Stock Market Whiplash Simmers Down, but BlackRock’s CEO Is “Petrified”

Published: April 11, 2025 by Omor IE

Key Points

The stock market is more mixed today despite retaliatory tariffs from China.
BlackRock’s CEO is still “petrified” and believes we could already be in a recession.
Bank earnings came in above expectations, but the CEOs warned about volatility.
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The stock market is still volatile, but less so compared to earlier trading sessions this week. China retaliated with 125% tariffs of its own, and the trade war continued to escalate. However, this was offset by good earnings from banks and a cooler PPI report. Considering how much the stock market swung in the past couple of days, today has been relatively calm.

Still, BlackRock’s CEO is “petrified” due to the trade war with China escalating and the 10% baseline tariffs making inflation worse. There’s also volatility in the treasury markets as foreign investors lose faith and sell. This is causing treasury yields to spike. The University of Michigan also came out with consumer expectations figures that were much worse than expected.

Here’s a market update as of 11:00 A.M (ET) today.

The S&P 500 is down 16.87 points, or 0.32%.
The Nasdaq Composite is down 38.1 points, or 0.23%.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average is down 119.08 points, or 0.3%.

Bank Earnings Stay Solid

Investors were quite worried about big banks earlier due to rates being held up high and fears of the broader economy slowing down. Banking stocks came off their highs due to these fears, but earnings have been solid.

Regardless, bank stocks still haven’t bounced back in a meaningful way due to their CEOs seeing more volatility ahead.

Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS) beat earnings and revenue estimates. EPS came in at $2.6 vs $2.2 expected. Revenue came in at $17.74 billion vs. $16.58 billion expected. The stock still fell due to a “weakening macroeconomic forecast” as its credit loss provision jumped to $135 million. The stock is down 0.8%.
JPMorgan (NYSE: JPM) is up 2.4% even though CEO Jamie Dimon said a recession was a likely risk. The company trounced estimates with revenue at $46.01 billion vs. $44.11 billion expected. EPS came in at $5.07 vs. the $4.62 forecast. Higher trading volume is helping the company.
Wells Fargo (NYSE: WFC) held firm with net interest income guidance, but the CEO said there were huge unknowns that could hurt the company. Adjusted EPS at $1.39 beat estimates of $1.24. Revenue of $20.15 billion missed the $20.75 billion estimate. The stock is down 3%.

Notable Gainers Today

Recursion Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: RXRX) is up 20.4% as the FDA is moving away from animal testing and is instead focusing on AI. This company is expected to be a big winner of that policy.
Zai Lab (NASDAQ: ZLAB) is up 18.4% as Cantor Fitzgerald maintains its Overweight rating.
Schrodinger (NASDAQ: SDGR) is up 17%. It settled a director pay lawsuit.
Certara (NASDAQ: CERT) is up 15% due to the aforementioned FDA policy change.
Sibanye Stillwater (NYSE: SBSW) due to rising gold and precious metals prices.