Two of Wall Street’s big investment banks, Goldman Sachs and Lehman Brothers, reported weak first quarter results, but they were better than expected.

The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. today reported net revenues of US$8.34 billion and net earnings of US$1.51 billion for its first quarter ended February 29. Diluted earnings per common share were US$3.23 compared with US$6.67 for the first quarter of 2007 and US$7.01 for the fourth quarter of 2007.

“Market conditions are clearly very difficult,” said Lloyd Blankfein, Goldman’s chairman and CEO. “But we saw strong customer activity across many of our franchise businesses in the first quarter. Although market conditions present many challenges at the moment, they also offer considerable opportunities.”

Separately, Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc., which has been the subject of rumours that it’s suffering liquidity problems, today reported net income of US$489 million for the first quarter, ended Feb. 29, down from net income of US$1.15 billion reported for the first quarter of fiscal 2007. Fourth quarter fiscal 2007 net income was US$886 million. The firm stressed that it maintained a strong liquidity position.

Chairman and CEO at Lehman, Richard Fuld, Jr. said, “In what remains a challenging operating environment, our results reflect the value of our continued commitment to building a diversified platform and our focus on managing risk and maintaining a strong capital and liquidity position. This strategy has allowed us to support our clients through these difficult and volatile markets, while continuing to build and strengthen our global franchise for our shareholders.”