In a recent interview with CNBC’s “The Exchange,” the JPMorgan CEO said the recent stock market meltdown and a potential interest rate cut from the Federal Reserve are not as significant as people think.
The US stock market experienced its sharpest drop in two years on Monday following a lackluster jobs report and the Bank of Japan’s interest-rate hike that set off what’s known as a “carry trade” unwind.
When asked about this week’s volatility, the CEO said “markets fluctuate.”
“I think people overreact a little bit to the daily fluctuation of markets. And sometimes it’s for good reason, sometimes it’s virtually no reason,” he said. “And you saw this one: It came way down and went way back up.”
Strategists at UBS and Oppenheimer also saw the recent volatility as a buying opportunity, Business Insider reported.
Dimon also appeared to brush off the anticipation of an interest rate cut, which JPMorgan analysts recently projected will be cut by 50 basis points.
Investors and some politicians, including Sen. Elizabeth Warren, took the jobs report as evidence that the Fed was too slow to cut rates which remain at a 23-year high of 5.3%.
While Fed Chair Jerome Powell left a potential interest rate cut in September on the table, investors are hoping that the Fed will take the rare step in making an emergency rate cut as soon as next week.
“I hate to say this: I don’t think it matters as much as other people think,” Dimon said of the potential cuts. “The rate effect itself isn’t that critical.”
But the JPMorgan CEO added that the psychological impacts of market volatility could have some impact on the economy.
“Obviously, psychologically, there’d be a lot of chatter about: ‘What does it mean? What are they thinking,'” he said, adding that that could affect the economy, and he expects the Fed to cut rates soon.
