Bank trading desks are minting money from Trump's tariff chaos

Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan, Morgan Stanley all said a surge in trading revenue helped lift their profits in the first quarter

- AnnaMaria Andriotis

Wall Street is raking in even more money from trading than it did during the market's Covid-19 era swings. Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase and Morgan Stanley all said a surge in trading revenue helped lift their profits in the first quarter and beat expectations. Bank trading desks have been collecting more fees from investors scrambling to reduce or dial up the risk in their portfolios on any new clue about how President Trump's tariffs might ultimately play out.

Combined, the three banks earned more than $12 billion in fees in their equities businesses, the desks that run stock-market related activities for clients. That tops the trading boom that followed some of the pandemic's worst days.

The jump came even before Trump's "Liberation Day" announcements on April 2 sent markets into a tailspin. Stock markets then had a massive one-day rally after Trump paused most of his so-called reciprocal tariffs. Wall Street executives have warned that Trump's tariffs and the uncertainty around them could push the economy into a recession. That would hurt their businesses by leading to a pullback in corporate borrowing and dealmaking. For now, Wall Street expects trading desks to keep benefiting.