesday, valuing Chime at $11.6 billion. The stock is set to begin trading Thursday under the ticker CHYM. —CNBC’s Jesse Pound, Sarah Min and Alex Harring contributed reporting.
A Gamestop store is seen in Union Square on April 4, 2025 in New York City.
Michael M. Santiago | Getty Images
GameStop shares slid on Thursday after the video game retailer and meme stock announced plans for a $1.75 billion convertible notes offering to potentially fund its new bitcoin purchase strategy.
The company said it intends to use the net proceeds from the offering for general corporate purposes, “including making investments in a manner consistent with GameStop’s Investment Policy and potential acquisitions.”
Part of the investment policy is to add cryptocurrencies on its balance sheet. Last month, GameStop bought 4,710 bitcoins, worth more than half a billion dollars.
The stock tanked more than 15% in premarket trading following the announcement.
GameStop
GameStop is following in the footsteps of software company MicroStrategy, now known as Strategy, which bought billions of dollars worth of bitcoin in recent years to become the largest corporate holder of the flagship cryptocurrency. That decision prompted a rapid, albeit volatile, rise for Strategy’s stock.
Strategy has issued various forms of securities including convertible debt to fund its bitcoin purchases.
CEO Ryan Cohen recently said GameStop’s decision to buy bitcoin is driven by macro concerns as the digital coin, with its fixed supply and decentralized nature, could serve as protection against certain risks.
The brick-and-mortar retailer reported a decline in fiscal first-quarter revenue on Tuesday as demand for online gaming rose. Its revenue dropped 17% year-over-year to $732.4 million.
The shares fell 6% on Wednesday after those results. Wall Street appears uncertain it can mimic the success of MicroStrategy.
Wedbush analyst Michael Pachter reiterated his underperform rating on GameStop Wednesday, saying the meme stock has consistently capitalized on “greater fools” willing to pay more than twice its asset value for its shares. The Wedbush analyst believes the bitcoin buying strategy makes little sense as the company, already trading at 2.4 times cash, isn’t likely to drive an even greater premium by converting more cash to crypto.