By Saeed Azhar and Manya Saini
NEW YORK, June 2 (Reuters) – Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon expects consumer behavior to change in the second half of 2026 if inflation picks up, fueled by higher oil prices.
“You’re going to see more shifts in consumer behavior,” Solomon said at an Economic Club of New York event.
U.S. inflation increased at its fastest pace in three years in April, driven by higher energy prices stemming from the Iran war that has cemented economists’ views that the Federal Reserve will hold interest rates unchanged well into next year.
“You can see some economic data in the next six months that shifts the sentiment,” he said. “But for the moment, that’s not coming through.”
Solomon also said he has enormous confidence in the Federal Reserve, its governors and the new chair Kevin Warsh.
When asked about the potential impact of the mega IPOs expected to hit the stock market, he said “there’s enough capital for what we’re talking about at this flow at this point.”
SpaceX, Elon Musk’s rocket and satellite company, plans to target a valuation of $1.75 trillion in its blockbuster initial public offering, two people familiar with the matter told Reuters on Tuesday.
The listing is expected to kick off a wave of mega IPOs, with SpaceX, OpenAI and Anthropic together poised to add almost $4 trillion in market capitalization to public markets and intensify competition for investor dollars.
Solomon said history shows that market exuberance could continue for long periods. “We are definitely in a moment where there’s more greed than there is fear,” he said, noting that the current environment presents big opportunities to invest in new technologies.
Solomon said his recent meeting with New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani was productive. “I’m hopeful, as the mayor goes from campaigning to governing, that he’ll talk about and communicate around and support the business community broadly.”
(Reporting by Saeed Azhar in New York and Manya Saini in Bengaluru; Editing by Arun Koyyur)
