Wall Street Businesses Power Goldman, JPMorgan to Record Earnings

Wall Street Businesses Power Goldman, JPMorgan to Record Earnings

A stock-market boom fueled by Reddit-reading individual investors and a burst of companies entering the public markets produced record quarterly profits at Wall Street's biggest banks.

Goldman Sachs Group Inc. posted records in quarterly revenue and profit. JPMorgan Chase & Co. notched its highest quarterly profit on record, driven by record revenue from trading stocks. Even Wells Fargo & Co., a minnow on Wall Street, enjoyed its best-ever quarterly profit in corporate and investment banking.

The party showed no signs of ending soon. Even after reporting a 73% increase in investment-banking fees, Goldman said the volume of coming transactions in that business at the end of the first quarter stood at a record level.

“Activity levels continue to be elevated from what I would say was a pre-Covid activity level by a meaningful amount,” David Solomon, Goldman's chief executive, said on a conference call with analysts. “The environment, the monetary fiscal stimulus, and in addition the economic recovery, continues to