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Investing.com -- The trading desk at Goldman Sachs Group Inc (NYSE:GS). experienced an unusually high level of activity on Thursday, according to a report from Bloomberg. This surge in activity came as clients sold off equities in response to President Donald Trump’s announcement of major tariffs on American trading partners. The level of activity was so intense that it was likened to stock-market rebalancing days, a comparison that highlights the magnitude of the event.
The last time the desk saw such a busy day was when Chinese AI startup DeepSeek disrupted global markets in late January, according to John Flood, a Goldman partner and trading specialist. The president’s decision to impose significant tariffs has led to concerns that these could trigger a recession in the world’s largest economy and cause a resurgence of inflation.
Flood noted that the activity level on the desk was at 9.5 out of 10. He also projected that nearly 20 billion shares might be traded across all US equity exchanges on Thursday, a significant increase from the average of 15 billion shares this year.
The majority of the selling came from asset managers, primarily in technology and financial shares. However, the so-called ’fast money’, which had already reduced its positions last month, also joined in the selling frenzy.
Hedge funds, in particular, sold off their long positions in bank stocks. This move came after they had heavily invested in the sector ahead of Wednesday. On the flip side, these hedge funds increased their positions across macro products, such as indexes and exchange-traded funds.
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