Yahoo Finance Executive Editor Brian Sozzi looks at the latest earnings reports from Morgan Stanley (MS), Goldman Sachs (GS), and Bank of America (BAC).
I didn’t like this Bank of America report at all. I think it was outright ugly. It wasn’t good at all.
Another big bank, JP Morgan missed yesterday on earnings. Bank of America? I mean we’re talking Bank of America missing on earnings? I mean, that’s just not good. Now, the weakness coming from the stock trading business, that, uh, maybe came in a little bit weaker than the street liked to see. Uh, not good. Not good for Bank of America on their earnings day. And it’s another big bank where I came away thinking
this company needs to get I think costs more under control. Bank of America shares really, I mean, this is a startling decline for a company of the stature of Bank of America. The trading business wasn’t exactly that great. I didn’t come away thinking Bank of America is really crushing it on all things IPOs and deals. And this is tough for me to say because uh I’m a fan of Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan. I think he’s done a a heck of a job for a long period of time. one of the longest serving bank CEOs in the game. He’s done a lot of good job, a lot of good things, especially on the digital front.
But this is not going to sit well. This is not going to sit well with BFA uh investors. This is a starting decline for Bank of America and it tells you that perhaps they’re uh really far behind a lot of its key competitors, whether it’s a JP Morgan, Goldman Sachs crushed it when they reported earnings. You just got the sense of Bank of America is a few steps behind some of the leading players. Uh just not I would say this though, they are ahead of Wells Fargo because Wells Fargo’s
Wells Fargo. like Wells Fargo’s out there. Uh, but they’re still underperforming, but this is not good for Bank of America. One company that is crushing it is Morgan Stanley also out with results this morning. Key player. I played a key role in that SpaceX IPO. Uh their stock trading business, strong. Wealth management business, strong. Shout out Morgan Stanley uh CEO Ted Pick. Uh he has been getting it done uh really since he got this job officially more than I think it’s almost two years ago uh for Ted.
But you’re coming away thinking Morgan Stanley doing very, very well. Uh, Goldman Sachs doing very, very well. And then you have like the money center banks like a JP Morgan and Bank of America, probably not as great a third quarter as a lot of the execs wanted to see over there. Uh, and I think the team over at Evercore I ISI to wrap this all in a bow. two new things here and I was inspired by their note. JP Morgan Baker are missing earnings. Hate to see two banks miss, especially at the stature.
And like I mentioned, I really didn’t like this BFA quarter. And you got the sense that
banking isn’t falling off a cliff by any means. The economy is doing well. It just may not have lived up to market expectations uh for a lot of these banks coming out of the quarter. We saw a little slowdown in the deal pipeline uh and that is the reason why these results weren’t exactly super, super awesome.
