According to a top executive, Goldman Sachs has reduced its risk-taking since United States President Donald Trump announced tariffs in April 2025 and is prepared for additional uncertainty.
“We have moderated our risk positioning since April 2nd – I think that’s a sensible thing for us to do. We are absorbing a lot of risk from our clients. We want to continue to do that, but we also, where we can, we (pare) our risk and stay a little bit closer to home,” Goldman Sachs President John Waldron said in a podcast released by the investment bank.
According to Goldman Sachs, he is maintaining a larger liquidity cushion in anticipation of ongoing uncertainty in the upcoming months. Since Donald Trump’s so-called “Liberation Day,” when he declared his intention to raise tariffs on trading partners, financial markets have been tumultuous.
The tariff move was “very, very disruptive,” according to John Waldron, who is generally regarded as Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon’s likely successor.
He stated that some businesses are now beginning to base their business decisions on the presumption that tariffs will be increased to between 10% and 15%.
“We’re now moving into an adjustment phase, and you’ll see, I think, some more decision-making on capital spend, M&A transactions, capital return, stock buybacks,” John Waldron said.
According to him, the American economy is still robust due to a strong labour market and consumer spending.
“All those factors in the US to me lead to a likely scenario where we don’t have a recession,” he said.
In the meantime, John Waldron cautioned that investors were growing anxious about the US budget deficit, which was unsustainable.
“The bond market is starting to be heard, and I hope that gets some attention in the halls of Congress,” he said.
In May 2025, Moody’s, the final major ratings agency to downgrade the United States, lowered its pristine sovereign credit rating by one notch, citing worries about the country’s mounting debt load of USD 36 trillion.
“The path of interest rates, especially in the long term, is the biggest question for markets,” John Waldron concluded.