Big banks set to report

On Tuesday, April 14, both JPMorgan Chase and Wells Fargo plan to post first-quarter results before the market opens, with JPMorgan’s call set for 8:30 a.m. Eastern time and Wells Fargo’s at 10:00 a.m. Eastern time. When the two biggest names report on the same morning, traders treat it like the first weather report for the whole banking season. (jpmorganchase.com) (wellsfargo.com) JPMorgan is coming in as the bigger machine by far: its 2025 annual report showed $4.4 trillion in assets, $2.56 trillion in deposits, and $57.0 billion in net income. Wells Fargo ended 2025 smaller, but still huge, with average fourth-quarter deposits of $1.4 trillion and fourth-quarter net income of $5.4 billion. (jpmorganchase.com) (wellsfargo.com) The first number people will scan is earnings per share, which is just profit divided across each share of stock. For JPMorgan, recent analyst estimates sit around $5.48 to $5.50 a share for the quarter, which turns a single morning into a pass-or-miss test against Wall Street’s spreadsheet. (benzinga.com) (marketbeat.com) Then comes trading revenue, because big banks do not just make money from mortgages and credit cards. JPMorgan’s markets business jumped 17% from a year earlier in the fourth quarter of 2025, including a 40% surge in equity markets revenue, so investors will want to know whether that strength carried into the first three months of 2026 or cooled off. (jpmorganchase.com) The next line is loan-loss reserves, which are the rainy-day funds banks set aside in case borrowers stop paying. JPMorgan took $4.7 billion of credit costs in the fourth quarter, including a $2.1 billion reserve build, while Wells Fargo booked a $1.0 billion provision for credit losses, so even a modest change in those cushions can move the stock. (jpmorganchase.com) (wellsfargo.com) Deposits matter because they are the raw material banks use to make loans and process payments. JPMorgan said average deposits rose 6% from a year earlier in the fourth quarter, and Wells Fargo said average deposits rose 2%, so the market will be listening for whether customers kept parking cash there or shifted money into higher-yield alternatives. (jpmorganchase.com) (wellsfargo.com) Wells Fargo has an extra subplot that JPMorgan does not: it is still trading on a comeback story after the Federal Reserve lifted its asset cap in June 2025. That cap had limited Wells Fargo’s growth since 2018, so investors now watch each quarter for proof that the bank can turn new freedom into faster loan growth, deposit growth, and fee income. (wellsfargo.com) Capital is the other quiet number that can change the mood fast. JPMorgan finished 2025 with a Common Equity Tier 1 capital ratio of 14.6%, while Wells Fargo reported 10.6% at the end of the fourth quarter, and those buffers shape how much room each bank has for buybacks, dividends, and absorbing shocks. (jpmorganchase.com) (wellsfargo.com) If JPMorgan shows another strong quarter in trading and deposits while keeping credit costs contained, it will reinforce the idea that the biggest U.S. banks are still benefiting from scale and customer stickiness. If Wells Fargo shows that post-cap growth is real, investors may start treating it less like a repair project and more like a bank that can expand again. (jpmorganchase.com) (wellsfargo.com) By lunchtime on April 14, the market should have fresh answers on three simple questions: are customers still leaving cash in the bank, are borrowers still paying on time, and are trading desks still printing money. Those answers will come first from JPMorgan and Wells Fargo, and then ripple across Bank of America, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, and the rest of earnings season. (jpmorganchase.com) (wellsfargo.com)