(April 14): JPMorgan Chase & Co’s traders posted their highest-ever quarterly revenue in the first three months of the year, with record stock-trading results boosting the total past the firm’s previous record by almost US$2 billion.
The biggest US bank pulled in US$11.6 billion in trading revenue in the first quarter (1Q), according to a statement on Tuesday. That’s up 20% from a year earlier, with both stock traders and their counterparts in fixed income, currencies and commodities (FICC) beating analysts’ expectations.
Still, JPMorgan lowered its full-year net interest income (NII) guidance back to about US$103 billion, where it stood before an investor update in February when the bank raised it to US$104.5 billion. The firm held its outlook for NII excluding the markets business steady at about US$95 billion.
Shares of JPMorgan, down 2.7% this year through Monday, fell 0.7% in early trading in New York.
“The US economy remained resilient in the quarter, with consumers still earning and spending and businesses still healthy,” Chief executive officer Jamie Dimon said in the statement. “At the same time, there is an increasingly complex set of risks — such as geopolitical tensions and wars, energy price volatility, trade uncertainty, large global fiscal deficits and elevated asset prices.”
See also: S&P 500 wipes out 2026 loss on Iran deal hopes
JPMorgan Chase & Co CEO Jamie Dimon said the US economy remained resilient in the quarter, with consumers still earning and spending and businesses still healthy.
Also reporting results on Tuesday are Citigroup Inc and Wells Fargo & Co, with Bank of America Corp and Morgan Stanley set for Wednesday. Goldman Sachs Group Inc kicked off earnings season on Monday with a stock-trading haul that beat its own record from the final three months of last year.
Wall Street trading desks have been on a hot streak since President Donald Trump won the 2024 election. His policy moves have repeatedly whipsawed markets across equities, rates and commodities, boosting client activity and the money banks make from facilitating those trades.
See also: Hollywood stars unite to oppose Paramount-Warner deal
JPMorgan’s FICC traders earned US$7.08 billion in the quarter, their second-best on record. That contrasts with Goldman, which reported a surprise drop in bond-trading revenue, missing estimates by more than US$800 million.
Investment-banking fees of US$2.88 billion also beat analysts’ expectations. Dealmakers advising on mergers and acquisitions were the standout, notching an 82% jump to US$1.27 billion. Equity underwriting also rose more than expected to US$472 million, while a 7% drop in debt-underwriting fees came in slightly worse than estimates.
The US$1.8 trillion private-credit industry has been a focal point amid mounting concern that redemption requests and fears over the impact of artificial intelligence will weigh on the sector. For banks, that’s translated to investor questions about their lending to the industry. Earlier this year, JPMorgan marked down the value of certain loans that serve as collateral against the bank’s loans to private-credit funds.
“In the great scheme of things, private credit probably does not present a systemic risk,” Dimon wrote in his annual letter to shareholders earlier this month. “When we have a credit cycle, which will happen one day, losses on all leveraged lending in general will be higher than expected, relative to the environment. This is because credit standards have been modestly weakening pretty much across the board.”
In terms of credit more broadly, JPMorgan increased the pile of money set aside for potentially soured loans by US$191 million in 1Q, less than analysts expected. That included a net build for the wholesale side, partially offset by a net release in consumer.
NII for 1Q rose 9% to US$25.4 billion, ahead of estimates. Costs, meanwhile, were US$26.9 billion in the quarter, higher than expected. JPMorgan said in February that it expects to spend about US$105 billion this year, excluding legal expenses, and it reaffirmed that figure on Tuesday.
Uploaded by Felyx Teoh
