For chief executives and bankers, the Trump euphoria is fading fast

It took less than a month for the second Trump administration to cool the enthusiasm of chief executives and dealmakers.

- Lauren Thomas, Ben Dummett & Chip Cutter

It took less than a month for the second Trump administration to cool the enthusiasm of chief executives and dealmakers. Consumer sentiment is down and inflation expectations are rising, driven in part by worries about the impact of a threatened trade war. The deals market just ended its quietest January in a decade. A Justice Department that was expected to wave through acquisitions instead sued to block a big technology merger.

Corporate bigwigs are now using phrases like "fragility," "volatility," and "wait and see" to describe their outlooks.

"Nobody knows what's up," Nick Pinchuk, CEO of toolmaker Snap-on, said on a conference call Thursday. "It's like being on Space Mountain at Disney World. You get on Space Mountain, you get in a car, and you're in the dark and the cars go left and right, left and right and abrupt turns, you don't know where you're going, but you know, you're pretty confident that you're going to get to the right place at the bottom."