Several key financial firms released earnings results on Friday, with many delivering good news to investors after a week of market turmoil.
JPMorgan Chase, the US’ largest lender, said that net income in the first three months of the year had risen to $14.6 billion (€12.8bn), a 9% annual jump.
That was above market expectations, although CEO Jamie Dimon warned of uncertainty ahead due to President Donald Trump’s ongoing trade war and other geopolitical tensions.
Dimon said a strong performance by the bank’s markets division helped lift it to another strong quarter, despite looming challenges ahead.
JPMorgan’s earnings per share rose to $5.07 (€4.46) per share from $4.44 (€3.90) a year ago. The result beat Wall Street profit projections of $4.63 a share, according to the data firm FactSet. Total managed revenue hit $46bn (€40.4bn), up from the $41.9bn (€36.8bn) a year ago. Wall Street was expecting revenue of $44bn.
Trump’s tariff rates — currently at 10% for most US trading partners and at 145% for China — have sent financial markets into dizzying fluctuations for weeks and created an enormous amount of economic uncertainty. That’s bad for banks that are reliant on stability, which in turn allows healthy consumers and businesses to borrow money.
JPMorgan’s trading desk thrived in the first three months of 2025, helped by the market’s volatility, even before Trump rolled out his massive “Liberation Day” tariffs on 2 April.
The bank’s market revenue rose 21% in the period, with equities revenue up 48% year-on-year.
Morgan Stanley, Wells Fargo, and BlackRock
Morgan Stanley also beat Wall Street’s first-quarter projections, which the New York-based investment bank attributed to a strong performance from its equities trading division.
Net income came to $4.3bn (€3.8bn), while the firm brought in a record revenue of $17.7bn (€15.6bn).
Wells Fargo also reported on Friday, with the San Francisco bank posting first-quarter net income of $4.89bn (€4.3bn), or $1.39 (€1.22) per share. That topped analysts’ forecast for earnings of $1.23 per share.
Investment firm BlackRock, meanwhile, announced on Friday a first-quarter net income of $1.51bn (€1.3bn).
The New York-based company said it had net income of $9.64 per share (€8.47).
Earnings, adjusted for costs related to mergers and acquisitions and amortisation costs, were $11.30 (€9.93) per share, exceeding Wall Street expectations.
The average estimate of seven analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research was for earnings of $10.25 per share.
The investment firm posted revenue of $5.28bn (€4.6bn) in the period, which missed Wall Street forecasts. Five analysts surveyed by Zacks expected $5.33bn.
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