JPMorgan posts record trading quarter

JPMorgan Chase opened bank-earnings season with a first-quarter profit jump, powered by the strongest trading quarter in its history. (jpmorganchase.com) The bank said on April 14 that net income rose to $16.5 billion, or $5.94 a share, in the three months ended March 31. Managed revenue reached $50.5 billion, while reported revenue was $49.8 billion. (jpmorganchase.com) The biggest lift came from markets businesses that thrive when investors trade more. JPMorgan said markets revenue rose 20% from a year earlier to a record $11.6 billion, with fixed-income markets up 21% and equity markets up 17%. (jpmorganchase.com) Investment banking also picked up after a quieter stretch for deals. JPMorgan said fees climbed 28% to $2.88 billion on stronger merger advice and stock-underwriting activity. (cnbc.com) The quarter offered a split picture of banking in early 2026: trading desks benefited from volatile markets, while the bank trimmed one of its core lending forecasts. JPMorgan lowered its full-year 2026 net interest income outlook to about $103 billion from a prior $104.5 billion. (cnbc.com) Jamie Dimon paired the strong numbers with a more cautious message on the economy. In the earnings release, he said consumers were still spending and businesses were still healthy, but he also said uncertainties were mounting. (jpmorganchase.com) That warning echoed Dimon’s annual shareholder letter published earlier in April. In that letter, he said parts of the latest bank-capital proposals were “frankly nonsensical” and wrote that the surcharge for global systemically important banks was “still broken.” (jpmorganchase.com) Reuters reported that Dimon estimated JPMorgan had about $40 billion in excess capital under the latest Basel III endgame proposals, even as the bank said revised rules could still raise its capital requirement. Banking Dive reported executives said the latest draft would increase JPMorgan’s requirement by about 4%. (newsbreak.com) (bankingdive.com) JPMorgan’s release also showed the rest of the franchise remained large and growing. Average loans rose 11% from a year earlier to $1.5 trillion, average deposits rose 7%, and the bank reported $291 billion of common equity tier 1 capital and $1.5 trillion in cash and marketable securities. (jpmorganchase.com) The result leaves JPMorgan in a familiar position: posting Wall Street-strength trading numbers while using the same earnings spotlight to press Washington on capital rules. Dimon’s message on April 14 was that the bank has the profits, liquidity and scale to keep pushing both arguments at once. (jpmorganchase.com)