J.P.Morgan beats the street

JPMorgan’s net income rose 9.0 per cent to US$14.6 billion in the first quarter and the New York bank beat Wall Street’s profit and revenue targets, but its chief executive warned of global economic uncertainties ahead due to President Donald Trump’s ongoing trade war and other geopolitical tensions.

CEO Jamie Dimon said a strong performance by the bank’s markets division helped lift it to another strong quarter, but he added trade tensions to his list of potential negatives facing the bank and broader economy.

JPMorgan’s earnings per share rose to US$5.07 from US$4.44 a year ago. The result beat Wall Street profit projections of US$4.63 a share, according to the data firm FactSet. Total managed revenue hit US$46 billion, up from the US$41.9 billion a year ago. Wall Street was expecting revenue of US$44 billion.

Trump’s herky-jerky tariff increases — currently bumped up by 10 per cent for most US trading partners and 145 per cent for China — have sent financial markets into dizzying fluctuations for weeks and created an enormous amount of uncertainty about where the global economy is headed. That’s bad for banks, which thrive on stability and healthy consumers and businesses borrowing money.

JPMorgan’s trading desk thrived in the first three months of 2025, helped by the market’s volatility, which began well before Trump rolled out his massive ‘Liberation Day’ tariffs on April 2.

The bank’s markets revenue rose 21 per cent in the period, with equities revenue up 48 per cent from a year ago.

Consumer and community banking revenue rose 4 per cent from the same period last year, to US$18.3 billion.

With regard to China, which further escalated its tariffs on imports from the US to 125 per cent, JPMorgan executives said it was too early to make any long-term projections or statements about the impact of the ongoing trade war on its business there.

“We really have to see how things play out,” said Chief Financial Officer Jeremy Barnum. ”In the near term, that business is performing fine and we are not seeing any effect.”

JPMorgan set aside US$3.3 billion to cover bad loans, up from US$1.9 billion a year ago, while repurchasing US$7 billion of common stock and boosting its dividend 12 per cent.

JPMorgan shares rose 2 per cent in morning trading, while broader Wall Street indexes shifted between small losses and gains and were, so far, absent of the wild swings they’ve seen in recent weeks.

Investment bank Morgan Stanley also beat Wall Street’s first-quarter projections. The New York bank also cited a strong performance from its equities trading division, helping boost its net income to US$4.3 billion and revenue to a record US$17.7 billion. Its shares were down 1.6 per cent.

Wells Fargo also reported early Friday, with the San Francisco bank posting first-quarter net income of US$4.89 billion, or US$1.39 per share. That topped analysts’ forecast for earnings of US$1.23 per share.

“We support the administration’s willingness to look at barriers to fair trade for the United States, though there are certainly risks associated with such significant actions,” CEO Charles Scharf said in a statement. “[The bank is] prepared for a slower economic environment in 2025.”

Wells Fargo shares fell 4.0 per cent in the morning.

AP