BlackRock CEO Fink backs staying invested amid volatility, flags AI shift
BNN Bloomberg
Asset management giant BlackRock’s CEO Larry Fink urged clients to stay invested despite ongoing market volatility, and highlighted that artificial intelligence is reshaping investment strategies and the broader economy.
Global markets have been roiled in recent weeks by a confluence of geopolitical and macroeconomic shocks, including the escalating U.S.-Israeli conflict with Iran, which has driven sharp spikes in oil prices and disrupted key shipping routes, stoking inflation fears and rattling investor sentiment.
At the same time, growing concerns that AI could erode the value of legacy software businesses have weighed on parts of the tech sector. These pressures are unfolding alongside signs of softening consumer spending and rising worries about an economic slowdown amid still-elevated interest rates.
“We are living through a period where things that would’ve defined a decade have become routine: wars with global repercussions, trillion-dollar companies, a fundamental reordering of international trade, and the advent of the most significant technology since, at least, the computer,” Fink said in his annual letter to shareholders.
“Over time, staying invested has mattered far more than getting the timing right. Over the past two decades, every dollar invested in the S&P 500 grew more than eightfold.”
Analysts say AI is rapidly reshaping industries, disrupting job roles and business models, and is poised to drive profound shifts in markets and the broader economy in the years ahead.
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Markets in Canada and the U.S. continued to trade lower while oil went up late morning on Friday as inflationary fears prevailed among investors.
Gold prices fell by 1.8 per cent on Friday as the dollar strengthened on a report that the United States will deploy extra troops in the Middle East, fanning concerns of higher oil prices, inflation, and with it, elevated interest rates.
Canada’s federally backed farm lender is offering financial aid to farmers, agricultural businesses and food companies hit by the spike in fertilizer and energy prices, it said on Friday.
Statistics Canada says retail sales were up 1.1 per cent at $70.7 billion in January, led by sales at motor vehicle and parts dealers.
As Qatar reels from an Iranian attack that has hobbled its giant natural gas company, its boss, who doubles as the country’s energy minister, says he had warned officials and executives of just such a danger should Iran’s own sites be hit.
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U.S. stocks are sinking Friday as hopes wither on Wall Street for a possible cut to interest rates by the Federal Reserve this year because of the war with Iran.
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Wall Street is stumbling toward the finish line of a fourth straight losing week on Friday, but an ease in oil prices is taking some of the pressure off stock markets worldwide.