The Trump bump isn’t dead yet for the biggest U.S. bank.
JPMorgan Chase & Co. said Friday its book of what it considers core loans expanded 7% in the second quarter and trading revenue jumped 13%, surprising analysts who’d been forecasting mediocre results in both businesses.
Strength in the loan portfolio put the lender on pace to meet its full-year target, which banked on companies borrowing to fund growth plans in the wake of President Donald Trump’s tax cuts. And 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 expectation at the end of May that revenue would be flat from last year.
“We see good global economic growth, particularly in the U.S., where consumer and business sentiment is high,” Chief Executive Officer Jamie Dimon said in a statement. “Because of this broad growth and the strong underlying performance across each of our businesses, the company delivered record results this quarter.”
JPMorgan increased total loans 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 analyst estimate, helped by a 24% 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% from a year earlier. The souring outlook on lending and other bank businesses has weighed on the companies’ stocks. The S&P 500 Financials Index fell for 13 consecutive days in June, the longest losing streak on record. It dropped 3.6% in the second quarter, the worst performance since the first three months of 2016.
Shares of JPMorgan rose 0.6% to $107.50 at 7:02 a.m. in early trading in New York. The stock was little changed this year through Thursday.
Here’s a summary of JPMorgan’s results:
Net income rose 18% to $8.32 billion, or $2.29 a share, from $7.03 billion, or $1.82, a year earlier. That beat the $2.22 average estimate of 22 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg. Net interest income climbed 10% from a year earlier to $13.5 billion. Non-interest expense increased 8% as compensation costs rose 7%. Net interest margin, the difference between what a bank charges borrowers and pays depositors, fell 2 basis points from the previous three-month period to 2.46%.
