Wall Street Banks Kick Off Earnings Season With Booming Trading and Dealmaking Revenue

The largest US banks open second-quarter earnings season with an unusually favourable backdrop, as booming capital markets activity and resilient consumer credit combine to lift results. JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, Citigroup, Wells Fargo and Goldman Sachs are all scheduled to report, with Morgan Stanley following the next day. Analysts expect investment banking revenue for the group to surge roughly 26% from a year earlier, while trading revenue could climb about 14%, with estimates suggesting the biggest firms could collectively pull in close to $39 billion from trading. The quarter was punctuated by the record-setting SpaceX initial public offering, which generated hundreds of millions of dollars in fees for the underwriting banks led by Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley, along with additional revenue from debt raising and the prospect of managing newly created wealth. Traders also benefited from heightened volatility across equities, fixed income, currencies and commodities as the Iran conflict swung oil prices and interest rates. Commercial lending, weak for years, appears to be turning as artificial-intelligence-driven capital spending spreads through the economy. Financial stocks have outperformed the broader market for two consecutive years, raising the stakes for whether momentum can persist into 2027.