Financial giants face bull run under Trump 2.0 – JPMorgan and Goldman among top picks

Investment Banks to Benefit from Trump’s Second Term, Says Trader Kingsley Jones

Shares of investment banks will benefit from Donald Trump’s second term, according to trader Kingsley Jones, who states that it’s time for the financial sector to “step forward.”

In an interview with CNBC’s Martin Sung, the Australian expressed a bullish outlook on capital markets at the start of Trump’s second presidency.

“Wall Street overall will perform quite well under Trump’s leadership,” says Jones, the founder and chief investment officer of consulting firm Jevons Global.

He added that banks are in a particularly favorable position given Trump’s promises to ease regulations related to mergers and acquisitions (M&A) and introduce trade tariffs that could cause companies to refocus on the US.

“When there’s a period of significant changes like this, which is very pro-business in the US—lots of talk about building new factories, plus changes in trade models—I think the financial sector will perform quite well,” Jones commented.

“There will be a serious need for investment banks to come to the forefront and provide financing for the structural changes ahead,” he added, mentioning JPMorgan and Goldman Sachs as two of the most promising positions.

These comments follow a record earnings season for the banking sector, thanks to increased trading activity surrounding the presidential elections and higher deal volumes in investment banking.

Trump’s return to the White House is expected to increase investment banks’ revenues to $316 billion by 2025, according to Coalition Greenwich data cited by Reuters. The same data projects that M&A fee revenues could reach $27.6 billion, making 2025 the second most profitable year for the sector in the last two decades.

Following Trump’s election victory in November, top M&A bankers and Wall Street executives expressed expectations that merger and acquisition deals would pick up. Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon confirmed this optimism in January, stating that Trump brings “a significant shift in CEO confidence” and “an increased appetite for deals, backed by a better regulatory environment.”

The AI Race Turns into a Duel Between the US and China

In another part of the interview, Jones states that the introduction of the Chinese AI model DeepSeek will trigger a “boom” in competition in the artificial intelligence space.

However, according to him, the AI race is limited to two main players: the US and China.

“We will see explosive growth in AI applications in China, as well as in the US and other regions,” he commented.

“But these two nations are leading the race,” Jones added, expressing the opinion that Europe “is starting from behind.”

This statement comes at a time when European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen refused to acknowledge that the EU is falling behind in the AI race, announcing €200 billion ($206.5 billion) investments in the sector.

“I often hear that Europe is late to the AI race—that China and the US are already far ahead. However, I disagree because the AI race is far from over,” she said at the AI Action Summit in Paris.