Blackstone’s Jon Gray Expects Few Trade Deals Soon, But Acknowledges China Situation Is More Challenging: Report

Blackstone President Jon Gray reportedly said that some countries will likely strike a trade deal with the U.S. soon, raising investor confidence.

“You get a sense as an investor of where things are heading, and that is, they want to make trade deals with most of the countries in the world. It feels like it'll be around 10%. The countries will eliminate non-tariff barriers,” Gray told Bloomberg.

“And I would guess the U.K., India, Japan, Korea, one of those countries will strike a deal here fairly soon, and it'll give investors confidence,” he said.

However, Gray opined that the ‘China situation’ is the more challenging part and said there are more risks of an economic slowdown the longer it continues.

“Obviously, the size of the tariffs, the number of issues that are more complicated, that feels like it'll take longer. And to me, the key is getting this sort of sense of certainty faster because then investors and companies can start to move. The longer this goes on, the more risks of an economic slowdown,” he said.

The Blackstone President believes that the economy is more resilient and that a faster resolution to the ongoing trade tensions can make the slowdown shallower.

“And obviously, the countries on the other side would like to see these tariffs get down to a lower, more manageable level,” he said.

“So I think I'm in the camp that there’ll be a slowing, certainly, but nothing like you're describing sort of a falling off a cliff,” he told Bloomberg.

Earlier on Tuesday, Billionaire hedge fund manager Paul Tudor Jones reportedly stated that the market would hit new lows even if U.S. President Donald Trump reduces the tariffs on China, arguing there would be no relief unless the Federal Reserve becomes dovish.

“For me, it’s pretty clear. You have Trump who’s locked in on tariffs. You have the Fed who’s locked in on not cutting rates. That’s not good for the stock market,” Jones said, according to a CNBC report. “We’ll probably go down to new lows, even when Trump dials back China to 50%.”

U.S. benchmark indices recorded losses on Tuesday as investors braced themselves for Fed Chair Jerome Powell’s remarks, something that tends to carry more weight than the policy outcome itself in these times.

The SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (SPY), which tracks the S&P 500, traded 0.69% lower on Tuesday morning, while the Invesco QQQ Trust, Series 1 (QQQ), which tracks the Nasdaq Composite, was down 0.95%.

Also See: Celsius Holdings Stock Drops After Q1 Earnings, Revenue Miss – CEO Remains Upbeat On Q2

For updates and corrections, email newsroom[at]stocktwits[dot]com.