JPMorgan’s Jamie Dimon Warns of ‘Considerable Turbulence’ Ahead for Economy

JPMorgan’s Jamie Dimon, known for his frankness, is tiptoeing around tariffs as he and other leaders of big banks reveal their latest earnings.

Wall Street’s biggest firms on Friday attempted the tricky two-step of revealing the toll of President Trump’s whiplash tariff policy without outright criticizing a man who has repeatedly tangled with the financial industry for slights both real and imagined.

“Obviously,” Jamie Dimon, JPMorgan Chase’s chief executive said in a conference call with reporters, “the China stuff is significant. We don’t know the full effect.”

“We support the administration’s willingness to look at barriers to fair trade for the United States,” Charlie Scharf, chief executive of Wells Fargo, said in a statement, “though there are certainly risks associated with such significant actions.”

In its push for tariffs, the United States has become “the global destabilizer,” said BlackRock’s chief executive, Laurence D. Fink.

Friday’s careful choreography came at the start of earnings season, a quarterly ritual in which publicly traded firms disclose their financial results and, in many cases, give projections. It’s not typically of interest for many people other than professional investors, but it took on new importance and anticipation this week with the market turmoil that has accompanied the escalating trade war between the United States and its major trading partners.

The spotlight was particularly focused on JPMorgan, the largest bank in the country, which was among several lenders announcing quarterly results on Friday. Its leader, Mr. Dimon, styles himself as a frank speaker and has publicly said he puts his country above his job.

He has offered a little bit for every audience this week.

In his annual shareholder letter, released on Monday, he warned that Mr. Trump’s saber rattling could damage America’s standing in the world, while simultaneously acknowledging the challenges of trade imbalances.

Two days later, on Fox Business, he talked up the benefits of some tariffs in a rare interview that Mr. Trump later said he had watched shortly before announcing a 90-day pause on tariffs for most countries except China.

On Friday morning, Mr. Dimon couldn’t quite seem to decide. In calls with reporters and Wall Street analysts, he warned that the economy faced “considerable turbulence” from the tariffs while he also echoed some of Mr. Trump’s statements that the immediate turmoil is nothing to worry about.

“I really almost don’t care fundamentally about what the economy does in the next two quarters,” Mr. Dimon said. “That isn’t that important. We’ll get through that. We’ve had recessions before and all of that.” He said the most important consideration was “to keep the world safe and free for democracy.”

JPMorgan otherwise performed ably in the quarter that ended March 31, posting a better-than-expected profit of nearly $15 billion. But in one indication of how the bank is steeling itself for the future, JPMorgan said it had added nearly half a billion dollars to its financial cushion for losses from customers who can’t pay credit card debts and loans.

It’s becoming clear that if financial titans have flashed some anger around Mr. Trump’s tariff policy, they are wary of criticizing the president directly.

One reason is that Mr. Trump has shown that he is willing to confront bankers, publicly. Shortly after his inauguration, in a speech given remotely to executives gathered in Davos, Switzerland, Mr. Trump complained to Bank of America’s chief executive, Brian T. Moynihan, that the lender’s conservative customers were having their bank accounts closed. (Bank of America denies that.)

The first lady, Melania Trump, has also claimed without evidence that their son, Barron, was denied an account at an unnamed bank.

Last month, the Trump Organization sued Capital One for shutting its accounts after the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol. The bank didn’t give a reason for closing the accounts, other than saying that as a rule it doesn’t consider politics in its operating decisions.

“It’s not smart to criticize the president,” said Robert K. Steel, a veteran Wall Street executive and top Treasury Department official under President George W. Bush.

Thus, many on Wall Street are most comfortable sticking to language so neutral it says almost nothing at all. Mr. Scharf of Wells Fargo simply said he expected “more volatility and uncertainty.”

Asked if corporate customers were reacting to the market volatility over the last week by stockpiling cash or drawing down their credit lines, Michael Santomassimo, Wells Fargo’s chief financial officer, said it was too early to tell.

The bank’s revenue in the first quarter fell slightly short of expectations, dipping to $20.1 billion, compared with $20.9 billion a year earlier. It earned a profit of $4.9 billion, up from the year before.

“Sentiment has obviously deteriorated,” Robin Vince, chief executive of BNY, one of the world’s largest banks, said in an interview. “Time is not our friend.” His bank also surpassed market projections for revenue and profit.

Mr. Fink, the BlackRock head, may have come the closest to offering pointed criticism on Friday. In an interview on CNBC, he warned that the American economy was “very close — if not in — a recession now.” He told analysts that the trade war “went beyond anything I could have imagined in my 49 years in finance.”

During the first quarter, the giant asset manager attracted less money to its funds than had been expected, which Mr. Fink attributed to anxiety about the future.

Some anxiety, too, appeared to apply to Mr. Dimon. In his briefing with the media, he turned prickly when asked about his conversations with the Trump White House.

“I speak periodically to folks in the administration — which I don’t have to tell you about,” he told one reporter.

A bank spokesman quickly cut in to ask for the next question.

Stacy Cowley and Maureen Farrell contributed reporting.

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