Nasdaq CEO says global investors won’t necessarily flee US, but they need more predictability

Global investors will be driven by returns, not politics, but need predictability to feel comfortable sticking with bumpy US markets, Nasdaq CEO Adena Friedman said Friday.

US President Donald Trump’s tariffs and rising recession fears have bred concerns that large investors would see America as too risky or bend to patriotic pressures of their own to boycott US markets. The “Sell America” trade has begun to take hold on Wall Street, as established ideas about US assets have come under threat.

“We’re in that kind of swirl right now where investors are just trying to get to a point of predictability,” Friedman said at Semafor’s World Economy Summit.

But investors “will go to where the returns are,” said Friedman, whose company operates three US stock exchanges and seven in Europe. “It’s a matter of just making sure that the US economy delivers those returns.”

Earlier in the week at the summit, Neuberger Berman CEO George Walker said US market tumult is pushing investors “further afield” to Europe and globally.

“The dialog around American exceptionalism can return when there’s greater certainty with regards to policy,” he said. In the interim, clients are beginning to focus on investment opportunities in regions perceived as relatively more stable, the chief of the $515 billion-asset manager said.