JPMorgan Chase (JPM) CEO Jamie Dimon is upbeat.
“The global economy continues to do well and the U.S. consumer remains healthy with solid wage growth,” Dimon said.
After the financial crisis, wage growth has been weak, and it has been a driver of low inflation. According to the September U.S. jobs report, wage growth picked up to about 2.9%, which marked the strongest pace of growth since 2009. Though, some economists have questioned the validity of that number due to hurricane-related distortions.
“Unfortunately, natural disasters in the U.S. and abroad have impacted many of our customers and we have responded with enormous financial support as well as the expertise and generosity of our employees to help these customers, clients and communities,” he added.
The largest U.S. bank by assets, JPMorgan kicked off third-quarter earnings season for the big banks, reporting earnings per share of $1.76, beating analyst expectations of $1.65. This compared to $1.58 in the same quarter last year. Reported revenue for the third quarter came in at $25.3 billion, up from $24.7 billion a year ago.
Trading activity was lighter than expected. Revenue for fixed income sales and trading fell 27% to $3.16 billion, missing estimates of $3.18 billion. Management blamed “low volatility and tighter credit spreads against a very strong prior year quarter.” Equity trading revenue down 4% year-over-year.
Meanwhile, revenues from banking were up 5% year-over-year. However, investment banking revenue fell 2% to $17 billion, driven by lower equity and debt underwriting fees.
Firm-wide, the bank saw its average core loans jump 7% from the quarter a year prior and 2% from the second of 2017.
In the consumer bank, there were 29.3 million active mobile customers in the quarter, up 12% from the same period a year ago. Credit card sales volume and merchant processing grew 13% from the same quarter a year prior.
Citigroup (C) also reports results on Thursday.
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Julia La Roche is a finance reporter at Yahoo Finance. Follow her on Twitter.
