JP Morgan Earnings Up For Q3

by Stewart Douglas

Story link: JP Morgan Earnings Up For Q3

JPMorgan Chase has today released its third quarter earnings figures, showing a better performance than rival Citigroup in the wake of the credit crunch and sub-prime fallout of the early summer months.

In its third quarter reports released today, revenues had increased to $3.4 billion over the period, showing a growth of over 2% on the performance last year in spite of the threat from volatile credit markets and trading exchanges.

The results factor in a write down to the value of $1.3 billion in its leveraged loans market, before fees were paid, and comes in the face of news from Citigroup that it had lost earnings, falling down by around 57% over the last period compared with previous quarters.

The news sees JPMorgan reveal more stable figures than its larger rival Citigroup, who announced substantial losses in their reports for the quarter, which have led to a significant management reshuffle and calls for under fire executive Chuck Prince to stand down.

However, as spokesmen from Citi are keen to point out it is a much larger organisation, and hence the loss in proportion to its size is not as significant as it may first appear, and certainly not as significant as if one of its rivals were to sustain such losses.

Meanwhile rival investment bank Morgan Stanley is said to be slashing 300 jobs, almost inevitably as a direct result of the impact of the sub-prime crisis on its business. Most of these job losses will be at its US base, reflecting the extent of the market collapse over the period.

Nevertheless JPMorgan seems to have come through relatively unscathed, with earnings looking strong going in to the fourth quarter of the year at the same time as other institutions are losing money.