What is the state of play in global markets amid volatility?

Overview

What’s the path forward for global trade, investment, and the evolving financial order? How are investors reacting to increased volatility? What role can capital markets play in reshaping economic resilience? 

This episode of Market Dialogues features Bernard Mensah, President of Bank of America International, in conversation with Francine Lacqua, Bloomberg TV Anchor and Editor-at-Large, as they discuss the economic ripples of trade policy shifts, global supply chain stress, and how consumers and banks are navigating shifting markets.  

Source: Sell-Side Leaders Forum, May 1, 2025, London

About the series

The Market Dialogues podcast series provides access to curated, thought-provoking discussions from Bloomberg global events. It offers in-depth insights from experts on key trends and themes driving the markets today and beyond. 

Discover more conversations in the Market Dialogues series here. 

In focus 

Featured insights from this episode of Market Dialogues: 

On supply and demand shocks 

Bernard Mensah: China is experiencing major demand shock, [with]…containers sitting at ports. How do they cope with that? The US has a supply shock, which is slower burning. The question is: how does the economy react to that? How do market expectations react to it?…The thing with the supply shock is [that] it’s slower burning. When you switch [supply] off or switch [it] back on, it doesn’t come straight back on. We will have to see how that plays out.* 

On the resiliency of the consumer 

BH: Retail and consumer balance sheets are in a very good place versus pre-pandemic. It’s dipped a little bit, [as] inflation ate into that…, but overall, it’s better. So there’s a lot more resiliency to that now. A lot of that was a shift from the public sector? The government wrote a large check through various stimulus [packages] to the consumer…I think there’ll be some resiliency through that...The softness in the economy, if it does happen, will be later if the supply shock feeds through. Otherwise, the consumer looks resilient. 

On the dealmaking slowdown 

BH: The corporate C-suite is very much pulling back. Everybody who has an investment bank attached to their business says the deals they thought would happen, the capital markets deals, have absolutely all slowed down. If you’re a corporate, you’re thinking through what’s my CapEx like, where should I invest and are these tariffs here or not? Why would you go out and make big decisions around that? 

*Quotations have been edited for brevity and clarity.