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Bloomberg
JPMorgan Chase & Co’s traders and investment bankers emerged from a messy third quarter with a few surprise wins.
Fixed-income trading jumped 25% and investment-banking fees posted an unexpected increase, the company said on Tuesday in a statement. That led the corporate and investment bank division to its best third quarter in three years. JPMorgan seized on some late-quarter volatility in fixed-income markets, pushing trading revenue higher than what Chief Executive Officer Jamie Dimon had forecast just a few weeks earlier.
And even as global trade tensions weighed on cross-border dealmaking and companies from WeWork to Endeavor Group Holdings Inc shelved plans for initial public offerings, JPMorgan managed a 9% increase in banking fees on the strength of debt and equity underwriting.
Shares of the company rose 1.8% in early New York trading. They’ve jumped 19% this year.
Dimon tempered expectations for trading revenue last month, saying he wasn’t “jumping for joy†at the prospect of a 10% jump in the metric because the gain is compared with a weak third quarter in 2018. The actual increase was 14%.
Repo rates surged late last month, providing an opportunity for banks to profit from the swings that left hedge funds and broker-dealers scrambling for cash. Wall Street trading desks have been struggling to revamp their businesses as a shift to passive investing, struggles among hedge funds and moves to cheaper electronic trading have made banks’ securities units less profitable.