Investors are underestimating Donald Trump’s resolve to restore the steep tariffs that upended markets last month, bond giant Pimco has warned, as its investment chief said recession risks were now the highest in years.
“Believe Trump. He believes in tariffs,” Dan Ivascyn, chief investment officer at Pimco, said in an interview with the Financial Times alongside chief executive Emmanuel Roman.
Trump imposed “reciprocal” levies on many major trading partners at his “liberation day” event on April 2, a move that sent US equities and some corporate debt reeling. The president’s decision a week later to pause the levies on most trading partners for 90 days calmed markets, with the S&P 500 share index reversing the plunge triggered by the announcement.