‘Uncertainty is rising’: Stock market turbulence could spell trouble for Trump

Donald Trump’s election helped turbocharge an already surging bull market in the U.S., sending stocks and cryptocurrencies to record highs.

Now, some on Wall Street are beginning to sound the alarm that the fast times can’t last.

JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon and others have warned that investors are plowing cash into stocks with inflated prices. Hedge fund giant Elliott Management said the blistering rise in crypto over the last year, with bitcoin up 89 percent, is the stuff of bubbles. So-called memestocks — companies like GameStop, whose shares tend to be driven by investor hype — have returned. And on top of that, economists say Trump’s plans for tariffs and an immigration crackdown — along with the dizzying pace of his policy moves — could roil the markets by stoking inflation and fueling uncertainty.

“For good or bad, depending on your politics, we’re back to the chaos presidency,” said Jim Chanos, a hedge fund manager who famously bet against Enron and other failing companies. “Whatever you might think about the Biden administration, if you were a market participant, you generally didn’t need to check your Twitter feed the first thing in the morning when you woke up just to see what was said. But we’re back to that, and with that, comes probably more volatility.”

It isn’t just Trump, of course. The markets are coming off back-to-back banner years fed by a mix of pandemic stimulus money, wild optimism about artificial intelligence, and a supersized interest rate cut by the Federal Reserve last year. But the brewing anxiety over an overvalued market now portends potential problems for the White House.