Wall Street enjoyed a strong first quarter thanks to a combination of tax cuts and a strong seasonal performance, Moody’s Investors Service announced on Thursday.
U.S. regional and global investment banks had a positive first quarter, with the major U.S.-based global investment banks — Bank of America Corp., Goldman Sachs Group, Inc., Citigroup Inc., JPMorgan Chase & Co., and Morgan Stanley — all generating increases in their fixed-income, equity and investment bank earnings. As a result, they produced robust overall earnings, operating leverage, and tight expense discipline, Moody’s says in a news release.
“The first quarter was as much of a ‘Goldilocks’ operating environment for the five U.S. global investment banks as it could be. Across five universal and investment banks, pretax income climbed 15% to US$33 billion and revenue growth and expense discipline drove positive operating leverage at all firms,” says Peter Nerby, senior vice president at Moody’s, in a statement.
Additionally, heightened market volatility in the first quarter boosted earnings at the U.S. exchange operators, Moody’s says. The major U.S. exchanges — CBOE Global Markets, Inc., CME Group Inc., Intercontinental Exchange, Inc., and Nasdaq, Inc. — all reported strong revenue and earnings growth in the first quarter, Moody’s adds, as higher volatility drove increased trading volumes.
“U.S. capital markets became more volatile from early February 2018, in part because of uncertainty around the timing and degree of prospective Federal Reserve interest rate rises and the fluctuating US position on trade tariffs,” says Moody’s senior vice president Donald Robertson, in a statement. “The CBOE Volatility Index (VIX) fluctuated significantly during the quarter, and market trading volumes correspondingly increased.