Earnings Results In Focus

Three of the biggest banks on Wall Street have reported earnings results for fiscal Q1 before the bell this Thursday: JPMorgan Chase (JPM – Free Report) , Citigroup (C – Free Report)  and Wells Fargo (WFC – Free Report)  have all beaten or met bottom line earnings per share (EPS) estimates while topping slightly estimates for revenues in the quarter. This tips off the unofficial Q1 earnings season, which picks up momentum on Monday following the Good Friday holiday.

JPMorgan put up $1.65 per share on $25.58 billion in quarterly revenues, easily beating the $1.51 per share and $24.68 billion in the Zacks consensus estimate. Average core loans rose 9% in the quarter. This marks at least the fifth straight quarter of an earnings beat, the previous 4-quarter average of +12%.

Citi’s $1.35 per share beat the Zacks consensus by 9 cents in the quarter. Its $18.12 billion in revenues topped the $17.81 billion from the Zacks consensus, with a 4-quarter earnings beat average of 7.74%. Wells Fargo met expectations of 97 cents per share, but beat the Zacks consensus estimate of $22.13 billion in revenues to $22.315 billion in the quarter. This is the third quarter in the past four where Wells Fargo has beaten estimates on the bottom line, but only by an average of 1%.

Initial Jobless Claims fell by 1000 week over week (from a previous-week revision up 1K) to 234K, indicating continued strength in the U.S. labor market. We remain at historic lows — going back 40 years, to when the U.S. had far few workers and industries — in jobless claims, with continuing claims remaining just barely above 2 million. And all this before any new infrastructure or jobs-growing legislation has even been presented to Congress. Last week we saw the unemployment rate sink to 4.5%; this looks to be justified in the jobs market going forward, as well.