Even as President Trump’s tariffs and trade restrictions have upended industries and generated a swirl of economic uncertainty, Wall Street keeps humming along.
Some of the nation’s biggest banks reported strong quarterly earnings on Tuesday, mostly topping analyst expectations and showing broad growth across their key lines of business. While bank leaders warned about the growing risks of a slowdown, “resilient” was the word many chose to describe the economy.
For the three months through September, JPMorgan Chase reported a 12 percent year-over-year increase in profit to $14.4 billion on revenue of $46.4 billion. Investment banking fees rose 16 percent, and credit card and auto lending revenue rose 12 percent, a sign of solid business on both Wall Street and Main Street.
But the bank added more padding to its reserve for credit losses, as charge-offs on soured loans ticked upward.
“The U.S. economy generally remained resilient,” Jamie Dimon, the chief executive of JPMorgan, said in a statement. “There continues to be a heightened degree of uncertainty stemming from complex geopolitical conditions, tariffs and trade uncertainty, elevated asset prices and the risk of sticky inflation.”
On a call with reporters, Mr. Dimon elaborated on his comment about asset prices. “You have a lot of assets out there which look like they’re entering bubble territory,” he said. The stock market has set a series of records this year, although it has wobbled in recent days after the latest outbreak of tit-for-tat trade restrictions by the United States and China.
The bank is keeping a close eye on the labor market for signs of trouble, Jeremy Barnum, the bank’s chief financial officer, said on the call.
“If that were to deteriorate, we would expect in the normal course to see that flow through to consumer credit,” he said. “It’s not happening yet.”
A surge in deal making helped Goldman Sachs earn $4.1 billion in the third quarter, a jump of 37 percent from the same quarter last year. The bank recorded its highest-ever revenue for the third quarter, which totaled $15.2 billion. Its investment banking fees surged more than 40 percent to about $2.7 billion, allowing the division to easily exceed analyst expectations.
Citi also beat expectations with a profit of $3.8 billion, up 16 percent from the year before. It recorded revenue of $22.1 billion, up 9 percent, and growth in all five of its major business lines.
Mark Mason, the chief financial officer at Citi, echoed the sentiment of other bankers that companies and consumers had proven surprisingly durable.
“We’ve been in kind of recession-ready mode for over a year,” he said. But the company hasn’t seen any of the warning signs, like missed payments, that would cause alarm, he added.
Wells Fargo reported a profit of $5.6 billion, up 9 percent from the same quarter last year, on revenue of $21.4 billion. It, too, profited from growing credit card spending and balances — as well as higher fees for managing wealthy customers’ assets.
Credit and debit card spending has increased among its most affluent clients and lower-income customers, according to Mike Santomassimo, its chief financial officer.
“I think that’s a good sign for sort of what’s happening in the overall economy at this point,” he said.
The bank celebrated a long-sought milestone last quarter, as the Federal Reserve freed it from the asset growth cap it imposed seven years ago as punishment for extensive misconduct, including the creation of sham bank accounts and improper home foreclosures.
“While some economic uncertainty remains, the U.S. economy has been resilient and the financial health of our clients and customers remains strong,” Charlie Scharf, the bank’s chief executive, said in a statement.
Since Mr. Trump’s re-election, a wide range of companies have announced plans to invest billions in the United States, often drawing praise from the president.
JPMorgan joined those ranks on Monday, saying that it would facilitate $1.5 trillion in financing and investments over the next 10 years, focused on industries “critical to national economic security and resiliency” in the United States. The plan includes up to $10 billion in direct equity and venture capital investments by the bank in a group of mostly American companies.
“It has become painfully clear that the United States has allowed itself to become too reliant on unreliable sources of critical minerals, products and manufacturing,” Mr. Dimon said in a statement.
Asked on Tuesday about the simmering trade tensions between the United States and China, Mr. Dimon took a wait-and-see stance.
“In general, the trade effect has been less than people expected, including us,” he told reporters. “This still is going to play out. Hopefully it won’t have a major effect, but I wouldn’t take it off the table as having any effect.”
Stacy Cowley is a Times business reporter who writes about a broad array of topics related to consumer finance, including student debt, the banking industry and small business.
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