Big banks head into earnings week
The U.S. large‑bank earnings run starts next week, with Goldman Sachs first and JPMorgan, Wells Fargo and Citigroup following — analysts expect higher profits helped by deal activity but warn volatility could keep trading choppy. JPMorgan is forecast to report roughly $5.48 EPS on about $48.8bn revenue, and strategists note that one‑day market moves after the ceasefire don’t guarantee a smooth narrative into results. (benzinga.com) (marketscreener.com)
Wall Street’s biggest banks are about to report within 48 hours of each other, which means investors will get four readouts on the same economy almost at once: Goldman Sachs on Monday, April 13, then JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo, and Citigroup on Tuesday, April 14. The early expectation is higher first-quarter profit, because banks made money from two engines at once: lending income stayed firm and investment banking fees improved as more deals got signed. Reuters reported on April 8 that analysts expect large U.S. banks to post stronger quarterly earnings for exactly those reasons. JPMorgan Chase is the report most traders use as the sector’s opening bell, because it is the largest U.S. bank by assets and it touches consumer banking, credit cards, trading, corporate lending, and deal advice all at once. The company says its first-quarter 2026 results will be released at about 7:00 a.m. Eastern Time on Tuesday, April 14, with the call at 8:30 a.m. Analysts tracked by Benzinga are looking for roughly $5.48 in earnings per share from JPMorgan Chase on about $48.8 billion in revenue, which would keep the bank near the record profit levels it reached during the high-rate era. Reuters separately says analysts expect earnings growth of more than 6% year over year for JPMorgan’s quarter. Goldman Sachs matters for a different reason: it has less consumer lending and more exposure to trading desks, underwriting, and mergers advice, so its numbers show whether chief executives were confident enough to raise money and do deals in January, February, and March. Goldman’s investor relations site lists its first-quarter 2026 earnings call for Monday, April 13. Wells Fargo gives a cleaner look at plain-vanilla U.S. banking, because its business leans more on deposits, mortgages, and commercial loans than on big-ticket Wall Street dealmaking. Wells Fargo says its next quarterly earnings webcast is Tuesday, April 14, 2026 at 10:00 a.m. Eastern Time. Citigroup is the outlier in the group because its international footprint is larger, so its results can show stress or strength in cross-border payments, foreign exchange, and global corporate activity faster than a more domestic bank can. Citi says it will release first-quarter 2026 results at about 8:00 a.m. Eastern Time on Tuesday, April 14, with a webcast at 11:00 a.m. The complication is that good first-quarter numbers may not settle the bigger question, because investors care even more about what these banks say about the rest of 2026. Reuters said on April 8 that rising geopolitical risk involving Iran is adding macroeconomic uncertainty, so loan growth, credit quality, and management guidance may move the stocks more than the backward-looking profit totals. That is why a one-day rally after a ceasefire headline does not automatically make bank earnings easy to read. Zacks noted on April 8 that JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup, and Wells Fargo shares had rebounded after the ceasefire announcement, but the same note warned that bank stocks are cyclical, which means they can swing quickly when oil prices, recession fears, or rate expectations change. So the real test next week is not whether the banks had a decent January through March. It is whether Jamie Dimon at JPMorgan Chase, David Solomon at Goldman Sachs, Charlie Scharf at Wells Fargo, and Jane Fraser at Citigroup describe April and May as stable enough for more borrowing, more deals, and fewer credit problems.
