JPMorgan faces 'challenging' 2009, rebound in 2010

JPMorgan Chase & Co Chief Executive Officer Jamie Dimon said the company faces “highly challenging conditions”next year, while projecting a possible “strong recovery” in 2010.

Speaking to 550 employees in Hong Kong yesterday, Dimon also said the acquisitions of Bear Stearns Cos. and Washington Mutual Inc, both victims of the credit crunch, will help JPMorgan's performance in the “longer term,”according a document seen by Bloomberg News and confirmed by a person in attendance. JPMorgan spokesman Ray Bashford declined to comment.

Dimon, 52, also questioned the ability of Asian economies to weather the fallout from the deepest financial crisis since the Great Depression. The region so far has evaded the worst of the contagion that toppled Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. and forced Merrill Lynch & Co to sell itself.

“In Asia it's going to get worse than you think,” he told employees at the Hong Kong Convention Centre. “I don't think Asia can avoid the fallout from the global problems.”