The Spotlight Shines Both Ways

Now that Warren Buffett has quietly stepped back from the spotlight at Berkshire Hathaway it seems fair to say that Larry Fink and Jamie Dimon are the two highest profile executives of large financials, carrying a certain degree of gravitas which is undeniable to even their harshest critics.

Case in point, you can see the spectacular multi-decade advances on both BLK and JPM quarterly charts, respectively below. 

Of course, I would be remiss not to point out both charts have recently stumbled a bit, with Blackrock breaching a steep rising channel over the last few years, and now JP Morgan in the process (admittedly, pending the monthly close) of putting in a bearish engulfing quarterly candlestick. 

Still, the larger point is that when Wall Street decides to turn on the highest profile financial CEOs, something is afoot. And the private credit reverberations may only just now be materializing. Beyond that, the weakness in financials was taking place well before the Iran/oil spike. We have seen JPM lagging the other big banks for a while now, which is something bulls seem to be conveniently overlooking.  

Overall, the big financials are still at the epicenter of whether or not we see another credit crisis, this time with the private credit firms like BX KKR OWL in focus. Both BLK and JPM have enjoyed steep, unrelenting bull runs as their CEOs basked in the spotlight and The Street fawned over their every single word. 

But when the tide turns we ought to take notice as being an early shot across the the bow, Iran or no Iran.