BlackRock’s Fink Sees Business Slow Down in ‘Bipolar’ World

(Bloomberg) -- BlackRock Inc.’s Chief Executive Officer Laurence D. Fink said businesses are in a "slow down" now because of the uncertainty about whether Congress and the new administration will enact policies that energized markets after the U.S. election.

"The markets are probably ahead of themselves," Fink said at the Yahoo! Finance All Markets Summit Wednesday.

Fink said the 10-year benchmark Treasury could fall below 2 percent or rise above 4 percent, or the markets could see both outcomes. There will continue to be deflationary pressures in the economy due to advances in technology and possible disruptions in global trade. At the same time, if President Donald Trump’s goals to cut taxes and regulation take effect, and with the current low unemployment rate, it would only "take a little bit" to move wages higher.

"I’m pretty confused," Fink said. "We’re living in a bipolar world right now."

But Fink said "there’s greater probability that the 10-year Treasury is below 2 percent, and we’ll have a market set back of a considerable amount" because it will likely take until 2018 for Congress to get some of the policies of the new administration in place.

Fink met with Trump and other CEOs last week in Washington where he talked about issues including infrastructure with the new president.

"It was a very good meeting," Fink said, declining to discuss the details. "We are now getting late to preparing cities for the new technologies. I believe it’s imperative as a nation that we have policies toward building out our infrastructure and repairing our existing infrastructure"

To contact the reporter on this story: Margaret Collins in New York at mcollins45@bloomberg.net. To contact the editors responsible for this story: Margaret Collins at mcollins45@bloomberg.net, Vincent Bielski, Alan Mirabella