Treasury Secretary Scott Bescent said Tuesday that individual investors, who have held their positions primarily through recent market turmoil, trust President Donald Trump’s tariff policies.
“Individual investors hold tight, but institutional investors have panic… Individual investors trust President Trump,” Bescent said during a press conference along with White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt.
“Vanguard, one of America’s biggest financial management companies, said 97% of Americans have not traded in the last 100 days,” Bessent, former CEO of the hedge fund, said, citing Washington’s post-story into the data.
Trump’s rollout and the suspend of the highest tariffs on imports by generations that followed have driven the worst sales of stocks since the onset of the 2020 pandemic.
During the depths of April’s defeat, retail investors plummeted, diving to photograph stocks at a plunge value. At the same time, hedge funds and professional traders ran towards the exit, building bearish bets on the market.
Institutions are increasingly worried that sudden tariffs will heavyen consumers, slow the economy, and perhaps tilt it towards a recession.
Apollo chief economist Torsten Slok has seen a summer recession collide with the US as consumers begin to see trade-related shortages in stores next month. Citadel founder and CEO Ken Griffin said Trump’s global trade battle risks ruining the US “brand” and damaging the US Treasury debt.
