U.S. bank earnings have kicked off without any tumult. Investors should be grateful for that increasing sense of dependability, though they appear to be looking for more.
JPMorgan Chase & Co., Wells Fargo & Co., Citigroup Inc. and PNC Financial Services Group Inc. each delivered second-quarter results on Friday that topped Wall Street's expectations.
On a measure of earnings per share, each bank has improved its respective streaks of beating or meeting analysts' estimates:
The business of fixed-income trading, which has been a bright spot over the past year, has received outsize attention as it has fallen from grace after a long stretch of low volatility and tepid volumes, as expected.
Instead, its quarterly gyrations should be accepted by shareholders just as they withstand changes in the weather, according to JPMorgan's chairman and CEO Jamie Dimon.
He has a point — the diversity of JPMorgan combined with the size of its overall corporate and investment bank, which houses the fixed-income trading business, gives the bank a level of flexibility.
That defense might not stick if JPMorgan's other businesses weren't performing, but they are. The bank posted quarterly net income of $7 billion in the three months ended June 30.
That was its biggest haul ever, driven in part by a significant jump in net interest income, a direct result of the Federal Reserve's rate increases. Its efforts to bulk up asset and wealth management, where revenues have roughly doubled since 2006, have borne fruit.
