Jamie Dimon has not ruled out the possibility of a US recession but suggests that the Federal Reserve should wait before cutting interest rates.
According to a report by Bloomberg, the JPMorgan Chase & Co (NYSE:JPM) CEO told the Australian Financial Review Business Summit in Sydney via video link on Tuesday that the "world is pricing in a soft landing, at probably 70-80%."
"I think the chance of a soft landing in the next year or two is half that. The worst case would be stagflation," he reportedly added.
Dimon expressed his skepticism about the reliability of economic indicators given the impact of COVID-19 and suggested that the Fed should wait for more information before making any decisions about lowering interest rates.
Dimon said the Fed can always cut quickly and dramatically and that "their credibility is a bit at stake here," noting that unemployment in the US is very low at the moment and wages continue to go up.
Despite the US economy "kind of booming," Dimon believes the risk of a recession remains. His comments are slightly less optimistic than his previous view. However, they are in complete contrast to his 2022 comments, in which he said a "hurricane" was about to hit the US economy.
Meanwhile, focusing on the US election, Dimon is said to have told listeners that it is challenging to predict a winner between Joe Biden and Donald Trump. Both are "on the older side," making it "nerve-wracking," he said, adding that "it's going to be a circus."
While he reportedly stated that Trump was an "amazing political figure," Dimon said the former President is unpredictable and hopes he is a "much more thoughtful, rational, even speaker when he talks about foreign policy and how he wants to handle that."