JPMorgan Chase reported third-quarter earnings on Thursday, and it beat Wall Street estimates.
The bank posted earnings of $1.76 a share, above the $1.65 consensus, with the consumer and community banking and corporate and investment banking units topping forecasts.
The bank shrugged off a weak quarter in fixed income, currencies, and commodities, in which it announced revenue of $3.16 billion, shy of the $3.18 billion that analysts were anticipating. Revenue from fixed-income trading was down 27% from a year ago, “driven by low volatility and tighter credit spreads, against a very strong prior year quarter,” according to the earnings release.
Wall Street banks were expected to have a difficult quarter trading as markets have been locked in a period of low volatility.
In a memo to employees, the bank’s corporate and investment banking CEO, Daniel Pinto, said that while a lot of attention was paid to trading revenue, the corporate and investment banking unit had “a very healthy quarter.”
"While attention is often placed on comparative trading revenue, the overall CIB produced a very healthy quarter. It was one of our strongest investment banking quarters in a decade and our large transaction businesses each generated over $1 billion of steady revenue. Once again, our balanced strength across diverse businesses continues to deliver for clients and shareholders."
Here's a look at the key numbers:
- Earnings per share: $1.76 versus $1.65 expected (may not compare) Revenue: $26.2 billion versus $25.6 billion expected Equity sales and trading revenue: $1.36 billion versus $1.41 billion expected Investment-banking revenue: $1.71 billion versus $1.65 billion expected Net income: $6.7 billion versus $5.9 billion expected Consumer and community banking posted a 6% increase in revenue to $12 billion. Net income for the unit was up 16% at $2.6 billion. In the corporate and investment bank, banking revenue increased 5% to $3.1 billion, with the advisory business posting record third quarter revenues. Markets and investor services revenue dropped 16% to $5.5 billion. Commercial banking had a record quarter for revenue, at $2.1 billion, and asset and wealth management had record net income of $674 million.
Shares of JPMorgan were trading down 0.50% immediately after the results.