Goldman Sachs International’s Co-CEOs on Europe’s Opportunity, AI, and Market Volatility
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One of the most consequential trends this year has been the outperformance of global equities relative to The U. S. But amid the escalating conflict in The Middle East, can this trend continue? And what are the implications for deal making and IPOs? I'm Alison Nathan, and this is Goldman Sachs Exchanges. I'm here in our London office with the two co CEOs of Goldman Sachs International, Anthony Gutman and Kunal Shah. In addition to running Goldman Sachs International, Anthony is the global co head of investment banking, and Kunal is the global co head of the firm's fixed income, currency, and c
Thank you.
Great to be here.
So just to start, it's obviously a pretty precarious moment as the war in The Middle East continues to unfold. You both oversee our business in The Middle East as part of your role leading the firm's efforts in EMEA. We're two weeks into this conflict. Kunal, what are your observations, and how are you thinking about activities in the region more broadly?
So, Alison, these are clearly unsettling times. If you think about The Middle East, it's been a big strategic focus for us. We've been present in those regions for several decades. We have teams across the likes of Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Tel Aviv, Riyadh, Doha, Kuwait. So right now, look, we're very focused on the safety of our own people. In some of these countries, they've lived through similar moments, and our people are very resilient. They have the grit to try and get through this. In some of the other countries, these threats are fresh, and our people are adapting to these very tense, difficu
Kunal, let's turn to markets for a moment. Market trends to start the year were obviously very positive in equities and especially non US equities, certainly including European markets. But how much is the escalating conflict in The Middle East changed things, or has it not?
So these trends were really a continuation of what we saw in 2025, and it wasn't just European markets, Asian markets. Broad emerging markets had seen huge inflows. And February was one of the largest months for inflows into rest of world equities prior to these intense situations emerging. And you've seen quite quick reactions across asset markets. The US has actually outperformed. It had a lot of dispersion and sector rotations in January and February, but actually the US dollar strengthened in a typical risk off fashion. And you have seen significant retracement in, for example, European st
So some reversals, but we are seeing some of the trends still intact and we think might have further to go eventually. Anthony, you talk to the world's most important business leaders basically on a daily basis. How are they thinking about these developments and the global economic outlook?
Look, the first thing I would do is I'd echo what Kunal said, which is we came into this year with a very benign economic outlook. In fact, we came in with a pretty strong economic outlook. And in many ways that economic outlook is still the context through which I think business leaders are looking at things. And I think while they are very mindful of the dynamics playing out in The Middle East and the risks of that, they're also not going to make short term decisions as they reflect on how they run their businesses on a long term basis. And so overall the sentiment I think continues to be pr
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