Wall Street appeared strangely relaxed about the prospect of a second Donald Trump administration last autumn. A senior executive at one of the world’s largest investment firms told me at a drinks reception that he was not overly concerned despite the Republican president-elect’s threats to impose inflationary tariffs on America’s biggest trading partners. We’ve been through a Trump administration before and it was fine, he shrugged.
Indeed after Trump’s victory in November, optimism pervaded New York as dealmakers prepared for an M&A and IPO boom and Manhattan hedge funds reaped big profits from so-called Trump trades.
The buoyancy continued into the start of the year. Only six weeks ago, US business leaders at the World Economic Forum in Davos were still riding high on hopes
