JPMorgan rallies after rocky stock markets propel equity trading revenues to a record

The US stock market’s pain was JPMorgan’s gain in the first quarter.

America’s biggest bank crushed earnings expectations, with adjusted earnings per share of $5.07 versus the consensus estimate of $4.61, thanks in part to record equities sales and trading revenues of $3.81 billion. That figure bested projections by nearly 20%, topping every analyst’s forecast.

Shares rose as much as 4% in premarket trading, but have since pared that advance to about 1.4%.

This strong equity trading performance helped take the sting out of the extra $973 million set aside to cover loans that might go bad, an amount three times higher than the Street anticipated. Earlier this week, CEO Jamie Dimon flagged the potential for credit problems worse than he’s seen in a long time.

Less than a week after the peak in the S&P 500, Dimon had said he was “very reluctant” to buy back stock at these levels. Those attitudes obviously evolved as the market retreated, with share repurchases ramping higher to $7.56 billion for the quarter. That’s the highest since 2018 and the largest as a share of market cap since 2021.

The CEO is putting in work this week. Not only are these results impressing traders, but per The Wall Street Journal, he had premeditated intent that his appearance on Fox Business, which was cited by President Trump in explaining why he watered down most reciprocal tariffs, would reach the president’s ears:

“Trump, an avid consumer of cable news, said he watched Dimon’s interview Wednesday morning with Maria Bartiromo on Fox Business. During the interview, Dimon said a recession was a ‘likely outcome’ of the new tariff program, but also defended the idea of some tariffs as a way to improve trade. He urged the president to give Bessent time to make deals. ‘I’m taking a calm view, but it could get worse,’ Dimon said.

Dimon hasn’t had a substantive conversation with Trump for years, people familiar with the matter said. While his appearance on the Fox Business show had been in place for some time, Dimon knew that Trump and his inner circle often watched Fox and that his message would likely get through to them, one of the people said.”