By Nupur Anand, Saeed Azhar and Jarrett Renshaw
NEW YORK (Reuters) -Rising living costs and expanding home ownership were among the issues U.S. President Donald Trump and top Wall Street executives discussed at Wednesday’s White House dinner, according to two people with knowledge of the event.
The gathering, largely of CEOs, included JPMorgan Chase’s Jamie Dimon, Nasdaq’s Adena Friedman, Morgan Stanley’s Ted Pick and Goldman Sachs’ David Solomon, according to three sources.
They also exchanged ideas around trading and market reforms and immigration, one source said.
A White House official said the president and CEOs discussed what he has done to end the inflation crisis and his efforts thus far to address affordability.
The official said the president continuously works with business leaders to decrease prices, increase wages, drive job growth and fuel the economy, and this dinner was no exception to that approach.
Trump, who gave a speech at the dinner, has focused on the cost of living after a string of defeats for Republican candidates in last week’s elections, while insisting that higher costs were triggered by former President Joe Biden’s policies.
Democratic wins in New Jersey, New York and Virginia revealed voters’ concerns over ongoing inflation, which economists say has been fueled in part by high import tariffs imposed by Trump.
The guest list also included Intercontinental Exchange CEO Jeffrey Sprecher, New York Stock Exchange President Lynn Martin, Pershing Square founder and CEO Bill Ackman, according to company representatives.
Mortgages and affordability have been hot topics for the administration in recent days. It has pledged to contain long-term U.S. Treasury yields, which help set lending rates.
Benchmark 10-year yields have declined nearly 50 basis points so far this year, partly due to slower economic growth and fiscal and debt management policies that have eased bond investors’ most pressing concerns about the ballooning U.S. government debt.
“Lower Treasury borrowing costs mean lower corporate borrowing costs, lower mortgage rates, and lower car payments—which all translates to greater affordability for all Americans,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in a speech at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York on Wednesday.
While the sources did not elaborate on the trading and market issues discussed, Nasdaq’s Friedman has advocated for market reforms including allowing public companies to report either quarterly or semiannually, a policy Trump has backed.
Trump has held other private meetings with business leaders in recent months as his administration seeks to promote economic growth while navigating tensions with global trading partners.
(Reporting by Nupur Anand and Saeed Azhar in New York; Additional reporting by Jarrett Renshaw, Anirban Sen, Tatiana Bautzer and Davide Barbuscia; Editing by Richard Chang and Cynthia Osterman)
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