JPMorgan’s 3,500-Person LevFin Event Jolted by War Reality Check

There was already a sense of unease about the roughly $3 trillion leveraged finance market as thousands of bankers, investors and analysts descended on Miami Beach for JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s annual confab, the biggest of its kind.

Artificial intelligence wrecking software companies. High-profile frauds raising questions about private credit and prompting a mass exodus from an illiquid market. Interest rates that might still be too high to usher in a true revival of merger activity.

Then came President Donald Trump’s war with Iran.

As the marquee three-day conference unfolded, equity and bond markets were relatively calm. But ...