(Reuters) – Equity traders rode high in the second quarter, propelling earnings across Wall Street banks.
“There’s a significant amount of geopolitical and election uncertainty around the world, but that tends to be an environment where clients reposition, and that tends to be a reasonably good environment for our sales and trading business,” Bank of America’s Chief Financial Officer Alastair Borthwick told reporters on a conference call on Tuesday.
BofA’s revenue from equities trading jumped 20% in the second quarter from a year ago to $1.9 billion. It rose because of “strong client activity” and a better performance in cash and derivatives, the bank said in a statement.
At Morgan Stanley, equity revenue surged 18% to $3 billion.
The gains came from across businesses and regions, particularly Asia, helped by stronger client engagement and a “constructive” market environment, the bank said.
At rival Goldman Sachs, equities revenue rose 7% to $3.17 billion during the same period, driven by derivatives, it said on Monday.
JPMorgan’s equity markets revenue jumped 21% to $3 billion, Citigroup’s increased 37% to $1.5 billion, and Wells Fargo’s surged 41% to $558 million, the banks reported on Friday in their second-quarter earnings.
(Reporting by Saeed Azhar and Tatiana Bautzer in New York; writing by Lananh Nguyen; editing by Rod Nickel)
