JPMorgan Chase & Co. said the burgeoning trade war could weigh on business confidence in the second half.
"It's kind of affecting psyche more than it is economics," Chief Executive Officer Jamie Dimon said Friday on a conference call with journalists. "There are unpredictable outcomes when you start skirmishes like this with major countries. It's a worry — hopefully it gets resolved."
Shares of JPMorgan fell as much as 1.6 percent even after the company reported second-quarter results that topped analysts' estimates. Core loans expanded 7 percent in the second quarter and trading revenue jumped 13 percent, surprising analysts who'd been forecasting mediocre results in both businesses.
Volatility returned to stock markets in June as talk of a trade war started to turn from risk to reality, boosting trading results far beyond the bank's forecast at the end of May that revenue would be flat compared with last year. The firm's executives indicated that boost could turn into a headwind.
"As we sit here today it's more a risk than it is an actual influencer, but it could easily become one," Chief Financial Officer Marianne Lake said on the call.
Loan Growth
JPMorgan's total loans increased to $948 billion, beating the $945 billion average estimate of five analysts surveyed by Bloomberg. Trading revenue rose to $5.41 billion, which surpassed the $4.89 billion estimate, helped by a 24 percent jump in the equities business.
Before the report, analysts had projected the four biggest money-center banks would post loan growth of only about 2 percent from a year earlier.